Historic Hood River
Hood River Valley Horticultural Fair (detail)
7-29-2011
Notes
Here’s a final detail from the Horticultural Fair negative. With electrical wiring like this it’s not surprising that structure fires were a much more common occurrence during this era. This light bulb may have been a big deal, but within 10 years many of the signs in the commercial district were electrified. The knob and tube wiring would be the cause of many electrical fires in years to come, though it was probably a big improvement over the gas lamps it was replacing.
NancyR
Wasn’t one of the inventors of "light signs" from Hood River?
Love the detail of the sign and the fir trimming it.
Charlott
Could that be tiny pinecones glued to the boards to form the word Welcome? Maybe they are huge cherries glued…..
The electical wires just go through a hole in the wall.
Do we know how many days this "fair" actually took place?
Paul Kollas
Nancy, are you referring to John Long, inventor of the ‘running sign’?
Connie
Sign guy – yes, it was John Long. The museum has an entire collection of his equipment and marketing materials. Quite fascinating and way ahead of it’s time.
Charlott
However, John Long did not live in Hood River at the time of this photo.It was somewhere about 1946 or 1947 when the Long family moved to Long Hsven.
Barbara Parsons
Were these
Lela Long’s folks? I met her at the roller skating evenings at one of the valley schools. Does anybody remember those?