October 9, 2020

Pink Elephant sign headed to MOHAI

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

There are no landmark protections for the famous pachyderm overlooking Denny.

As the DJC first reported this week, the Elephant Car Wash at 616 Battery St. has been closed for months, and the old buildings will be demolished by landowner Clise Properties. That step is a likely prelude to selling the triangular property, which has high-rise zoning. However, Elephant announced yesterday that it will donate the iconic pink elephant neon sign to the Museum of History & Industry.

Separately, MOHAI Executive Director Leonard Garfield said in a statement, “The Elephant Car Wash sign is a beloved symbol of our community. We are excited to become the new stewards of the sign and continue the great work of the Elephant Car Wash team in preserving this irreplaceable part of our city's heritage.”

The 69-year-old family-owned business said in its statement, “It is with deep sadness that we announce this closure, as we have tried to keep this location open, even as it continued to lose money over the last few years. The increasing crime, drug activity, and homelessness in and around the car wash has made it extremely difficult to retain staff and attract customers to our business.”

The pandemic wasn't mentioned, but vehicular traffic in the Denny Triangle — like all of downtown — has been tremendously reduced in the past seven-odd months. So there are simply fewer patrons with cars to wash. Elephant has about 14 other locations around Puget Sound.

And besides the arrival of Amazon, to which Clise has previously sold parcels, the rerouting of state Route 99 has made the neighborhood far less car-centric. The decommissioned old Battery Street Tunnel's north portal is now being completely reconfigured by city crews. What used to be Aurora Avenue North has now evolved into Borealis Avenue and Seventh Avenue North, as Uptown is reconnected to South Lake Union. Parking lots, even small ones, are fast disappearing as new offices and residential high rises sprout. And in normal, non-pandemic times, Denny Way is choked with traffic, making driving even less attractive.

MOHAI has past experience preserving vintage neon signs. It owns the old blue flame sign that once marked the Washington Natural Gas building on Mercer Street (now renovated as the Brotman Building, part of a UW Medicine complex).

The museum says it's now begun a funding campaign to restore the pink elephant sign, online at mohai.org/elephantsign.

MOHAI also owns the original red neon Rainier Brewing R, the old “Time to Eat” neon sign/clock for The Dog House (another former Denny Triangle icon), and a predecessor to the Post-Intelligencer's famous neon-bedecked globe (a city landmark). Most of those are in storage, not on display.

MOHAI has agreed to accept and restore the P-I's 13.5-ton orb, which is gradually succumbing to salt water and disrepair on Elliott Avenue West, where it moved in 1986 from the P-I's longtime former Belltown home. (That now Sabey-owned building is leased to tenants led by City University; and the P-I's small website staff now rents space in Belltown.)

The P-I's late publisher Virgil Fassio told Crosscut a helicopter was used to transport the globe to the waterfront. Who could do that job now, and at what cost, are future questions to answer. So, too, would be the restoration bill and future location for the 30-foot structure, which was installed in 1948 on Hearst's 1940 building. That full-block, three-story building sits on land now zoned up to 440 feet. It's also a stone's throw from the car wash.