Thursday, April 2, 2009

Shell Gasoline

Building: 1921

Ouch. This one hurts. For years this "SHELL GASOLINE" sign had been carefully painted around, the gray building paint carefully avoiding the old ad. Then in the last two years somebody had the great idea to what, restore the sign? This literally hurts my eyes.

This scallop shell, or 'pecten', emblem style was used between 1948 and 1955. See what's left of it (if you dare) at 726 SE 6th Avenue between Alder and Morrison.

2007:
2009:

1 comment:

Doug Klotz said...

The original Shell sign was covered with paint for a long time. Several years ago (2003?)the owners got a grant, I believe, from PDC, to restore their storefront, and discovered the sign in stripping the paint. I urged them to keep it, and they did, holding their repaint back around the sign. It looks like the building changed owners, and the new owners repainted the entire building, including the sign. They didn't just paint it over, I'm guessing, because they knew that the sign was useful to "grandfather" in the rights to more sign area than they would otherwise be allowed.