Earth, Water, Fire, and Air

If you're driving on Exchange Avenue (on our right), this is just a quirky curve in an otherwise-straight street. But like everywhere else in Astoria, it also expresses a lot of history. In the center of the photo, you can see the entire block that comprises 13th Street. The street is about one or one and a half lots long. This is where the notorious early land owners and town planners John Shively and John McClure butted heads. They could not agree on the size of a standard lot, and the mismatched halves of the town can be seen fitting together here at 13th (you can read more about it in this post).

Here you can see what the downtown area is built on (pilings over what used to be water and mud). There's another photo of it here, and there are several more places in town where you can see the concrete-and-air underpinnings. I found a very interesting web page that describes the big fire of December 8, 1922. What allowed it to cause so much destruction (10 hours, 30 blocks, 15 million dollars) is that the downtown was built on wood pilings, and the air-space under the buildings and streets was not filled in. They could hardly have designed a better barbecue pit if they'd tried, but they must have learned the lesson, because the spaces are now baffled with concrete walls. Occasionally you'll see a car or two parked in the low area, but mostly it's empty.

Exchange Avenue marked the line between burned and spared buildings, at least here at 13th Street. Across Exchange Avenue on the right is the YMCA building built in 1914 and mentioned in the linked article. It "was opened as the headquarters of all welfare agencies," and I took photos of it which I'll post another day.

For those who want to see how many previous posts are contained in this photo, here's a list:

. Yesterday's blue post (out of sight on the corner behind the tree)
. Writing on the wall
. The pink building on the left
. Drain cover made in Oregon (about the center of the photo)
. The imposing Astor Hotel from the river side and from the landward side
. Behind where I'm standing to take the photo is a small hospice building. The railing you see in the photo continues alongside the building and is the site of this plaque commemorating Clark Gable's early acting career in the Astoria Theatre that burned down in the fire of 1922.

A curious blue post

This old concrete post was wearing body metal long before it became popular. I love the colors in this photo, especially the part of the blue paint that's still wet from the rain. This post, along with another almost like it, stands at the corner of 13th Street and Duane Avenue. I don't know if the ring was originally intended for hitching horses, or what. Someone has added a padlock, probably later than the ring, but long enough ago that it's completely rusted. The white reflection to the right is of this wall towering above.

It looks like a new business is moving in and brightening the shop behind the post. There have been several in this location in the short time I've been here. I remember when there were used cars parked in this lot, the office being (I think) to the right of the colorful store.

Does anyone remember more about this corner and the businesses that were here?

Cieldequimper: This would be another nice object d'art for your home, oui?

Since 1886

I absolutely love the way this 2nd-storey wall looks near the corner of Duane Avenue and 13th Street. How did it retain the lines? It looks like someone planned it, but it's simply an old, old wall. It says McLin Hardware Co. Inc. Since 1886. Sometime I'll try to decipher the whole wall. I also wonder what the name was of the hotel. Like art in a museum, it invites the imagination to put the pieces together - or maybe it tugs at the historian in all of us. It certainly showcases the signpainter's art of a bygone era.

Made in Oregon?

Astoria, Oregon, is approximately three hours' drive from the state capital at Salem. But is that where this drain cover was made? It seems there is or was a Salem Iron Works in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; there is currently one in Salem, Oregon, which is also known as Gerlinger Casting Corporation; and one in Baldwin Place, New York, although that one seems to specialize in decorative iron railings for home and garden.

I only found that of any interest after the fact. I liked the way this drain cover reflected the light; the way the ferns peeked through even after the dry days of summer; and the neat, tidy lettering, deeply stamped and artistic in its own industrial, no-nonsense way. Doesn't that look like a bolt in the pavement above the drain? I didn't go back to check it, but if you happen to be passing by the corner of 13th and Exchange, let me know :)

Ferns grow wild around here, which still makes me smile when I think of it. Yes, we are in a temperate rain forest. I love it.

Does this photo qualify for Watery Wednesday? It's a far cry from a scenic waterfall or a wide expanse of the Columbia River, but hey. If it were not for the water that pours down this gutter, there would be no need for a slotted drain cover. And the presence of ferns must mean something. Shooting pictures of water in Astoria is a no-brainer, so let's try something different today, OK?

Art Deco? Art Nouveau? Definitely imaginative . . .

I think this is one of Astoria, Oregon's, most imaginative downtown buildings. It's hard for me to say whether it's more Art Deco or Art Nouveau, or a combination of the two. In any event, it's unique. I don't know the date it was built, but my guess is, around 1923. It's in the area that burned in the 1922 fire, and the style fits with the period of re-building.

The location is the corner of 13th Street and Exchange. In fact, this building and the small parking lot next to it take up the entire length of 13th Street (see the photo below). The most coveted locations for small businesses are a block and a half away on Commercial Street, so at the moment, this charming building sits empty.

This is the entirety of 13th Street. Or at least I think so. If you go just to the right outside this photo there's a narrow passage for foot and bike traffic that goes for one block, connecting Duane and Commercial, and may qualify as an extension of 13th Street. I'll save that photo for another day. Because of the disagreement between Shively and McClure in the 1800s, 12th and 13th Streets do not fall into a regular pattern in the city grid, as they would if it had all been gridded by one person or on one system. Thirteenth Street became a strange anomaly in the grid because of it.

I took this photo on a recent bright, clear day. Today it's overcast and, thankfully, cooler.

12th Street and Grand . . . the path to where?

No, the street sign is not misplaced. Behind me, 12th Street continues up the hill like any normal residential street. In front of me, it takes off on a narrow path through the berry bushes for one short block. Oddly, I've never followed it. Until I looked at the street sign today, I believe I thought it was private property. Taking notice, I stopped and wondered what the path was like, but as I had to meet someone on the street in about one minute and I didn't want him to drive on and miss me, I continued along on Grand. I can't picture what the other end of the path looks like, so I'll make a point of finding it.

There is history here, too. Thirteenth Street was the dividing line between land owned by John Shively and John McClure, both of whom arrived in Astoria in 1843 with land claims filed in Washington, D.C. The story goes that the men didn't like each other and could not agree on what size a lot should be. Because of this, the lots west of 13th ("McClure's Astoria") and east of 13th ("Shively's Astoria") did not align evenly, and you can still see a number of odd curves in certain streets and other streets that don't go through from one block to the next. Thirteenth Street is only half a block long in the downtown area, with another block made into a narrow passageway. But in the residential section, 13th Street doesn't exist at all. There's a very wide block between 12th and 14th Streets, with the cross street of Grand stopping and starting again at a different latitude. Someone connected the pieces with this intriguing leafy path.

My thought for Think Green Thursday is this: Wouldn't it be "grand" if half our city streets looked like this? Maybe we'd all be walking more!