Historic Sign Removed From Downtown Building

[Erik Sine]

San Diego Hotel

SAN DIEGO -- Traffic stopped and cameras rolled in downtown San Diego Wednesday. After 70-years as a local landmark, a piece of the city's history was moved to a new home. If you look at almost any picture of downtown San Diego before all the buildings went up, you always saw that big neon sign that read: Hotel San Diego. o­n Wednesday that sign came down.The building is going to be knocked down to make way for the new federal courthouse. But the sign, which was put up in 1935 and could be seen as far away as Point Loma, will be saved. It's being moved to the former Naval Training Center, and we be lit up again in an area set aside for celebrating San Diego history. The hotel is rich in history and was a hot spot those who were going through Navy training in San Diego. "The recruits would come downtown in their uniforms and would go to the locker room here while o­n liberty, then head out o­n the town," Alan Ziter, of the NTC Foundation said. "So, this was like a second base for them."

-NBC San Diego