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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Who says a retaining wall has to be boring?

Design Detail in Retaining Wall, Astoria, Oregon The cement retaining wall on 16th Street between Duane and Exchange had interesting pattern details stamped into it when the concrete was wet. Maybe I'll go back and correct the numbers, but my guess is they are about 16 to 18 inches across and spaced several yards apart. They're all at about eye level on the wall. So far, nobody seems to know why someone imprinted these beautiful designs in the concrete. The concrete is "fairly new" in historic terms. Someone estimated it was put here in about the 1970s, although these patterns look earlier and more deco to me (if they're in period). The wall keeps a parking lot from slipping down onto a vacant lot in the block above the Shallon Winery. Most of the marks appear in plain concrete. I liked this one with the clinging vine in front.

The spot is historic, having been at one time the Arrigoni Hotel and later (1880) St. Mary's Hospital, owned by the Sisters of Charity, and the oldest hospital in Astoria. During renovation, it was found that the old Fort Astoria stockade had been on this site. Appreciation to Karen L. Leedom for information published in her book, Astoria: An Oregon History.

This is my entry for Think Green Thursday. For additional interesting current pix, please follow that link as well as this link to more City Daily Photo blogs and travel the world.

7 comments:

Unseen India Tours said...

This Post is really amazing !! I enjoyed the Old wall and the plantation.This wall is quite fantastic..Great One..Unseen Rajasthan

cieldequimper said...

Hmmmm if only more walls were the result of a little added art.

Lowell said...

One of the things I like about so many or your posts is the historical context!

In Florida, all over, they are constructing concrete walls on both sides of freeways and toll roads to block sight and sound for those who live close by.

On these walls are impressed Florida icons, such as palm leaves, egrets, etc.

Actually, they don't look too bad. Well, if you like the penitentiary look!

AB said...

Nice detail.

I just thought you might like to know: according to today's newspaper, the solitary tapir in the Saarbrücken zoo has now got a friend. We are now a two-tapir town.

Don and Krise said...

Again, something so simple conjures up such history. That's great.

ramblingwoods said...

Hi Sheryl..You have a great blog here and I too love the historical context. It makes me wonder what I can find poking around in my town...Thanks for contributing to Think Green Thursday...Michelle

ramblingwoods said...

Cheryl...you might get more comments if you change your comments options from embedded to a pop-up window. I had to move from Firefox to Internet Explorer to be able to add a comment. The default setting for Blogger is the embedded, but it can make it difficult to post a comment for some people...Michelle

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