Period of Significance: 1962-1969
Criterion A: Commerce
Criterion C: Art
Local level of significance
The Walking Man Sign in the Duck Pond Village section of Westbrook, Cumberland County, Maine was built in 1962 along US 302 to advertise a nearby television repair and sales business. The Populuxe style sign is a good example of large, mechanized and illuminated roadside advertising designed to be visible to the fast moving automobile traffic of its day. The movement, lights, size and unique appearance of the sign drew driver's attention and increased sales as intended. The sign became a destination in its own right as a piece of pop art drawing visitors interested in the unusual, large scale, illuminated signboard and animated serviceman. The sign reflects the Populuxe or Googie style of roadside signage of the period and is an unusual well-preserved example in Maine. The sign is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and C, at the local level of significance, for its highly visible and early representation of post WWII, commercial, roadside architecture. The areas of significance are Commerce, and Art. The period of significance starts when the sign was constructed in 1962 and ends in 1969 which represents 50 years before the present.