6th Street Pier

6th Street Pier, Astoria  ~  January 2011

It's hard to believe it's been over two years since the fire that consumed the 6th Street Piers in December 2010.  I still very much miss Cannery Cafe and am grateful to have spent some time in the old Bumble Bee executive suites.  This photo comes from my personal archives and shows the naked gaping maw of the remains.  

Cyndi Mudge, Guest Blogger

Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

6th Street Pier and Number 10

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 25, 2011

I went out without my good camera today, so I bring you phone pictures of the burned-out remains of 6th Street Pier and a corner of the adjacent Number 10 Sixth Street building. They're behind a chain link fence, and for a good reason. Naturally, people want to explore, but it's dangerous. With parts of the floor missing and structures occasionally still crashing down inside the buildings, it's not a safe place to be.

I have not been close to the buildings often since they burned, but one day I saw a crane barge pulled up next to the pier, and I assume they dismantled parts that could easily be hauled away. I don't know if anyone is sure at this time whether there will be rebuilding or demolition, but when buildings are this old, there are additional aspects to consider, such as heating systems that may be so out of date that "not up to code" is a totally inadequate term. Word on the street is that it will be awhile before much can be done, and there is still investigating and planning before significant changes can be made. Speaking of investigating, once again, the word on the street is that the cause of the fire is still not certain. The most likely scenario is that an accidental electrical fire in the Cannery Cafe (above) spread quickly across the pier to Number 10. 

There were many, many people and businesses affected by this fire more than I was affected, but I wanted to mention again how sad it feels to me personally to see this mess. This pier has been a destination on many of my walks over the years, and I enjoyed coming here for other reasons. Pictures of this pier encouraged me to choose Astoria over several other locations when I moved here in 2001. Important buildings, and indeed the entire downtown area, have been taken out by fires over the years. It is an aspect of Astoria's history that seems doomed to be repeated in a town where we love our antique Victorian wood buildings, but it is always devastating to someone. We will see what the future brings to 6th Street and Number 10. I'll keep you posted. I will also post some pictures from better days when I come across them.

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Astoria Fire: A Sad Day

Astoria, Oregon ~ December 17, 2010

It all looks fairly placid, but last night and into the morning, two much-frequented and well-loved iconic Astoria buildings were completely gutted by fire. (I've also shared a very clear and telling video by Chris Patenaude on this blog's Facebook Page.) No one "on the ground" was injured; one of the approximately 80 firefighters on the scene had some damage to one shoulder, according to accounts I've read this morning. Several people took videos of the conflagration in the night. Not only are as many as 10 businesses homeless this morning, but this location was a favorite of locals and tourists alike.

Gunderson's Cannery Cafe (a favorite of mine since I arrived in Astoria and a place I've especially enjoyed lately), on the left, is the most talked-about casualty, but there was also a restaurant inside of Number 10 Sixth Street (on the right) that many of us enjoyed at lunch time. The prominent red roof in the middle of the picture is the 6th Street Viewing Platform, another place I cherished. I couldn't tell if it had sustained any damage.

You can look on Google for Astoria fire and see what comes up. At the moment, I'm sad, tired for other reasons, and need to get to work.

Number 10 Sixth Street this morning. At the moment, I don't have time to go into my thoughts or list the businesses that were inside. Suffice it to say, it's a sad day for a lot of people, and not only the owners of the property and businesses.

How many times have I gone in the door on the far right? I used to walk though the building as I was strolling the River Walk in order to look at the paintings by local artists, and I've enjoyed lunch at the Lazy Spoon Cafe just to the right of that doorway. Clatsop Behavioral Center helped many, many people with their counseling and groups, and upstairs was a remarkable refurbished Victorian suite (quite big, maybe 4 bedrooms and an incredible view) where I attended two events, and it could be rented for weekend getaways. I have a number of photos of these two buildings "in life," but they're filed by date, so I'll post them as I find them. Two of my all-time favorite pictures on this blog are of the 6th Street Pier and its buildings:

