Where did the Riverwest 'Please Be Civil' neon sign go?

May 27, 2023

Milwaukee has many iconic neon signs. But one caught the attention of Bubbler Talk question asker Lauren Keene.

So, I found the person that made the "Please Be Civil" neon sign: Tom Galbraith, an independent neon artist who has been working out of his Riverwest studio for decades.

The sign said three simple words — Please Be Civil. The words were lit up in red neon, and the sign hung in the window facing the corner of North Ave. and Humboldt Ave. in Milwaukee for about six years.

It wasn't a large sign, but if you ever drove or walked past that corner, you saw it.

"The inspiration for [the sign] was a lot of rudeness in the neighborhood, in the city, and it was just my way of processing all the ugliness," Tom says.

Tom says that he made the sign sometime in 2013 or 2014. But why was this sign in the building in the first place?

"The owner of the building, Damian Zak, was living there. ... I approached him one time and I said, 'Nothing's going on in your building. Could I put a neon in there?' and he said, 'Oh yeah sure,'" Tom recalls.

So, what all goes into making a neon sign?

"There's a glass bending, glass blowing component and then there's the vacuum technology component that gas transfer and gas evacuation. And then there's really heavy-duty electricity to get the neon hot, up to about 500 degrees. And it's a very, very dangerous occupation. You have to be really careful doing it," Tom says.

And as for the current whereabouts of the sign, Tom chuckles and says, "I don't know. ... Somebody bought it from me."

As for the actual building that housed the neon sign, it has a storied history.

Elizabeth Hilton, the National Register Coordinator at the State Historic Preservation Office of the Wisconsin Historical Society, says:

The conical tower is gone, and the building's south wing was demolished by the city in 2019.

But the answer to Lauren's Bubbler Talk question is: Tom sold it and he doesn't know where it is.

But Tom's neon work is all over the city — from the Zocalo food truck park, to Leon's Custard, to Y-Not 2, to Strange Town and the list goes on.

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