She's come a long way, baby: Miami's new-old It Girl -- frisky pup at her heels -- seized her new Biscayne Boulevard stage Tuesday evening in a 35-foot-tall blaze of LED illumination.

Sixteen years after she was consigned to obscurity -- taken from her arresting perch on the boulevard in downtown Miami and stripped of her neon -- the iconic Coppertone Girl sign, fully refurbished, updated and deemed a historic treasure to boot, opened its unlikely third act in the city's Upper Eastside.

There, backers hope the girl will provide an instant emblem for the recently minted MiMo/Biscayne Boulevard Historic District, which seeks to protect and celebrate the giddy mid-20th Century subtropical architecture and design that the Coppertone Sign embodies.

The sign, newly affixed to the north side of an office building at 7300 Biscayne Blvd., was formally rededicated before a cheering throng of about 200, many swaddled in scarfs against the night chill, just in time for the Art Basel crowd to take a peek.

''Ladies and gents, the most popular lady in town. Isn't she a beauty,'' Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez said minutes before leading a countdown to her lighting.

''I love the image, the icon, everything. It reminds me about Miami and my native Puerto Rico,'' said Karen Vissepo, 36, a Morningside resident in the crowd. ``The sun. The water. . . . This image is part of the rebeautification of the area.''

Installed in 1959 on the side of the Parkleigh Building in downtown Miami as pure commercial advertisement, the towering, tanned, neon-soaked Coppertone Girl and the pup forever nipping at her suit bottom, soon became an emblem of the city for locals and visitors alike.

Neon letters spelled out the Coppertone name and the flashing slogan for its tanning lotion, invented by Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green: First, Don't be a Pale Face, and later, Tan Don't Burn. (The company, which now makes sunblock, dropped the slogans once the dangers of sun exposure became clear.)

In 1992, the girl was evicted when the Parkleigh was demolished. Adopted by the Dade Heritage Trust, the girl, the pup and the letters spelling out Coppertone were moved to a far less prominent home overlooking a parking lot on Flagler Street downtown.

But earlier this year, again facing eviction because of planned construction, having lost liability insurance and badly damaged by sun and hurricanes, the girl had to go.

The relocation was a collaboration of love between the MiMo Biscayne Association, which is trying to boost the fledgling historic district's fortunes, former sign owner Dade Heritage Trust, which could not afford the upkeep, and Tropical Signs of Florida, which rebuilt the girl at its Hialeah warehouse. Tropical partner Jerry Bengis' father made the original sign in the late 1950s.

For Miami, where civic projects have been known to lag, it all happened at near warp speed.

Dade Heritage Trust donated the sign to the MiMo group, which found a property owner willing to put her up. The sign came down in May. The city of Miami's historic preservation board declared it historic so zoning rules could be waived, allowing it to go back up. The city also permitted the girl's head to stick up over its new home's roofline, which put the sign high up enough to thwart potential vandalism.

And Coppertone parent Schering-Plough put up about $100,000.

So badly faded was the plastic sign cover that the girl's face was no longer visible. A new one was made -- with paler skin, reflecting modern sensitivity over sun exposure, Bengis said.

Neon was replaced with more-efficient LEDs.

''It's a little bit of history coming back. . . . That sign to me says Miami,'' said Janet Maizner, who lives nearby and came to see the Coppertone Girl lit in her new perch. ``It's fabulous.''

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