Vintage Roadside America: 30 Cool Photos Show Signs Along the U.S. Streets in the Late 1970s

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John Samuel Margolies (1940-2016) was an American architectural critic, photographer, and author who was noted for celebrating vernacular and novelty architecture in the United States, particularly those designed as roadside attractions.

Signs along the U.S. streets in the late 1970s taken by John Samuel Margolies

Starting from the mid-1970s, Margolies began to photograph sites during long road trips, since he was concerned these sites would be displaced by the growing modernist trend. He was credited with shaping postmodern architecture and recognizing buildings that would be added to the National Register of Historic Places through his documentary work.

Starting in 2007, the Library of Congress began to acquire his photographs, and created the public domain John Margolies Roadside America Photograph Archive in 2016, consisting of 11,710 scans of color slides taken by Margolies.

Take a journey along U.S. main streets, byways, and highways through photographs taken by John Margolies in the late 1970s.