. Festive banners on the 6th Steet Pier with the now-burned buildings on either side of the walk

. The lighter colored building on the right is Number 10 6th Street

I got a comment and an e-mail about Number 10 having been the Bumblebee Cannery. I should have mentioned it before, but it was before my time here. Check out the comments linked below, and also the following e-mail:

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I didn't see any mention that 10 6th st. used to be Bumblebee Tuna's main offices. And it set vacant till Chester Trubuco took it over and made something of it. The fire is just many that dotted the waterfront of Astoria. I've watched many buildings burn down on the waterfront over the years. It is sad to see Chester's Dream go up in smoke. But the old facility had seen its better days and it was sad to see it go. One of the landmark was the big radio tower and antenna which used to be on the top of the building for many years. It was given to Sunset Empire Amateur Radio Club many years ago and was taken down piece by piece.

The city looses another major landmark.

When people visit the East Basin they forget or don't know about the building of George and Barker that was turned into a fish buying station and burned down in the 80's. It had a long pier and a building at the end which they stored some personal belongings. And it burned down this community has seen its share of spectacular fires over the years since the big fire since Dec. 8th 1922 every few years we have had a big fire. Which one is going to be next?

The way this city is constructed a fire in a basement could cause a good part of the city to go again!

What happened to our fire boat? Did they think we would have no more fires next to the water so they had to get rid of it?

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Good question. I was also wondering about the fireboat. Don't we have them at some of the demos during Regatta?

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The Y Gallery

In a town of interesting facades, this has to be one of the most unusual. It's listed online as:

Y Gallery

12th & Exchange

Artist Jim Russell/Vintage Bike Works

I know nothing about it except that it seems to be a private affair, or maybe by invitation only. It's located in a building that used to be the YMCA. I'll show you the marking on the corner someday. I thought I read that the building was spared by the 1922 fire and was used as triage during that event, but (again, trying to remember) I think there is a date of 1923 on the corner. Maybe someone will comment.

Part of the building's charm is this window on 12th Street.

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Streets Made of Wood

There are a number of very impressive murals high on the walls of Builders Supply in Astoria, Oregon. This is only one of them, showing the building of Astoria's city streets when the city was made of wood. There are stories of people fishing through holes in the street; where the boards were damaged or the spaces wide enough, you could look down and see the water, so I hear. I wasn't around then. When you see this picture, it's easy to imagine how most of downtown Astoria burned to its roots in the fire of December 8, 1922. In a couple of posts, I've shown evidence of the space under the streets. By following the previous link, you can also read about the great fire. I had the above photo in my archives, and when I go back to Builders Supply, I'll learn more about the artist or artists.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

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.

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.

Built over water and destroyed by flames

The pilings you see are made of cement, and although these days there is no water under Exchange Street, the whole of downtown Astoria was at one time built on wooden pilings over the Columbia River. You can still see the pilings in a few locations like this, where there is a parking lot rather than a foundation. I'm standing on Franklin Street to take this photo. The street in the foreground is Exchange. We're looking across the site of the old Safeway store to Duane Avenue, then the blue building beyond that is on Commercial Street, which is the main drag going east. The next block beyond that is Marine Drive, which carries all of the westbound traffic through town, and Marine essentially skirts the river. Since the downtown area is also approximately nine blocks long, that's a lot of area built up over water and mud. There are stories of people fishing from the windows of buildings and through holes in the streets in earlier days. Fires in 1883 and 1922 destroyed much of downtown Astoria, and eventually concrete pilings replaced the wood. Today I'm taking part in the Thursday Challenge, where the theme is "old" - as in, Old Astoria.

The red thing in the middle of the photo is the trailer that housed the Bank of America until a few weeks ago after a fire gutted the building on Thanksgiving night, 2008. Tragically, one man was killed, but as for Astoria's buildings, only the corner of one block was damaged.

This blog is a labor of love, but the time I spend on it is in part made possible by Tapir and Friends Wildlife World online gift shop. Thanks for visiting. I love your comments!