Schnitzer Concert Hall

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The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon is one of the latest additions to my online gallery. The theater was built in 1928 as the Paramount Theater, and the big vertical sign said as much until the early 1980s when the theater was converted to a concert hall. A woman named Arlene Schnitzer donated much of the money needed to refurbish the old theater with the condition that it be named after her. As I heard the story, nobody wanted to put the name Schnitzer on the vertical sign, so it was decided to put the name of the city on it. That made perfect sense since many of the original letters could be reused. The sign was refurbished at a sign shop in Salem, and I was able to get close enough to touch it.

Photography Prints

I shot this photo in November 1994. I scanned it some time ago with the intent of putting it in my online gallery. To my dismay, the top of the sign was just touching the top edge of the frame. I needed to add some sky to make it fit in a frame without being cut off. I also had to deal with part of a building protruding into the far left side of the frame. Early attempts were unsuccessful. The scanned image sat on my hard drive for years until this week when I finally had the tools and know-how to fix those things in a convincing way.
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