Preserving Hawaii’s Post War Commercial Development
Aiea Shopping Center, Oahu, 2012 Alison Chiu
From Docomomo US: Shopping centers built between the 1950s through the 1970s on the island of Oahu are unique examples of Modernist architecture in Hawaii. They comprise the majority of large-scale commercial buildings on Oahu and amongst the other islands, which experienced a different level of commercial impact from tourism during the post-war era.
The mid-century shopping center was a microcosm for all that Hawaii had to offer: a unique combination of local and Asian-inspired goods, as well as products brought from the US mainland. It was an advertisement unto itself, at both a pedestrian and automobile-friendly scale. Juxtaposed with the island’s natural geography, the simple architectural patterns, forms, and artwork were iconic throughout Hawaii’s neighborhoods.
Wirth Watching – Old Utah vacation motels
From ABC4: For many folks, road trips are the best part of summertime. They bring back memories of packing the car to the roof in suitcases and hitting the road.
Families went from motel to motel. The kids would jump into the small motel swimming pools and then jump up and down on the beds. Once in a while, there was even a color TV in the room.
ABC4’s Craig Wirth relives those times, taking a look back at the motel scene in Utah with this week’s “Wirth Watching.”
Woodman’s sign, forgotten for generations, emerges in remodel
Contractors work on renovation of a building at 922 Milton Ave. that once housed Woodman’s Food Market between the 1920s and the mid-1950s. The workers this week unearthed an old Woodman’s sign on the building that had been covered for years, and was rediscovered this week as a crew renovating the building for a new owner removed an awning that had been built overtop sometime after the building changed hands. Anthony Wahl
From Gazette Xtra: JANESVILLE — As contractor Brandon Rossey peeled away a decades-old awning and façade this week on a vacant storefront at 922 Milton Ave., the name of a grocer founded here a century ago revealed itself on the wall beneath—one letter at a time.
Running above the storefront windows, on a panel of ivory-white stone tile engraved with dark green letters, “Woodman’s Food Market” emerged letter by letter.
That’s just as the sign, still well preserved read at some point in the first half of the 20th Century, when Woodman’s operated its first proper grocery market on that site.
Vintage advertisement discovered in Bristol, Virginia hair salon and boutique
Vintage advertisement discovered in Bristol, Virginia hair salon and boutique WCYB/Ashley Hoak
From WCYB: BRISTOL, Va. — A vintage advertisement has been uncovered at a hair salon in Downtown Bristol, Virginia.
Renovations have been taking place at Team Shear Obsession and Wandering June Boutique located at 529 State Street.
Salon Manager and Boutique Owner Kristen Artrip told News 5 it’s believed the sign dates back to 1918.
Olympic Diner planned to be demolished to make way for three-story storage facility
The Olympic Diner in the town of Ulster can be seen on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman)
From the Daily Freeman: TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. — Town Board members have given site plan approval for a three-story 92,940-square-foot storage facility to take the place of the 51-year-old Olympic Diner on Washington Avenue.
The project was reviewed during a meeting Thursday, with officials noting that Diamond Point Development conceded to having the building’s facade be designed to fit more with the buildings in the city of Kingston gateway area.
In addition to demolishing the 3,766-square-foot diner, developers also plan to take down a 3,670-square-foot building that has been used for offices and storage on the 1.9-acre property.
But, on Friday morning, diner owner Louie Petritsis said the sale to Diamond Point is not finalized and the demolition of the diner won’t occur “for a couple of months.”
2022 Preserving the Historic Road International
NE Union Avenue (now NE MLK Jr. Boulevard), 1929. Courtesy: City of Portland Archives
From HistoricRoads.org: Join us in Portland, Oregon September 22-24, 2022 for Preserving the Historic Road International. We welcome you back after four years of planning (and pandemic) to a new conference, with a dynamic new format, designed to meet the challenges for historic roads in the coming decades. The NEW PHRI will engage you in direct conversations with experts, put you in the field with some of America’s greatest roads and invite you to reimagine how we identify, preserve and manage the next generation of historic roads.