Selma landmark finds new home
Published 9:47 pm Thursday, December 18, 2014
The old Pancake House neon sign has found a new home at the Steak Pit.
When Ed and Sandy Glover came to Selma in the early 2000s, they had no idea what they were getting into.
A while after living in the community, the Glovers decided to purchase the Pancake House, a staple breakfast restaurant in Selma. With the restaurant came a neon sign many are familiar with.
“When we bought the pancake house, we had [the sign] totally renovated. The paint was coming off of it, … and it wasn’t working,” Sandy said. “We had it taken down and had a guy renovate it for us back with the original colors that were on it when it was built.”
Ed and Sandy Glover have moved the Pancake House neon sign to their other restaurant, the Steak Pit.
The couple liked the sign so much that they decided to keep it looking like new.
“It’s important because all the people in Selma like that sign and can identify from way back when on that sign and the pancakes,” Ed said.
The Pancake House was popular in years past, and legends say that those who gathered there could always pick out the winner of a Presidential election before the results were finalized.
“It was a landmark. Everyone used to congregate there,” Sandy said.
The Glovers also own the Steak Pit on Highland Avenue, and recently decided to combine the restaurants. Although a neon sign that says Steak Pit is out front, they knew that the sign everyone would want to see was the Pancake House.
“We had the sign taken down and brought [to the Steak Pit],” Sandy said. “So that the people that used to go to the Pancake House, and had been going there for years and years and years knew that we were actually in here running this again.”
Neither knew exactly when the sign was first put up, but the couple said that it had been there since the famous Selma to Montgomery march.
“It’s an old sign, it’s a historical sign,” Sandy said. “It’s one of the few neon signs that’s still left around.”
When the sign was moved to the Steal Pit, Sandy said their business picked up and more people started to realize that the Pancake House was still in existence, just at a different location.
“The sign has really boosted our breakfast because people were used to that sign,” Sandy said. “Everybody in town knew where that sign was.”
