Location & Viewing Hours
On display nightly: Sunset to sunrise.
This installation is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal Agency and the City of The Dalles.
Layered History
This is a palimpsest - a ghost sign that shows multiple worn ads painted on top of each other. This specific sign called 'Waldron Drug Store' has three discernable layers we were able to revive. Learn more about the building, businesses, and locals that called this building home below.
Layer 1 — Painted in 1915
Owl Cigar Company
Layer 2 — Painted in 1920s
Storage (Company Unknown)
Layer 3 — Painted in 1930s
W.F. Gitchell Insurance & Storage
Building
Built 1863
Waldron Drug Store
c. 18 Mar 1864 — H.J. Waldron Post-Office Bookstore Advertisement, The Daily Mountaineer
The Waldron Brothers Drug Store, also known as the Gitchell Building, is the oldest commercial structure in The Dalles, Oregon.
Construction work on the building was started by German stonemason Henry Klindt in 1863, and by 1865, it was occupied, owned, and operated by Henry J. Waldron. In June 1867, the building became a gathering place for the community when Henry, the presidentially appointed town postmaster, moved the U.S. Post Office into the building on First Street. People often congregated there in hopes there would be letters for them from family or friends.
Henry's brother, George W., graduated from a pharmacy school back East and joined Henry in the drug business, which is when it became known as the Waldron Brothers. After several years, George moved to Washington to become a stockman, and the drug store became known as H. J. Waldron.
c. 1905 — Boxers on the balcony of the Columbia Athletic Club with the Waldron building in the background, Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Photo Archive, OSU
c. 1890s — The Henry Klindt Family. Gitchell builder Mr. Henry Klidnt, seated, Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Photo Archive, OSU
c. 1894 — Flood, First Street. Photo by Lee Moorhouse (1850-1926), Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Photo Archive, OSU
The building was so sturdily constructed with thick walls made of sandstone that it survived the Fire of 1879, the Great Fire of 1891, and the Flood of 1894.
Waldron's drug store moved after the city center shifted from First to Second Street. On 1 September 1897, The Dalles, Portland & Astoria Navigation Company (D.P. & A.N. Co., pictured below) purchased and used the Waldron building for a boat office. Over the years, it has been a newspaper office, a paint store and sign painting business, a cafe, a feed warehouse, and even a seasonal haunted house.
c. 1918 — Model Laundry Wagon in front of the Waldron building when occupied by The Dalles, Portland & Astoria Navigation Company (D.P. & A.N. Co.), Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Photo Archive, OSU
Layer 1
Painted 1914
Owl Cigar
c. 1890 — "My Eyes - Here's The Owl Man," Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library
The Owl Cigar Company started out in 1861 as Straiton & Storm Segars (the spelling at the time). The company had offices and factories in New York City and tobacco plantations in Florida. Storm sold the business to the Owl Cigar Company in 1890 after Straiton left the business in 1887.
Owl Cigars had a significant impact on the cigar industry, with 1,500 "rollers" producing 1,500,000 cigars by hand weekly for national distribution. To expand its market share beyond the New York region, the company utilized sign painters to put up "Owl Cigar - now 5 cents" advertisements nationwide. Researchers have said that the company paid two-person crews $5-$10 per sign, and they painted one sign a day. Considering the vast number still in existence, the number of signs painted across the U.S. could have been in the thousands.
Layers 2, 3
Painted 1920s, 1930s
Storage & Insurance
On 21 December 1923, Jack L. Gitchell purchased the property and renovated it into his office and apartments, which is when it gained its second name. Later on, Gitchell sold the building to Dr. T. L. Hyde in May 1946. The three lower floors were taken over by The Dalles Sign and Paint Company, which was run by Richard Null, who also managed the storage department. The upper floor was still used as residential apartments.
c. 1965
c. 27 April 1938 — Portrait of Jack Gitchell by Stanford J. Wood, Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Photo Archive, OSU
The exact timing for when the little red "Storage" sign was painted remains a mystery, as well as which storage company it references. There are no photos that show just the small red sign, as the only documentation from the 1930s reveals it underneath the sweeping "Insurance & Storage," which was the final layer placed at the top of the building. This sign presumably referred to W.F. Gitchell Insurance & Storage, as seen in a 1940s photo of the hand-painted ads in front of the building.
Permanence
The Dalles is the fourth permanent Light Capsule installation and the second in the United States. It employs the use of architectural lighting and the creation of a printed piece of glass - also known as a gobo - that produces the image when light from the architectural lighting fixture passes through it.
Learn more about the making of a permanent Light Capsule through the Oregon Public Broadcasting's feature on Light Capsule No. 4 in Astoria, Oregon:
