Checking the signs

Two vintage retail signs marking seemingly long-gone businesses have come under threat lately.

The first and most prominent one, for the Hung Far Low restaurant at NW Couch Street and 4th Avenue in Old Town, is already down. But it's the one with a safer-looking future. The Portland Mercury's Sarah Mirk first reported the unintendedly sophomoric laugh-inducing sign being taken down last Friday. Although Hung Far Low moved to 82nd Avenue three years ago (part of a larger migration by the Chinese community from Old Town eastward), and didn't need the old sign, it has become a quietly beloved part of the neighborhood topography. 

There's good news, though. Walking past the Hung Far Low corner (so to speak) over the weekend, I found a small notice taped to the window; it explained that the sign had to be removed because of disrepair, but that it was being fixed up and would be re-installed. Obviously we can only breathe easy when that promise is fulfilled and the sign is back, but perhaps the alarm bells needn't sound just yet.

The other sign, which Sarah Mirk also blogged about for the Mercury last week, is for Ryan Gwinner Press on Northeast Seventh Avenue near Broadway. Although the sign stands alone several yards from a delapidated home on the same lot, it turns out there really is still a business by that name operating in the house. However, in this case the sign is either already torn down or will be soon by none other than Richard Gwinner, who runs the stamping, embossing and foiling business.

"Back in the 50s, the sign was neon," Mirk explains. "But once the tubes broke, the family never replaced them and since then it's been slowly becoming a beautiful safety hazard."

The issue of saving old retail signs last came up a few months ago during the case of the former Crown Motel, which was razed to make way for the new Patton Park Apartments, a new affordable housing project. In that case, the sign was saved when someone agreed to store it. But there was some quandary about whether REACH Community Development and SERA Architects, the developer and architect, might have tried to keep the Crown Motel sign right where it was.

As we see more signs like Ryan Gwinner Press taken down, though, it feels more like there needs to be a safe have for these signs, and that some day a collection of these restored 20th Century auto-age artifacts would make a fun display and attraction. There's been talk of a design museum in Portland; might the signs be collected there someday? Or perhaps something more lowbrow and low-tech is needed, like a graveyard for signs where they could be seen by the public but allowed to continue aging. At a certain point, the patina that has developed on these signs is an inseparable part of them. What's the best way to preserve such signage?

Comments

[Cora Potter]

The real question is...where has the Kupie Cone gone?

[brian]

Another gem was the "Quality Pie" sign that used to be up at NW 23rd and Marshall.

I've heard Wieden+Kennedy has that one(?)

[Aneeda]

Hung Far Low...what an incredible dive that was...but the drinks were stiff and the woman serving them was...well...she was something else altogether...

[ws]

There's a nice old...I think it's an abandoned neon hotel sign...it's been aging gracefully for years now on the W side of the Everett St lofts. Somewhere, I've got a picture of it I took years back; nice rich tones in the old faded paint.

The Hung Far Lo sign and it's supporting steel work is extraordinary. Always loved it except for the stupidly obnoxious conversion of the word 'cocktails' to one more deliberately hinting at a vulgar meaning.

Where the Barracuda nightclub now is, it seems there was once something called the American (formerly 'Portland') Advertising Museum. Wikipedia has an article on it. It failed and the entire collection lost to a Wisconsin museum.

Museums are fine for seeing relics from the past, but when possible, I think it's better to see them in their natural setting; bathed in continually changing light and weather, changing as they gradually acquire an appearance they never could in a museum. Signs; neon or wood: they can be reproduced, so deterioration by outside display shouldn't be such a deterrence to allowing them to exist there.

Re; wooden signs. One in the Old Town area that I really miss was located for many years up until about two years ago, on the south side of a building occupied by a Chinese restaurant. It was big, robin's egg blue with just two Chinese characters in black; no other lettering. One day, I asked a Chinese kid outside the restaurant, what it said, but he couldn't really tell me. The sign was beautiful though, aged as it was. Paint and wood had cracked, giving it lots of character.

[goose]

yes, hung far low has moved way far out, leaving us with only a dimmed sign and hopper-esque memories. this is one of the sadder things about how portland changed while i was away, but its not quite the travesty that occurred along I-5 at waddle's.

[j.j.]

just wanted to give a quick recognition
to the ACE Hotel on Stark Street for
artfully re-using two existing signs on
their building renovation....

[Flaneur]

As the Interstate Ave. motels are gradually replaced, why not preserve some of the neighborhood's historic character by erecting the signs in the median of the MAX line?

[MarkDaMan]

As much as I like the Ryan Gwinner Press sign, I am much more worried about the signs, disappearing one by one, from Interstate Ave. I think signs neon and otherwise on buildings add both character, and sometimes become landmarks. I wish the city would encourage more artistic lighted signs on buildings (high-rises too) with unique (Made In Oregon type) motifs.

[MarkDaMan]

^to add on, I really like Flaneur's idea. Turn the signs into an artistic centerpiece of the MAX yellow line. Add plaques that display the original picture of the signs attached to their building. The MAX line becomes an affordable 'museum line' with tourists getting off on every stop throughout the line.

Even better, the signs lighted at night would bring tourist on the 'scary after sundown' line, through the area, bringing bodies, eyes, cameras, tourists, and nightlife onto the yellow line.

[ws]

I've heard that neon signs are very expensive to maintain, and that they eat up a lot of energy. That means quite a commitment is required to keep the ones already existing around, and encouraging more to be created.

I'm not sure I understand the appeal of the Ryan Gwinner Press sign. The top part is just a plain box sign. The lower part...what's with that? Is it deliberately wrinkled like that or did something hit it? I can't seem to tell from the picture.

[Mid-Century Modern League]

You can find out what happened to Kupie Cone right here.
http://vintageroadtrip.blogspot.com/2008/01/vintage-roadside-rediscovers-kupie-cone.html

[John T]

I sympathize with the sign-preserving folks and with the keep-Portland-weird sentiment, but that Ryan Gwinner Press sign? Seriously?

[toronto condominiums]

The article is good. But I have a doubt. Where is Kupie Cone. Where has it gone?

[TB]

A campaign has begun to Re-Erect the Hung Far Low sign. http://www.ReErectHungFarLow.com

[kb]

also give kudos to Queen Bee, the new store on North Williams which has fixed up and reused its cool old sign, helping save some of the character of that street as it evolves with the neighborhood!

[Maryland electric signs]

An independent supermarket owner in New Haven, CT saved one of these old grocery-store neon signs from the 50s and put it up on the wall indoors. Unfortunately, the money for that was supposed to go towards fixing up the produce back-room heater so employees wouldn't freeze in winter.