Rehoboth Beach Museum says it’ll take Dolle’s sign
Where will the iconic Dolle’s sign in Rehoboth Beach be located once it’s taken down?
That’s the question a lot of people have been asking ever since Dolle’s Candyland owner Tom Ibach announced late last year the Boardwalk’s signature landmark would be removed by the end of this year.
Now, there appears to be an answer: the Rehoboth Beach Museum.
During an Oct. 4 commissioner workshop, Mayor Stan Mills announced the museum’s board of directors had voted in favor of accepting the 30-foot-tall, neon-orange sign. The museum already has the navy blue Dolle’s sign that was attached to the Rehoboth Avenue side of the building.
Ibach has offered the sign to the city for free. The city owns the building at 511 Rehoboth Ave. where the museum is located.
Mills said the museum's board is willing to explore the possibility of putting the sign on the roof of the building, but with two caveats – a review of what it will take to get the sign down and then put it back up; and if the museum's roof can handle it. During a previous meeting, it was said the museum’s air-conditioning units, located on top of the building, would need to be replaced soon, and the sign could impede that project.
If the sign can't go on the roof, Mills said, the museum, in general, would still take it and then figure out what to do with it. Maybe place it on the side of the building, he said.
In an email Oct. 6, Rehoboth Beach Museum Executive Director Nancy Alexander confirmed the board’s vote, but declined to comment any further.
The city has hired Milton’s Rogers Sign Co. to evaluate what it will take to get the sign down. Rogers is the company that installed the current sign – there has been a Dolle’s sign on the Boardwalk building since the early 1960s, but the current sign was put up in the 1980s.
Mills said he expects the evaluation to be done sometime in the next week, and he and Ibach are working on a schedule for removal of the sign. There are still questions about whether the city or Ibach will pay for that, he said.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
