The future of two longtime Pea Soup Andersen’s billboards is beginning to take shape as local leaders consider how to preserve their history while giving the signs a new purpose.
The billboards date back to the 1960s, when Highway 101 was built and traffic was pulled away from what had been the main route through Buellton.
Kathy Vreeland, Executive Director of the Buellton Chamber of Commerce, said the signs were created in partnership with the former Pea Soup Andersen’s ownership and what was then the Buellton Businessmen’s Association, now the Chamber of Commerce.
“That’s kind of how they all started. That’s where they started, and that’s the purpose of them was to be directional, making sure people still pulled off in Buellton and still made it to Pea Soup Andersen’s,” Vreeland said.
The signs helped direct travelers off the freeway and into Buellton, where Pea Soup Andersen’s was one of the city’s most recognizable attractions.
The restaurant later closed, and its former building is now headed toward demolition.
Vreeland said the Chamber still controls the billboard located about three miles south of Buellton and wants to rebuild and reface it with a new message promoting the city.
She said the existing structure is aging and will need significant work.
“It can be anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 just to reconstruct the sign. That’s giving it the face it needs, putting new lighting on that will be downward facing,” Vreeland said.
The Chamber is currently working on estimates, timing and how the cost of the project could be shared.
Vreeland said the hope is to have the updated billboard completed by the end of the year, although the exact timeline will depend on the condition of the existing structure and contractor availability.
“Hopefully really by the end of the year, if we could,” she said. “Again, we just got to get at the estimate and figure out the time frame and who can do what, when and how quickly it can move.”
The other billboard, located within Buellton city limits, is no longer controlled by the Chamber.
Visit the Santa Ynez Valley has expressed interest in keeping that sign and using it to promote destinations throughout the region.
Shelby Sim, president and CEO of Visit the Santa Ynez Valley, said his organization sees the existing billboard as an opportunity that would be difficult to recreate.
“It’s already here, and so it would be a real shame to lose it,” Sim said. “And so my organization, Visit the Santa Ynez Valley, we’d love the opportunity to get more folks off the freeway and into the valley.”
Sim said the sign could continue promoting Buellton while also highlighting Solvang, the Chumash Museum, wine country, restaurants and other Santa Ynez Valley destinations.
He said the goal would not necessarily be to convince drivers to exit immediately, but to make them aware of what the area has to offer.
“So the goal is to plant a seed,” Sim said. “So the next time you come around this area, you know that besides the awesome Buellton, there is Solvang.”
Any change in how that billboard is used would still have to work within Buellton’s rules governing off-site advertising and directional signage.
Sim said he is grateful the city and Chamber have agreed to continue the conversation through an ad hoc committee.
“I think it’s just make sure we’re on the same page so it’s a win-win,” Sim said.
For longtime Central Coast resident Kimberly Ochoa, the signs are about more than advertising.
Ochoa said her family would stop at Pea Soup Andersen’s while she was growing up, and she later brought her own children there.
“That billboard that they do have up, that’s an attraction that brings everybody,” Ochoa said. “You don’t have to be from Lompoc or Buellton.”
As discussions continue, Ochoa said she hopes at least part of the original look and history is preserved.
“I don’t want it to be replaced. I want it to stay just the way it is,” she said.
Vreeland said the Chamber is also interested in finding a way to preserve some of the nostalgia tied to the original Pea Soup Andersen’s imagery, even if it no longer remains on the freeway billboard.
She suggested pieces of the old sign could potentially be displayed somewhere in town as a photo opportunity.
For now, the two remaining billboards appear headed toward different futures — one with a refreshed Buellton-focused design and the other toward continued discussions over whether it could represent the broader Santa Ynez Valley.
