New ‘Welcome to Wissahickon’ sign destroyed on Ridge Ave.

The brand new sign that once welcomed Wissahickon and Roxborough residents to their neighborhood is no more. Last Thursday, the sign was found destroyed at the intersection of Ridge and Rochelle avenues.

Tony Lomanno, owner of nearby Lomanno’s Auto Repair, says he thinks the sign was knocked down by a tractor trailer.

“It had to be a big truck to do that kind of damage,” said Lomanno. “That sign was folded.”

He added that a business owner in the same intersection put up a similarly sized business sign several years ago, but that it too was knocked down.

Bernard Guet, executive director of the Roxborough Development Corporation agrees that the sign was taken down by a large vehicle.

“We suppose it was a truck that hit it, then backed up and left,” said Guet. “I think that people are not driving carefully. When they come out of the curve they’re driving too fast and lose control of their car.”

He says it will be difficult to replace the sign as it was part of a $2.2 million dollar streetscape project for Ridge Avenue that included new signage, green space and sidewalks.

Guet says the next steps will be to clean up the damage, restructure the plant life and have a meeting about what can be done next.

“We wanted to create this for the people of Roxborough as they drive by.” He added that a replacement may not be possible at this time.

The sign, which read “Welcome to Wissahickon Gateway to Roxborough,” will be missed by Cheryl Turvey, hairdresser at nearby Karen’s Hair Boutique. She says she was surprised to see it destroyed so fast.

“We saw it last week, there was literally a perfect dent in the middle of it,” said Turvey. “And it’s a shame because it took so long to get it put up. I can’t believe it’s down already.”