The call came in just after 4 a.m. on what would turn out to be a triple-digit midsummer Central Valley morning last June. In a neglected neighborhood adjacent to downtown Bakersfield, flames and smoke rose high above the city skyline, captured by overnight news crews as first responders in constant motion attempted to combat an out-of-control blaze that took down a Central California landmark.
Firefighters did their best to save the important piece of the city’s history. By dawn, all that was left was a burned-out shell of what was once one of Bakersfield’s most recognizable buildings.
The 7Up bottling plant was a spectacular 20th-century specimen unlike any other, a rare art deco survivor from the late 1930s. Its revolving neon sign often signaled to the valley’s prodigal returnees that they were home once more. Even in repose, the hollowed-out plant had anchored the corridor just east of downtown known as Old Town Kern.
The two-alarm blaze was an all-too-familiar sight. Fire after fire, one by one, the landmarks here are disappearing…