AP Photo/Don Ryan

Lost Portland landmarks

There's a lot of talk about how Portland is changing. And it is. But it has been for a long time. Businesses come and go, landmarks rise and fall.

Here's a look at some of the Portland places everybody knew when they were still around.

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Oregonian file photo

Corno's Food Market

The giant produce adorning the roof of Corno's Food Market made the grocery store a landmark on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It also provided some cover for Burt Reynolds in a scene from "Breaking In," in which Reynolds plays an aging robber.

The business ran for the second half of the 1900s, its building standing vacant until 2006 when it finally fell, giant produce and all.

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The Oregonian/2002 file photo

Rose's

The New York-style deli and bakery opened on Northwest 23rd Avenue in 1956, with Reuben sandwiches and desserts the size of your head. The original moved north on 23rd in the early 2000s to make way for Restoration Hardware. Though there are still Rose's in Sherwood and Vancouver, it closed for good on Northwest 23rd in 2011. Bamboo Sushi occupies that second location now.

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Chuck Von Wald/The Oregonian/1963

Jantzen Beach Amusement Park

Built as a means to sell bathing suits, the Jantzen Beach Amusement Park had two big swimming pools, a wooden roller coaster, a carousel, and all the trappings for a day of family fun before it became a shopping center.

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The Associated Press

NikeTown

The downtown landmark was equal parts retail outpost and shrine to the Nike success story from its opening in 1990 until it closed in 2011. It served as a prototype for Nike outlets that have cropped up all over the globe.

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Fredrick D. Joe/The Oregonian

Greek Cusina octopus

The purple cephalopod guarded the entrance to downtown's Greek Cusina for about twenty years until 2010. It emerged again atop Brick's Barber in Southwest Portland shortly after, only to go into storage a while later when the barbershop moved. Given that city code forbids permanent balloon signs, don't hold your breath to see "Spoticus" resurface.

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Oregonian file photo

The Bomber's B-17

A B-17 bomber airplane marked the entrance to the Oak Grove gas station and burger joint The Bomber for 67 years before coming off its perch in 2014.

The "Lacey Lady" isn't completely lost, having left the restaurant for restoration. But don't expect to see the old bird land back on McLoughlin Boulevard anytime soon.

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Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian

Multnomah Greyhound Park

This one's a recent loss, the former greyhound race track having been torn down over the last few months. It's future is unclear, but its owner, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, has considered mixed-use development with residential and commercial space.

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24-Hour Church of Elvis

The wacky, coin-operated window display began confusing Portlanders in 1985 from a downtown art gallery storefront. It took on a few more incarnations at various locations over the years. People even had weddings there. It most recently left the building in 2013. Who knows whether it will return for a fourth encore.

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Courtesy of photographer Jody Miller

Portland Gas & Coke Co. building

The haunting structure near the St. Johns Bridge on U.S. 30 is yet another lost remnant of Portland's industrial past. Colloquially called "GasCo," the plant was built in 1913 to "coke" gas from coal and oil. Years of disuse left the building unstable and filled with toxins. Preservationists' efforts to save the building fell short, and NW Natural - Portland Gas & Coke's reincarnation - deconstructed the gothic Victorian building in 2015.

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Organ Grinder Pizza

Who could forget the enthusiastic TV commercials and terrifying character mascots of the pizza parlor/family entertainment center. The diaphone-shaped restaurant opened on Southeast 82nd Avenue in 1973, keeping kiddos entertained with silent movies, arcade games and all the works for the next 23 years.

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Yellow bikes

Before there was the Nike-sponsored Biketown, there was the ragtag fleet of spray painted yellow bikes of the mid-1990s.

The honor-system bike share program, created by a pair of Portland cycling idealists and the Community Cycling Center, folded after about three years when overwhelming maintenance demands and too many stolen bikes eradicated the fleet.

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The Oregonian file photo

Old Country Kitchen's rotating T-bone sign

The longtime steakhouse favorite is still serving up its 72-ounce steak challenge. But the rotating T-bone sign that once beckoned to hungry carnivores has been replaced by one all-too stationary.

Sayler's opened in 1946 and is still going strong at its current location a few blocks up Southeast Stark Street from the original.

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Photo courtesy of Oregon Historical Society

Fox Theatre

With its outlandish art-deco marquis and ticket booth, the Fox Theatre hosted everything from a long run of "The Sound of Music" to a Nirvana concert between the 1950s and the late 1990s.

Fox Tower now stands where the old theater did. At least it too has a movie theater.

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Oregonian file photo

Blue Mouse Theater

Another of many Portland theaters that have gone the way of the celluloid film they used to project onto beloved screens.

The Blue Mouse replaced the Globe Theatre near Southwest 11th Avenue and Southwest Washington Street. There's now a parking garage on that corner.

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Tom Peterson's (& Gloria's too!)

Tom Peterson was everywhere for in the 1970s and '80s. His friendly mug and flattop haircut were on TV, alarm clocks, wrist watches, masks, and even his flagship furniture and appliance store at Southeast Foster Road and Southeast 82nd Avenue. But empires tend to fall, and we saw the last of Tom Peterson's (& Gloria's too!) by 2009.

