Tuesday, October 23, 2007

DeSoto-Plymouth

DeSoto Building, 1915

This is one of the more artisic signs still around in the Pearl District. The building was originally the home of the DeSoto-Plymouth auto dealership on the quarter block at NW Broadway and Davis.

If you look closely at the 1997 photo, you can see that under the DeSoto and Plymouth logos the designs were at one point bottle caps, the bottom one most certainly Pepsi. The bottle caps are virtually invisible now. It's hard to say which was painted first and which came later; anecdotal evidence indicates all the logos are 1950s-era designs.

While it's good the owners/developers saved the sign (note the alcove to the right has been filled in and a door and balcony added to the left), it seems to have deteriorated quite a bit in the last 10 years. Stand on NW Couch between Broadway and 8th to see this before it disappears altogether.

Directly to the north of this sign, on the same building, is the Overland sign.

1997:
2007:

1 comment:

Lorita OLeary said...

Thanks for this post. I enjoy the before and after. I shot a photo and posted it on google + and was looking for info about the sign so was led to your blog. I'm putting your link with my photo.