The historic Dolle’s sign in Rehoboth Beach recently removed from the roof of the former Dolle’s Candyland store will soon have a new home.
The Rehoboth Beach Board of Adjustment voted unanimously late last month to approve the Rehoboth Beach Museum’s request to mount the 3,700-pound sign on the west side of its building.
The museum’s board president David Mann says a fundraising campaign in underway to raise the $20,000-plus dollars needed to mount the sign.
“We had people willing to give us donations early on, but we were reluctant to do anything until we had a finalized Board of Adjustment variance," Mann said. "And now that we’ve gotten that, we’re moving forward with fundraising. And we’ve got two major projects.”
Mann says before they mount the 30-by-15-foot sign, the museum needs a new HVAC system on the first floor because it lost its ability to dehumidify last summer.
That project costs about $120,000 and Mann hopes it will be completed by April so the Dolle’s sign can go up in May.
About three-quarters of the funds for the new HVAC system have already been committed or pledged and the remaining funds will be raised from a combination of individual, foundation and, potentially, a small amount of state funding.
Meantime, the Rehoboth Beach Museum will launch a fundraising campaign in the coming weeks to fully pay for the installation of the Dolle's sign. Nearly half the funds have already been committed.
Mann says he’s ecstatic that the sign will be the first thing visitors see when they visit the resort.
“It’s going to give us a chance to let people begin their arrival in the happy place a little bit earlier because they’re going to get there as soon as they cross the Canal Bridge and see the sign on their way into Town," Mann said. "And in a simple sense, it puts the Museum on the map for more people that were not aware of our existence. We’ve always been in that pale yellow, plain building.”
Mann adds that the huge Dolle sign will definitely grab peoples’ attention and hopefully bring them into the Museum to learn some history.
