PlacesPages: Street Clock

Showing posts with label Street Clock. Show all posts

Saturday, August 8, 2015

The Dalles #27: French & Company Bank

300 East Second Street

French & Company Bank on June 10, 2009

The French & Company Bank building was built in 1879. The bank was established by brothers Joshua W. & Daniel W. French, originally of Holland, Vermont and former operators of a ferry on the Stanislaus River in California. It was the first bank established in The Dalles and one of the first in the Oregon Territory east of the Cascades. The building was modeled after the Ladd & Tilton Bank building in Portland. The French & Company bank closed in 1922, having been run out of business by a bank owned by John Schenck, whose wife Naomi was a Donner Party survivor. The building was renovated in the 1920s with a terra cotta facade for the Citizens National Bank. It was later known as the Gayer Building and has been home to a drugstore, a soda fountain, a camera studio and, most recently, Gayer's Jewelry.

Street Clock outside French & Company Bank on June 10, 2009

Historical Photos:
View of Parade in Downtown The Dalles showing French & Company Bank (CGDC)
Citizen's National Bank Building as Lan's Camera Studio, June 3, 1978 (UO)

Continue to 28: Pioneer Building…

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Historic Downtown Salem #75: T.G. Bligh Building

223-233 High Street NE

T.G. Bligh Building on September 4, 2006

Thomas Gregor Bligh moved his family from Canada to Portland in 1904 and then to Salem in 1908. T. G. Bligh and his son Frank D. Bligh, born in 1890, opened the Star Theater and later the Liberty Theater. In 1912 the Blighs built the Bligh Hotel and Theater on the north side of State Street between High and Liberty Streets. Bligh bought this property in August, 1922 from the Salem Elks, who had a lodge building here. Bligh built this Mission Revival style building in 1923. In November 1924, Bligh was killed in an automobile accident and the property passed to his wife, Anna Bligh. She sold the building to Charles P. Bishop in March 1927.

Charles P. Bishop was born in Contra Costa, California, in 1854 and came to Oregon with his parents in 1856, growing up on a Linn County farm. He came to Salem in 1889 where, as Thomas Kay's son-in-law, he helped build and operate the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill. In 1891, Bishop bought the Salem Woolen Mills Store that evolved into Bishop’s men’s furnishings store. Bishop served as mayor of Salem from 1899 to 1906, as an Oregon state senator from 1915 to 1918, and as a trustee of Willamette University for three decades. Between 1909 and 1920, Bishop and his sons Clarence, Roy, and Chauncey, purchased three woolen mills: the Oregon Worsted Company in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, the Washougal Woolen Mill in Washougal, Washington, and the Eureka Woolen Mills in Eureka, California. Charles Bishop died in 1941 at the age of 87. His family now owns Pendleton Woolen Mills.

T.G. Bligh Building Street Clock on September 4, 2006

Businesses housed in this building have included Ohmart & Calaba Real Estate, Clark's Sandwich Shop, Kay Typewriter Company, and Olson Florist, Inc., which has been here since 1926. The street clock was made by the Electric Time Company of Medfield, Massachusetts, and features a T-style face and WS-style hands. The T. G. Bligh Building passed from the Bishops Clothing Woolen Mill to the Franklin Group in 1980.

Additional Links:
T.G. Bligh Building at Salem Online History

Historical Photos:
Portrait of Thomas Gregory Bligh (Oregon State Library)
T.G. Bligh Building, unknown date (Salem Public Library)
Parade Float at T.G. Bligh Building, 11/26/55 (Salem Library)
T.G. Bligh Building, 1962 Columbus Day storm (Salem Library)

Continue to 76: Arthur H. Moore Building…

Historic Downtown Salem #58: Pomeroy Building

379-383 State Street

Pomeroy Building on September 4, 2006

This building was built in 1860 as a boarding house. Early tenants included Miller Hayden of the Real Silk Hosiery Company who later became a lawyer and state district judge, insurance agent and notary public Fred Binyon who later served as an assistant attorney general attached to the Oregon State Insurance Department for 17 years, and attorney C. F. Gillette who was city attorney for Monmouth, Oregon. The building was purchased by jeweler Charles T. Pomeroy and A. A. Keene in 1925, and was remodeled in 1926. Pomeroy & Keene Jewelry remained here until the 1990s, managed by Charles Pomeroy’s daughter Audrey Pomeroy. Her brother, an optician, had a shop here too for a time. The street clock is a model 13404 built by the Brown Street Clock Company of Monessen, Pennsylvania.

