I-84 had not widened Sullivan’s Gulch in 1947 and only the train tracks traveled along the old river bed. It’s many times wider now, the freeway chewing up the north half of the residential block in the foreground. For most of its life a 7Up sign adorned the tower at Sandy where 37th cuts through; today we see a Budweiser sign. VP fan Jeff LaDoe says the building started as a dairy and he believes there’s a bottle-shaped tower under the cylinder shaped tower.
(City of Portland Archives)
Vintage Portland 
The Budweiser nee 7-Up building started its life as the Portland plant for Steigerwald Dairy. PDXHistory has a nice write-up here, including photos of the original building design: http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/steigerwald_dairy.html
There was a bowling alley in the building in the 60’s. There was a guy in the back who would reset the pins. No automation there altho other bowling alleys of that era had automatic pin resets.
Great photo.
As a kid we use to look forward to the 7up sign spinning at night, as we drove down the Banfield.
Chuck, Do you think that bowling alley might have been the predecessor to the Hollywood lanes that exists today? We sort of had a little nostalgia last night as our bowling lane there jammed up so many times we had a “manned” pinsetter much of the night! Interesting to note there are four service stations in the photo, and if I’m right, one just out of the photo at the lower right. Now the closest gas station is at 47th and Sandy.
If you look through the windows and the light is right, you can see the curve of the milk bottle inside. It’s still there – Steigerwald Diaries.
Mike Slama-Is the Hollywood Lanes in a different building? A larger building? Because there was a larger, newer bowling alley (I seem to remember its name as Hollywood Bowl) at the same time the one in the 7Up building was operating.
Chuck, I do mean Hollywood Bowl (41st & Halsey). I didn’t know they operated at the same time. Do you know if they had the older style bowling that used smaller balls and pins? I’m a little new to the neighborhood, having spent most of my time in SE and Downtown. I’d heard about the bowling alley in the old Steigerwald/7up building. After Roberts post, I need to look closer at the building as I walk by to see any sign of the old bottle inside. If anyone knows about the Sunset Gasoline station that was on Sandy and 39th(?) I’m looking for any photos or info.
Mike, as far as I remember the balls and pins were the same size as those at the other alleys I went to. I was about 14/15 years-old when I was bowling. We also used to go to one south of Alberta on Union Ave. Or maybe it was south of Killingsworth.
If you look closely, you can see the original cement bottle cased inside the building.
Thanks for sharing the info about the dairy. My husband’s family owned the Goss Brother’s Dairy very near there during WWII. We’ve been doing research and have some photos but mostly of the employees and nothing that shows the entire building. His grandfather (among many other ventures) built and operated the City Center Motel on NE Sandy which would have been right near here as well.
John T Goss was a friend of mine back in the eighties. he dabbled in NE Portland real estate, including purchasing the abandoned Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children on 82nd & Sandy. Tina, when did he pass on and was he the John Goss who donated the funds for Goss Stadium in Corvallis? We always talked about his businesses, but the only piece of history was the milk bottle on 38th & sandy. I guess he owned more than one motel in the area since his name was listed as owner and proprietor of the Town House Motel on 4800 NE Sandy.
Hollywood Bowl across from this location was built by a Timber company in October 1962 and was Timberlanes during it’s early life. Not sure if the two alleys ever operated at the same time. Hollywood Bowl as it is known now will Close for good in May. The original Timberlanes building was amazing. Another business in the Milk Bottle Building was an early day strp club called the Sandy Exit.
David Mackey – John Dean Goss passed in 2000 in his early 90s. He owned quite a bit of real estate in Portland, and a few properties in other parts of Oregon. He intended to use the land where The Shriner’s Hospital was to build a community for seniors but, after many years of red tape with the county/city he finally sold that property. John and his wife, Eline, were the primary donors ont he stadium at Oregon State University and it was named for them. Do you know if that milk bottle was part of the Goss Brother’s Dairy? We have very few photos of their businesses from the 1930s-1940s but we do have a business card from the dairy. He also ran for state office on a Republican ticket, I believe in the 1950s. They did own more than one motel in Portland, I have postcards from the Traveler’s Motel Hotel (was on N. Interstate), and their first property, the City Center Motel, which he built himself, and that building is still in use at the same location on Sandy but is now an office complex. He also owned a building called the Town Hall; I think it was in NE Portland. He intended to convert it to a rental space for meetings and events (we have photos, news articles, and color brochures) but I don’t believe that plan was ever realized. John’s father and uncles were bankers and businessmen from Wisconsin. They moved west and established one of the first banks in Sumpter, Oregon during the gold rush period. One of John’s uncles was also a state legislator in the early 1900s in Coos County. John’s wife, Eline Goss, my husband’s maternal grandmother, passed away in 2011 at age 93.
Just FYI – I wrote the above comment using my husband’s wordpress log-in ID; he is Christopher Pfeifer–John D. Goss was his grandfather.
Bowled in the Hollywood bowling alley in this building on the NE corner, later the name and allley was across Sandy. In early days Sandy crossed the RR at grade but Sandy was raised and the RR lowered.
I did business with John in the early 1980s and he was a mentor to me (taught me about the “Red Plate” society. A nicer and more gentle man you could never meet.
I have since meant 1000’s but not like John!
I grew up in the Hollywood area and was friend’s with Mr. and Mrs. Goss. I visited their home on SW Myrtle Ct. Many times. John’s intention with the Shriner’s property was to convert it to a new Lodge Building for The Shriner’s, however he was opposed by the Shrine leadership at that time so John placed it on the market having a old family friend live in the building around back for security purposes. Later, after John’s death Mrs. Goss then residing at Holiday Park Plaza (Lloyd Center) entered into negotiations with a senior center (55+) developer–operator and the once children’s hospital was sold as part of a tax break transaction. John was a sharp real estate investor with some of his final holdings in Gresham as well as 102nd and Sandy. Funny, we lunched at the MAC often and John would always have the same thing. A big fruit salad in a Parfait dish. “Why do you eat a messy hamburger when you could have this” he would ask me. A descent kind man. James J, Koberstein
I’m curious about the gardens and greenhouses behind the former dairy building. Any thoughts?
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