Portland Ice Cream Co.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Portland Ice Cream Co.

Several generations of ice cream signs were recently uncovered on the corner of SE Hawthorne & 42nd Ave. A building renovation removed the old wood "modernization" paneling to reveal these beauties. Portland Ice Cream Co. was mentioned several times in The Oregonian from the 1940s and 1950s. These signs are likely to disappear again soon. Thanks to Ray Taylor for alerting me to this find.

2012:

2 comments:

Unknown said...: Muse Art and Design is taking over the space and has intentionally delayed their build-out in order to give people time to document this signage and other building details. Thanks, MUSE! Way to build the architectural history commons.; June 2, 2012 at 9:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Already gone. So glad I got to catch a glimpse of it before it disappeared again.; June 3, 2012 at 10:32 AM

Post a Comment

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.

email me

Saturday, April 7, 2012