[pdx] Urban Archaeology: At SE 42nd And Hawthorne, Where They Once Sold Ice Cream

2797This was a pleasant find to stumble upon, all the more so because we weren't looking for it and it concerns the continued success of peoples we are quite fond of.

I have exulted the charms. of Muse Art and Design before. Along with I've Been Framed they are the two art supply stores you must know if you need art supplies here in town. Local, passionate about what they do, and won't break your bank wide open.

Last we, me and The Wife™ slid along to the corner of SE 42nd Avenue and Hawthorne Blvd, upper Hawthorne, and we were amazed to see this:

Muse's current location is one address east of this (more on that allusion perforce). Until recently that location was a quirky, cool vintage shop called Shadowhouse Collectibles who, via the vicissitudes of business these days, had to quit the location and move on (we don't know where yet – if you never visited, you've missed out, my friend. Keep up to date with them here, as they say they'll be back). Shadowhouse has been good to us, as the vintage KATU sign will attest.

Alas and alack, for now Shadowhouse is gone. This has opened up an opportunity for Muse to move into a bigger space, which can augur nothing but good; but until then, remodeling of the space happens. And that has uncovered and unexpected visual treat.

The building on the corner SE 42nd and Hawthorne has had her makeup removed for a newer application, and we find that this used to be an ice cream shop.

The Portland Ice Cream Company, to be precise. I don't know whether they made it there or had it brought in, but the old hand-painted typography on the facade brings up memories I didn't know I had (mostly because I wasn't alive in the 1940s).

The old paint work itself shows signs of revision. We peoples, we just can't leave things along, can we? I'm guessing that the half-covered signage probably said something like Farmers Ice Milk and Cream, but we are certainly guessing there.

Old-fashioned ice-cream parlors. Doesn't that just speak 'small-town America'? One wonders what the then-denizens of upper Hawthorne would think of the current, with the ironic bars and the organic markets and the incense-and-peppermints shops and whatnot. Probably think they were on another planet or summat.

It would be far amiss if I didn't mention something about the remodeler. The job is being done by an outfit called Michael Cordes Remodeling, and we met the man as he was cleaning up at the end of what was obviously a long, productive day of work. There are all sorts of builders revising Portland at the present time but I don't think I've ever run into one that has this keen a sense of history. Very, very affable fellow; had a few minutes to talk and we had a fairly fun chat. But, you tell me … what remodeler would care enough about history to post a picture of the building in its heyday? I'm not sure what year this was, but the old-style street-blades on the corner suggest the 1940s.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone who formats his business card and sign in lovely calligraphy is probably a cut above the rest. He can be contacted at mcremodel@rconnects.com, if you're of the bent.

He's said he has some more historic PDX photos to share after I post this, and i can share some, I will.

Keep your eyes open, peoples! History is right in front of you betimes.

The Made In Oregon Sign: Settled, But Sadly, No Unicorns

2022.Those who were expecting a steel-cage death match between Randy Leonard and Dave Frohnmayer (or maybe one of his seconds) were to be disappointed in Council, according to PMerc's Matt Davis, who reports a very convivial resolution, resulting in this pleasing (albeit Unicorn-free) design:

Image cropped from the version on PMerc's site.
Used for illustration purposes only pursuant to fair use;
content creator reserves all rights.

Altho I don't quite get how the U of O buying the sign means Commish Randy can say "this is the final version of the sign", but I don't pretend to understand how (or why) city government works.

That's Matt's job. Maybe he'll explain in the next Hall Monitor column.

Also, I want a big screen TV like the have in Council chambers. That thing's sa-weet!

Technorati Tags: Portland, Made In Oregon Sign, Randy Leonard, Portland City Council, Portland Skyline, Portland Landscape

The Great Neon Sign As Civic Soul, or: Tulsa's Getting Its Route 66 Meadow Gold Sign Back

2020.(Updated with a link to ModernTulsa, who has a couple of gorgeous pictures. Scroll to end of post).

We here in the City Of Unicorns and Roses should relate to this story.

While not a point of controversy, the reaction of the Tulsa, Oklahoma community to the final fate of the Meadow Gold Dairy sign, a great neon bauble with nearly the same landmark status along Historic US 66, seems to be in the same class of public affection as the emotion the Made in Oregon sign garners.

According to Tulsa's The News On 6, The Meadow Gold Dairy sign was a fondly remembered landmark at the corner of East 11th Street and South Lewis Avenue, about a mile east of the downtown core, for many:

In the 1930's, Meadow Gold put it up atop a small building at 11th and Lewis.  It was a beacon along Route 66 until sometime in the 1970's.

"It's more than just a sign, it lives in people's hearts and memories it truly is a landmark," said Lee Anne Ziegler.

Meadow Gold, while still a regional brand across several Western states, appears to have moved on from Tulsa. But the sign remained for decades. Recently, the owner of the old building the sign rested on decided to raze that building. Local Tulsans sprang unto the breach:

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture and others mounted a sign rescue project.  They got a grant from the National Parks Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program.  They were able to take the sign down and begin restoration.  Other grants and donations helped finish the project

"I just wanted it to be like I remember when I was a kid driving down Route 66," said architect Steve Vogt.

