Portland Ice Cream Co. Update

Friday, June 21, 2013

Portland Ice Cream Co. Update

Last year the shop at SE Hawthorne & 42nd Avenue began renovations and uncovered some old Portland Ice Cream Co. signs. Shortly after that Ray Taylor sent this image of the original signage from years ago. Oddly, the photo was stuck to the inside of the glass as I took my photo, I completely missed it. Thanks, Ray, for being more observant than I (and sorry for the delay in posting it).

1 comment:

Unknown said...: You know that a building sign is iconic when it lasts through the ages. I would like to have a building sign as iconic as the ice cream and Coca-Cola signs in front of this shop. It would be nice to have a retro sign in front of the business that I'm starting up in a few weeks.
http://www.1signfactory.com/buildingsigns.nxg; September 29, 2014 at 4:04 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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Friday, June 21, 2013