Pomeroy Building Street Clock on September 4, 2006

Historical Photos:
Pomeroy Building, 1941 (Salem Public Library)

Pomeroy Building Street Clock on September 4, 2006

Continue to 59: Gray Building…

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Historic Downtown Salem #35: Steusloff Brothers Building

399 Court Street NE

Steusloff Brothers Building on September 4, 2006.

In the late 1800s, this corner was the site of a Chinese laundry called the Sung Lung Washing & Ironing House. Fred W. Steusloff purchased the property from D.F. Wagner in 1902, and built this building here within the year; it originally had Queen Anne architecture. Brothers Fred W. and William H. Steusloff operated the Valley Packing Company meat market and packing house for 50 years at what is now the Marion County Fairgrounds. Fred served as president of the company with William as vice president. The Steusloff Brothers operated a meat market here, with Dr. Wright’s dental offices on the second floor.

In the early 1920s William’s son Claude began working for the Valley Packing Company as a stockman and buyer, and by the late 1920s he became vice president of Steusloff Brothers and Valley Packing Company. Claude’s son Ivan eventually acquired an interest in this property as well. In 1948, Claude, Ivan and Muriel Steusloff took out a mortgage against the property and remodeled it in the Moderne style.

Jackson Jewelers Street Clock on September 4, 2006.

The building has been operated by Jackson Jewelers since 1944 and was purchased by them in 2001. Their neon street clock has been in place since the 1940s when the corner was occupied by Sally's women's clothing store. Today it is a Starbucks.

Jackson Jewelers Street Clock on September 4, 2006.

Jackson Jewelers Street Clock on January 27, 2007.

Historical Photos:
Sung Lung Washing & Ironing House, 1889 (Salem Library)
Steusloff Building, 1940s (Salem Public Library)
Steusloff Building, late 1940s (Salem Public Library)

Continue to 36: Electric Apartments & Yeater Building…

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Historic Salem #8A: Andrew T. Gilbert House at A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village

Andrew T. Gilbert House on September 10, 2006

The Gilbert House is a Queen Anne Victorian of Eastlake design, built by architect/designer C.A. Robert. It was built on this riverfront site in 1887 by A.C. Gilbert’s uncle, Andrew T. Gilbert. A.C.’s family home was located six blocks away at 700 Marion Street, replaced by Salem First Congregational Church in 1941. The Gilberts moved from Salem in 1901, and others owned and lived in the house until it was renovated to contain seven apartments in 1946. The Gilbert House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 6, 1980. The City of Salem purchased the house in 1985 as part of its future Riverfront Development Project. A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village acquired the Gilbert House through a no-cost lease and restored it with grants from the Meyer Memorial Trust and the community. The Museum opened on December 15, 1989.

Interior Details of the Andrew T. Gilbert House

Additional Links:
Gilbert House at Salem Online History
Gilbert House at Discover-Neighborhood-History

Rocking chairs of various sizes on the porch of the Gilbert House

Historical Photos:
Gilbert House, 1978 (Salem Public Library)
Gilbert House, 1992 (Salem Public Library)

Sculpture outside the Gilbert House on March 21, 2007

Outside the Gilbert House is this sculpture of a child and a street clock.

