Downtown between the Raindrops

Astoria, Oregon ~ March 12, 2011

Downtown on Commercial Street

Ah, yes. As Anonymous pointed out in the comments, this is Commercial Street, not "Avenue." Our named streets (going east-west) are named (with a few exceptions) alphabetically. In the business area, the named streets are "Streets," until you get up the hill as far as Franklin, where they become "Avenues." I mistakenly applied "Avenue" to all of the named east-west streets. Now I've got it. The numbered streets are "Streets." Commercial used to be named "Comcomly," after the noted Indian leader of the early days of the settlement.

Re: questions from "Basenji" (also in the comments), there are probably at least as many traffic lights in town as there were in 1978, and the Liberty Theatre has been refurbished, but it is still used for stage productions and concerts. There is a multiplex movie theatre, but it's further east on Marine Drive.

The Astor hotel is used for low-income housing (amazing views!), and the ballroom is being refurbished. I'm not sure what it will be when it opens up.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Christmas at Old Town Framing Co.

Astoria, Oregon ~ December 21, 2010

Over the years, I've enjoyed finding unusual and beautiful frames here that really set off whatever it is I wanted to frame, and also unique and artistic greeting cards that fit my style. Old Town Framing is not only about putting frames on art, it's about art. It's one of the homegrown not-a-chain businesses that, for me, makes Astoria what it is. Today it's dressed up for Christmas.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Shining Silver

Astoria, Oregon ~ February 7, 2010

I've had this one in my "to post" file for awhile. I like it because it shows something I mentioned in my "Downtown Astoria" post the other day. I've never seen anyplace that is as shimmery and shiny as Astoria is when the rain stops for awhile and the sun comes out.

I took this photo from the River Walk looking up 15th Street. The street in the immediate foreground is Marine Drive. On the other side of the big intersection Commercial Avenue is about ready to merge with Marine on the left. Area Properties is in the downstairs portion of the building on the right. Beyond the empty space on the right is The Blue Scorcher along with Fort George, a very popular and growing brewpub.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Downtown Astoria

Astoria, Oregon ~ December 8, 2010

Nobody I know calls it "Main Street," but that's what this street would have been named in many, many towns in the U.S. In Astoria, there is a naming system starting with A near the water and running through the alphabet. Numbered streets go the other direction. Aptly named Commercial Street (technically, "Commercial Avenue," but I gave up on the "Avenue" vs "Street" convention), Commercial and 12th is one of the main downtown intersection in Astoria, although there are a few other busy intersections that rate stoplights.

I initially took this photo for someone who wanted to see downtown Astoria dressed for Christmas. You can see a few of the decorations here, and I'll show more as the weeks go on. Notice the blue sky. It's just a teaser between downpours, and a very welcome one, too. I don't know any town that shimmers quite like Astoria in the sunlight between rains.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

There Goes the Couch

After shouting about this dumped couch on the blog and on Facebook, making phone calls, and finally putting it on craigslist (with no calls and no takers, but then it had a broken leg and didn't smell that good), Lee finally paid Don Sparks to come and haul it away. It was cheaper than paying the waste management company, but it also should not have been our problem. Francisca was right in her comment. Someone needs to re-think the incentives (or lack of) and the process of disposing of these cast-offs. (Maybe someday they will all be made of recyclable modules, but that's another story.) There was another interesting comment about thrift stores going out of business because they also have to find a way to dispose of the junk that is pawned off on them rather than only the things someone would want to buy. I've noticed that it's very hard to get thrift stores around here to take anything, because they are overloaded anyway.

By the way, this intersection is 15th Street and Marine Drive. The lower part of the building on the right is Area Properties. Lee owned the business before he retired, and it's now owned by mother-daughter team Barb and Meagan.

Don's truck is not going the wrong way (see the sign), but the block is only a few yards long here, as Commercial and Marine Drive converge going opposite directions. The "One Way sign is for Commercial Street. Here's a view of that short block from the east with Marine Drive on the right and Commercial on the left. The building in the middle is Area Properties.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Spiderman Lives Here

It seems that Spiderman lives at the corner of 14th Street and Commercial in Astoria, Oregon. It also happens to be the home of Amazing Stories. Go figure. Could there be a connection?

You've seen this building before - it's the Astor Hotel. I'll bet Superman would also enjoy leaping this tall building in a single bound.

See more Weekend Reflections from around the world.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Red, White, and Blue?

May 26, 2010

The violet rhodies at the southwest corner of the Astoria Post Office are almost in full bloom. As you can see, the red ones in front have about disappeared. I've been musing on the fact that the scheme at the post office seems to be vaguely red, white, and blue, with violet covering for blue. There are at least six or seven bushes around the front of the post office making up what looks at first glance like two huge bushes, and I'll show others in upcoming posts.

The shelter across the street at the corner of the courthouse is a memorial to (or display of) one of the area's lumbered old-growth trees. It's hard to photograph with the strong lights and darks, but I'll post it one of these days with good or bad photos. The corner is 7th and Commercial.

Here's a close-up of today's rhododendron flowers.

I took this photo four days ago when many of the blossoms were getting ready to open.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

The Goonies are (Almost) Back . . .

This is the Clatsop County Courthouse, shown from the corner of Commercial and 7th. The front of the courthouse is on the left, on Commercial (Avenue/Street) [digression: "streets" have numbers and "avenues" have names, but most people use "street" for both; I am herewith giving up trying to conform to the system], the old County Jail is the small gray building on the right, and the turret peeking over the jail is the Flavel House. The huge tree on the right was in this recent post, and the small protective roof at the corner of the building houses a piece of a huge old-growth tree that's on display here. (I haven't done a post on it yet.) The post office, which I've shown several times, is out of the picture on the left, across the street from the courthouse. The color of the courthouse building seems to brighten up the area unless, I think, you're there on unpleasant official business.

One reason I'm showing this photo today is because the old jail (seen in the beginning of The Goonies movie) will, on June 4-7, 2010, be opening as the Oregon Film Museum. You can read all about it here, and if I'm in town, which I expect to be, I'll try to get a photo of the event. I will not, however, be watching the movie. I already tried that once, and I made it maybe halfway through. Did you watch The Goonies? Did you like it? The film's landmarks are big attractions around here.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Park with Blossoms

At the corner of Commercial and 6th is a small park made just for kids. At the moment, it's wearing cherry blossoms - or I believe that's what they are. This view is looking east along Commercial Avenue with the post office in the background.

It looks nice and warm out, but I'd gone back to the car for my jacket, although several kids and their parents were out playing on the sun.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Post Office and Plants

I want to thank Midnight Mike for loaning me several old postcards of Astoria for use on the blog. Above you can see an older post office building. It wasn't the first of Astoria's post offices, but it was older than our current building. The card was postmarked in 1907, but I don't know the date of the photo. I like the grace and style of the old stone building. It was in the same location as the current post office, but was smaller and left more space for grass and trees around it. There is another postcard in Mike's collection showing the building from a distance. It's from a different side, and I'll save it for another comparison. The other card is postmarked 1930, although I don't know when the photo was taken; I don't know when the old building was replaced by the new one.

Astoria's current post office (and there is only one) takes up the block bordered by 7th and 8th Streets, and Commercial and Bond. This is the entrance, on Commercial Street across from the County Courthouse. I originally took this photo (on March 16th) to show the huge rhododendron bush which is covered with buds and about ready to burst into flower. The cluster that's already in bloom is a separate bush underneath the big one.

The flowers are still trying to hang on even though recent storms have taken their toll.

And the buds on the large bush are almost ready to display the seasonal riot of color if the something-or-other that's been nibbling them doesn't finish them first. The purple azaleas I showed you on February 28th are out of sight behind the wheelchair ramp near the base of the flagpole.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Astoria Coffeehouse in the Rain

Here's another gray post after yesterday's flowers, but it's not that gloomy, really. Astoria Coffeehouse is a warm and friendly place to spend some time on one of these drippy Astoria days. You can get good food as well as coffee, and it's right downtown on 11th Street between Commercial and Marine Drive.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

December 23, 2008 - Snow in Astoria

Today, December 23, 2009, it's chilly with a lot of sun between the clouds. Recently we've had several days on end of below-freezing weather, and we've had lots of rain, but we haven't had them at the same time, so we haven't had snow. Maybe we'll have some this year and maybe not. Last year we had more snow than I've ever seen in Astoria. Some years since my arrival in 2001, we've had none at all. Last December 23rd was our 7th day in a row with snow on the ground. I thought I would make a post of my photos from one year ago today. I took photos on each of our snow days, and I'll probably post some of them over this holiday season. It's always fun to see the snow here because it's so rare and of course, it makes everything look so different.