Of course, this wasn't meant as much of analogy: the power players and the people who consider themselves "stakeholders" in the discussion have much different attitudes and connections. But it would do everyone well in such discussions of changing the visual character of city skylines to remember that, whether or not they want to admit it, the public will claim a certain "ownership" to something that forms the backdrop of their very lives.

In a visual and subjective way, it becomes public property. The citizens of Tulsa handled it one way, and we're handling it ours. Adopting an "our way or the highway" approach, as the U of O side has done has, instead of being seen as an assertion of a fundamental American value, that of private property rights and doing with what belongs to you as you see fit, has instead come off as arrogant fiat. And then they ran into Randy Leonard.

Such is the course of the visual landscape. You may own a part of it, but frequently, it only seems that way. As for Tulsa, I'd suggest Unicorns, but I don't think that would get very far with them.

It all makes me think of that old T & R Truck Stop sign on I-5 at Albany. I think it's mostly gone now. And nobody has a picture of it. Pity ...

Update: The proprietor of the blog ModernTulsa, Cole Cunningham, pointed me to an post at his place which has (as already stated) two gorgeous vintage photos of the Meadow Gold Sign. Enjoy, and thanks for sharing them, Cole!

NB: The photo in this posting of the Meadow Gold sign was from the Wikipedia article on Tulsa, and is public domain.

Technorati Tags: Tulsa, Meadow Gold, Meadow Gold Sign, Public Landscape

Cincy's Going For A Streetcar-But They Almost Had A Subway, Once

1999.In a posting that appeared on CincyStreetcar Blog and has been linked about to here in  Unicorn City, it would indeed appear that, at least on paper, Portland Oregon and Cinicinnati Ohio are kind of the same: Similar populations, similar median incomes, even similar climates and acres of parkland per acre of city.

Cincy doesn't have rail transit yet, but they're working on that. Visit the blog linked above and you'll see that they are coming up with a pretty nifty looking streetcar line similar to our own Portland Streetcar. The blogger is quite insightful, actually, has visited Portland and has been serious enough to know the difference between streetcar and light rail. It's a good read.

I hope they get thier system, because Cincy has been denied rail transit, and it's particularly disappointing in this case because they almost had a subway once.

Not something that calls itself a subway or something that is inspired by a subway, but an actual, big-city style subway. It's one of the great missed opportunities of modern times.

If you look at a map of central Cincinnati Ohio, you'll see a peculiarly arranged street called Central Parkway. It's shaped like an L; the baseline part is where Eleventh Street would be, and is about three full standard city blocks on either side of the dividing line of Vine Street (East Central Parkway and West Central Parkway). The upright part usurps Plum Street's place in the street hierarchy, and leads you out of the central area (and is parallel to and one block east of Central Avenue, coincidentally)

A wide, promenade-y street is what it seems. And a street hanging a dogleg in the center of town like that is highly unusual. But there is a reason-and it's even more interesting than that.

A great long time ago, a canal ran through central Cincy there, on that route. As time passed and wheeled transportation began to take over from river freight, the canal fell out of fashion and out of use.

A trench through the middle of town ... what a great place for a subway! You won't have to dig ...

And so, in 1910, planning on the Cincinnati Subway had begun. It was to be merely the pivotal segment in a rail loop that would have served central Cincy as well as communities north and east on a great real loop, from which greater things might have grown.

Central Parkway is the above-ground legacy of the Subway-that-might-have-Been, resulting from covering over the old canal bed in anticipation ov the transit service that was to follow. But that service never happened. At first, it was too expensive (in light of WWI). Then it was planned and replanned. Then they ran out of money. Then history passed it by.

In Portland, we have the legendary Shanghai tunnels, those underground passages found in downtown that were reputed (but to our knowledge, never actually proven-but it makes a great story) to have been used to shuttle drunken sailors-to-be to their new jobsites at the old waterfront. Not everyone knows about them, which is another commonailty between Cincy and PDX; not everyone knows about the Cinicnnati Subway and some who do apparently think it a legend.

Unlike the ultimate purpose of PDX's Shanghai Tunnels, however, ample photographic evidence exists for the Cincy Subway. And it's obvious from the architecture what those tunnels are good for:

Photo nicked from Cincinnati-Transit.net
excerpted for fair-use purposes only
all rights belong to the photographer

There is about two miles of tunnel and four constructed stations (Liberty Street, Race Street, Linn Street, and Brighton Corner) and despite the neglected look, much of the tunnel and station architecture is still quite sound and can be expected to last a while, not least because since Central Parkway, a major road, runs over the top, regular maintenance and inspections can occur. Being available, the water utility also runs a main through the subway tunnel.

It was also designated as a fallout shelter during the Cold War Era.

Even though Cincy is getting rail now, it's interesting to wonder what it would have been like for them had they gotten a real big-town subway. I still think building MAX on the Mall here in Portland missed a big chance at making a subway for this town. But then, Seattle built a rail-compatible transit tunnel, and it still just takes buses. So, who knows.

Cinicnnati-Transit.net unwittingly provided me the stuff to tell this tale, but its a fascinating way to waste your time. Endlessly interesting.

Technorati Tags: Transit, subways, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Subway