Irving Street Lofts

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Irving Street Lofts

Blumauer-Frank Building, 1924

The Irving Street Lofts sign is one of of the pioneers of the transition from the industrial district to what we know as the Pearl District today.

A short history of the building:
1924: Built for the Blumauer-Frank Drug Company, a wholesale pharmaceutical company.
1937: McKesson Robbins, another drug company, bought it to warehouse supplies.
late 1980s: Converted to rentals and artists lofts.
1995: Converted to loft condominiums by Grancorp, Inc.

This view is from NW 14th and Hoyt.

2008:

2 comments:

-carywd said...: i remember being impressed by this building when we move here in 96 and thinking how wonderful if would be if the entire area moved in the same direction- now i'm not so sure...; October 22, 2008 at 7:31 PM
Rick Morehouse said...: I Painted that in 95. working for Williamsen and Bleid Painting. THE WRONG COLOR!. Still is, how,s it look? RM; March 18, 2017 at 8:13 PM

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Introduction

Commercial buildings at one time were often the canvases for painted advertising signs. Unlike today's stick-on mega-posters advertising beer and soft drinks and mobile phones and cigarettes, a hundred years ago buildings were as likely to advertise their own business as they were commercial products like Coca-Cola and Dutch Boy Paints. Portland, Oregon, has a dwindling collection of buildings with faded lead-paint-on-brick advertising, sometimes called "ghost signs." One once-rich source, the former "Northwest Industrial Triangle," has undergone a dramatic revitalization and is now known as the Pearl District. This means many of its old buildings with ads have fallen to redevelopment, buildings have been cleaned up and the ads removed, or, in a few cases, the ads have been the victims of graffiti damage.

Many buildings are clustered around the Thirteenth Avenue Historic District but these are posted in no geographically coherent pattern. Use my map below to orient yourself and take a little walking tour.

My original intent with this blog was to cover only the Pearl district, an area I had taken pictures of in 1996-97 and could compare then and now. I've since expanded to other areas of central Portland. I plan to eventually cover these geographic areas:
- Pearl District (done)
- Northwest (west of I-405) (done)
- Old Town/Chinatown (done)
- Downtown (done)
- Southeast (done)
- Northeast (done)
- North (done)

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are mine and cannot be used without permission.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008