The first photo is Harrison Street looking toward 11th. I was on foot all day because it was fun, I wanted to take pictures, and also my summer tires were not prepared for this. The next photo is the fountain in front of the red house on the right.

Here's the fountain. On the left were roses with ice on them. I took a picture of a bright yellow rose covered with ice and snow, but it was badly out of focus.

The camera really doesn't show you how steep this hill is on 12th Street. It's one of the steepest grades in town, although the steep grade here is only a block long. At the top is the foot path through the trees and vines that is an extension of 12th Street. The lovely green Italianate Victorian house at the end of that post is hidden behind the buildings on the right.

Some Christmas decorations downtown on Commercial Avenue. In the next few days, I'll show more downtown snow pictures.

No fake snow this year. The building is Hughes-Ransom Mortuary. When I was looking up their name in the phone book, the next ad I saw read, "Bad Smells? Too Much Dust?" Quickly I made sure I wasn't under the same heading. Uh, nope. It was Furnaces. Moving right along. . . .

Here I'm walking along Exchange Avenue toward 11th. The bit of yellow you see at the top with spires is the First Presbyterian Church, shown in an earlier post.

As I said, the plants were not expecting this snow with its melting and freezing days following . . .

. . . although the holly was probably happy about the weather.

It was fun to see how people approached this unusual condition in Astoria. The crows were always interesting, too. They seemed to be everywhere, because of course now we could see them - animated black against the white.

Now back to the Columbia River. I'm standing near the River Walk at the front of the Maritime Museum looking toward the Astoria-Megler Bridge, the radio tower, and the general downtown area.

Here's the River Walk just past the Maritime Museum. You can see the river between the trees and the tracks of the Riverfront Trolley.

Near where the last photo was taken. It was eerie to see the ships with snow for a foreground and background. One can almost imagine they're sailing through the Arctic. The building on the right is the old train station.

Here's the view looking up Coxcomb Hill vaguely in the direction of the Astoria Column.

Today it's chilly and the ground is till partly wet from the huge downpours we've had the past few weeks, but so far there is no snow in Astoria, nor on the mountains across the river in Washington.

More post office doors

Here is one of the three sets of doors entering the only post office in Astoria. On November 1, we saw the doors from the inside. They were actually the doors next to these, as this is the set on the left as you go in, and the doors shown previously were the center set. I've liked this building since the first day I saw it, which was probably almost immediately after arriving here in the summer of 2001. For one thing, it was a nice contrast with the latter-day boring architecture of the post offices where I'd lived recently. For a long time, the post office was a place I visited almost daily, due to shipping orders from my online store. Now they pick up, so I go less often. But whether it's often or not, it's nice to have a fun building to look at. It seems as thought it belongs to a much bigger town with the marble, the ornate metal, and the heavy glass tabletops.

One of Astoria's claims to fame is having the oldest post office west of the Rocky Mountains. Although the current post office is an older building, Neoclassical in style, I didn't think it could be the original. But it was quite some time before I stumbled across the location where the original had been. It had been maintained in the home of Astoria's first postmaster, John M. Shiveley.

Glowing silver

The early evening light was just right, turning the Associated building to silver. Located on Commercial Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets, it is one of the buildings comprising the center of the downtown shopping area. The building actually has three names emblazoned on the upper story: Copeland Building, Hobson Building, and Carruthers Building. It was designed by architect Charles T. Diamond and built in 1923, after the fire of December 1922 burned most of Astoria's downtown area. Many of the new buildings display the date of 1923, as does this one. A web page by Robert D. West which gives details of many of Astoria's landmarks, and says that the 1922 fire started in just about this location. Downstairs in the Copeland building is the Riversea Gallery, one of my favorite places to drop in when I'm not in a hurry. It's nicely arranged and filled with the most interesting art by talented local artists.