Hotel Navarre

St. Nicholas Hotel, 1909

According to the Portland Historic Resources Inventory, this building was originally the St. Nicholas Hotel. Sometime later it was renamed Hotel Navarre and the sign painted on its west face. You can see what remains from the corner of SW 12th and Alder. The day I was taking pictures I could make it out better from farther away, heading south on 12th about a half a block (bottom photo).

2008:
2008:

Cameron's Books & Magazines

1890

The "Cameron's Books & Magazines" sign is about a hundred years newer than some signs around Portland. This is dated "84." That would be 1984, not 1884. Stop by SW 3rd and Stark to see this.

2008:

Packard Building

Packard Service Building, 1910

I've not been able to determine if this building was originally related to the Packard automobile. The logo is similar, but not identical, to the auto logo. In any case, the sign is a nicely done old-style building sign on the corner of NW 23rd and Westover.

2008:

Northrup Food Center

Northrup Food Center, 1924

I'd guess this wall of signs dates from the 1970s or 80s. The building housed a grocery store from 1929 until 2001 but has been boarded up since then. A small recycling business is now operated from this parking lot. It's located at NW 21st and Northrup.

2008:

Pomona Hotel

Erickson's Saloon Building, 1912

As long as I'm somewhat off topic with my last post, I'm going to include another sign on an Old Town/Chinatown building. I took the black-and-white photo in 1971 and the color photo in 2008, obviously after the sign was long gone. What I find particularly amusing is that in the old photo, on the sidewalk face (right side of the photo), was a nail hammered between the bricks, with a piece of rusted wire twisted around it. Incredibly that bit of wire is still there, 37 years later.

The Pomona Hotel gained notoriety when an arsonist torched the building in July, 1975, killing eight and injuring 26.

This was on NW 2nd just north of West Burnside.

1971:

2008:

The Pomona Hotel was housed in the Erickson's Saloon building which has a colorful past. This from the historical plaque mounted outside the building:

"Erickson's fame spread around the world, as sailors carried word of its 16-ounce nickel beer (hard drinks two for a quarter), its free meal of gargantuan proportions (as long as you kept drinking), its bar 684 feet in length and its delightful lady performers in the Cabaret Grill. Loggers, farm hands and other robust working men came to Erickson's, some to spend their stakes in one night revelries, buying drinks all around.

"The powerful and elite of Portland also came to Erickson's. The balcony afforded those of wealth a better view of the stage and of the 'sea of life' undulating below.

"On the top floor there were cardrooms and cribs - small cubicle-like rooms on either side of the hall - for entertainments of a more private kind."