(Photo by Annika Cline - KJZZ)

The Watson's Flower Shop sign blew over in a storm last year and now lies near the shop until funds can be raised to repair it.

(Photo by Annika Cline - KJZZ)

The Cheese 'n Stuff Deli sign was dark for years, but was repaired last month by Christy Signs.

They’re bright, flashy and colorful. Some think they’re garish, others call them retro. One thing is certain — they’re disappearing.

Neon signs used to line Phoenix-area streets in the early to mid-20th century. Today, just a handful remain. There is an effort to save those last signs, which is getting more urgent, and more pricey.

In a little brick building at the end of a strip mall on Camelback Road and Central Avenue is a shop called Cheese ‘n Stuff Deli. You might miss it, if it weren’t for the sign, a giant neon globe, that’s been here since the ‘40s.

Douglas Towne is with the Arizona Vintage Sign Coalition, a group of volunteers trying to preserve classic neon signs.

"If you drive around the Valley, you see these small plastic, back-lit signs, but you drive by the Cheese ‘n Stuff sign especially at night and you just want to stop and say, ‘wow,'" he said.

For years, though, the globe was dark. Repairs would have cost the deli at least a couple thousand dollars. Then, last month, it glowed again thanks to Dane Christensen, owner and president of Christy Sign Company.

Christensen’s dad made the Cheese ‘n Stuff sign. He said that’s what motivated him to repair it for free. But freebies are rare in the neon business, especially now that LED is the cheaper, easier option.

The popularity of neon lights flickered out after the ‘50s, Christensen said.

"It almost disappeared; now it’s kind of coming back again. It’s now the thing to have. If you got a neon sign, you’re really something," he said.

He still wants to repair old neon signs - his shop even has all the tools, something he said is rare these days. The one problem? The sign owner has to be willing and able to pay the high price for neon work.

Many can’t, like Jacob Johnson, who owns Watson’s Flower Shop on Apache Boulevard in Tempe. His great-grandparents started the flower shop in 1927.

If the Cheese ‘n Stuff sign was big, the Watson’s Flowers sign is colossal, with pink flowers the size of truck tires. Johnson said the sign is more than 30 feet tall. Or at least it was when it stood. A microburst last year knocked the sign back onto the building

Even in the 1950s, when the sign was built it didn’t come cheap.

"My grandmother bragged about how much money she paid for the sign. She paid about $8 ,000 for the sign. And back then, she bragged that you could buy a new house," Johnson said.

Now the flower shop needs an estimated $65,000 in repairs — almost enough to buy a house today. The Johnsons started a crowdfunding campaign for the sign, but have only raised a fraction of the costs. For now, the sign lies in the shop’s yard. But for preservationists, like Towne, just knowing that it survived is a success, and he’s feeling optimistic.

"People are starting to realize that, hey, these are valuable, these are public art, they’re landmarks for the community. We can’t let anymore of these disappear," Towne said.

The more neon signs do disappear, the more people start seeing them in a different, more treasured light.