Street Clock outside the Gilbert House on March 21, 2007

Continue to 8B: Rockenfield House…

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Longview #39: Triangle Mall

Longview's first shopping mall, the Triangle Mall opened in 1964. It was initially a Pay 'N Save, Montgomery Ward's and Britt's Department Store (owned by J. J. Newberry's) in a cluster of separate buildings. Montgomery Ward's was built first, with construction starting in 1960 and opening in October 1961. Britt's Department Store was built in 1963, and was renamed Newberry's in 1975. As time passed, smaller stores filled in the gaps between the large stores. Then people didn't like having to walk from store to store in the rain, so the walkways between were covered around 1972. Then people didn't like the cold, so the ends were enclosed. Other separate additions were added over the years as well, including an Ernst Hardware (which was replaced by a larger Ernst in the mid-1990s), and the Triangle Cinema in 1983.

Triangle Mall Clock in November 1995.

Around 1994, the interior of the mall was remodeled with a 4-sided pedestal clock, a small fountain, light poles, planter boxes and the like. In the late 1990's the mall's core stores began disappearing. The Ernst was the first to go in early 1997, one of the last Ernst stores. Though Ace Hardware took over the Ernst building in late 1999, opening it as their "Store 21" prototype, it didn't help the main mall much. Montgomery Ward's was the next to go. Ward's had been going through financial difficulties throughout the 1990s. First the Longview store lost its Auto Service Center in 1999, then finally in early 2001 with Ward's total shutdown, the Longview store, one of the last, closed for good, leaving the mall without its main anchor store. The Newberry's chain failed later that same year and the Longview store was one of the last when it closed in May (the last Oregon Newberry's at Portland's Lloyd Center had already closed in April), leaving only the Pay 'N Save, which had become PayLess in 1992 and then Rite Aid in 1996 as the mall's only major store. A separate Thriftway was lured to the mall in a brand new building in 1998, but the store failed and closed around the end of July, 2002.

In 2003, new owners purchased the mall, and began tearing the enclosed mall down to build a strip mall-like cluster of building called Triangle Center. First went the old Wards store, starting in October 2003, then the rest of the mall, with the demolition of the Newberry's building starting in April 2004. By 2005, only the Rite Aid building (which was to remain) and the Radio Shack (which was never meant to be a stand alone building) were all that remained of the old mall, and by the end of 2005, the Radio Shack had moved into new quarters and the last of the demolition was complete. Ace Hardware remains in the former Ernst building, and the former Thriftway became a Ross store.

Triangle Mall Pay ‘n Save Mural in August 2005.

Triangle Mall Pay ‘n Save Mural on September 5, 2005.

The original Pay 'N Save building will remain as Rite Aid, as the stand-alone building it once was. The demolition of the rest of the mall revealed some old Pay 'N Save signage, including a hand-painted mural depicting the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. These were still in place as of December 2005, though by the spring of 2006 a drive-up window had been installed (though clear of this signage) and the building's exterior had been renovated and this had disappeared. The only other remnant of the old Triangle Mall was the clock and some of the benches and planters that were installed in the 1990s that were placed outside the new mall. By late 2013 the clock had been removed.

Triangle Mall Clock on October 19, 2010.

At any rate, the Triangle Mall's story is interesting, as 40 years later it once again has become what it started out as: separate stores that require people to go out in the rain to get from one to another.

Continue to 40: Former Taco Bell…

Longview #21: Big Four Building & Lumberman’s Bank Clock

1329 Commerce Avenue

Big Four Building on September 5, 2005.

This building was built in 1923 as the Lumberman's Bank & Trust Company. It originally had more classical architecture.

IMG_7784 Big Four Building in Longview, Washington on July 28, 2007

Big Four Building on July 28, 2007.

The 12-foot-tall, 4-faced clock was placed in front of the building on August 13, 1926. It was manufactured by the Albany Pedestal Chime Clock System and was purchased through the O. B. McClintock Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

IMG_7782 Lumberman's Bank Clock in Longview, Washington on July 28, 2007

Lumberman’s Bank Clock on July 28, 2007.

Lumberman's Bank failed during the Great Depression, being forced closed by the State Banking Supervisor on July 30, 1931. The Big Four Furniture Company purchased the building on June 19, 1934 and remodeled it into Art Deco styling to disassociate itself from the failed bank, however the clock remained.