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The Oregonian/2001

Waddle's Restuarant

The Hayden Island hotspot lived through many incarnations since opening in the 1940s: a drive-in, a coffee shop and, finally, a pancake house that would make you "Walk in...waddle out."

But this landmark isn't completely lost. The "Waddle's" on its recognizable sign has just been swapped out for "Hooters," it's waddling duck replaced by a wide-eyed owl.

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Oregonian file photo

Fareless Square

It used to be that you could ride TriMet buses and trains around downtown Portland without paying a fare. The area's generally four-cornered shape earned it the name Fareless Square, and its accessibility was quite a treat for people visiting downtown. But because of a funding shortage in 2012, the free-ride zone went away - and so did the "I thought we were still in Fareless Square" excuse for not having a TriMet ticket.

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Oregonian file photo

Carnival Restaurant

The aptly-named carnival fare restaurant at the foot of Oregon Health & Science University is remembered fondly by many for its eclectic condiment bar, its animal-shaped chairs, and its fish pond in the back.

The building became the Carrousel Restaurant in 2000, adding teriyaki to the burger menu. Now, it's an OHSU parking lot.

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Oregonian file photo

Portland Bottling Company's 7UP sign

When the Portland Bottling Company's plant was built where Northeast Sandy Boulevard becomes Northeast Couch Street in 1941, a big, bubbling bottle of 7UP topped it off on a spinning neon sign.

The sign stopped spinning after the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, and the 7UP bottle turned to a bottle of Guayakí, a drink made from yerba mate, in 2010. It's still there, but it's hardly as recognizable.

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Oregonian file photo

Henry Ford's Restaurant

No, not that Henry Ford.

The decidedly lounge-like restaurant employed a level of classy kitsch perfect for prom dates or an evening out with friends. The condos that went up after the restaurant closed in 2003 don't quite give the same vibe that the restaurant's bubble fountain and other quirky trimmings did for decades.

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Oregonian file photo

Meier & Frank

The company that owns Macy's bought out the 150-year-old Portland department store chain in 2005, wiping out the name that defined retail for generations of Portlanders.

The main Meier & Frank building still stands near Pioneer Courthouse Square, but Macy's is now pondering whether to sell its portion of the historic space.

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The Oregonian/2007

Yaw's Top Notch

"The house that hamburger built" exploded with popularity in the era of burger joints in the 1950s and '60s. Originally opened in 1926, the restaurant waned as the drive-in years did the same. By 1982, its four outposts had closed.

An attempt to revive Yaw's by the original owner's grandson failed eight months after opening in 2013.

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Photo courtesy of Portland Archives and Record Center

USS Oregon

The Spanish-American War powerhouse spent nearly 20 years on display along Portland's waterfront between the 1925 Rose Festival and the day the Navy reclaimed it for scrap in 1942. Previously considered the fastest and deadliest ship of its time, the USS Oregon was a floating museum near what's currently the Tom McCall Waterfront Park bowl. Its mast and bow plate live on in a display farther downriver at the park.

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The Oregonian/2005

Kupie Cone

A Southeast Portland hotspot even before the 1960s brought enormous popularity to burger joints, Kupie Cone kept its mom-and-pop credentials on Southeast Holgate Boulevard until the end.

A small restaurant called Sunday took over the space for a brief stint around 2005 before it was torn down to make room for a Starbucks.

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The Oregonian/1958

Henry Thiele Restaurant

This well-loved restaurant was a sure stop at the traffic triangle on Northwest 23rd Avenue and West Burnside Street. It outlived its namesake in the caring hands of his wife and her second husband, surviving for nearly 60 years before closing in 1990. Longtime Portlanders are probably still craving Theile's signature German pancakes.

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The Oregonian/1951

Portland Hotel

Once the social center of Portland and the precursor to grand hotels, such as the Benson, that remain, the Portland Hotel was the place to see and be seen once it opened in 1890. By the time it was destroyed to make room for Meier & Frank parking in 1951, Portlanders mourned it as a lost bastion of the city's character. But there's a new landmark where the Portland Hotel once stood: Pioneer Courthouse Square.

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The Oregonian/1992

Quality Pie

This 24-hour goodie factory was a slice of Portland life across from the Good Samaritan hospital on Northwest 23rd Avenue until it closed in 1992. Like nearby Rose's, it was a stronghold for suburban kids to get their Portland introduction and a spot for city dwellers to get a quality piece of pie.

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Oregonian file photo

Piluso's Restaurant

Talk about dinner and a show. During meal time at Piluso's, the dance floor retracted to reveal a pool where synchronized swimmers splashed and spun for diners' entertainment. The dance floor came back out after the show so guests could do some spinning of their own.

No word on whether any "It's a Wonderful Life"-type dance disasters ever happened here.

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The Oregonian/1987

Bridgeport Hotel

The hotel itself was nothing spectacular, but what it became would catch your eye. Permit and funding issues stalled an attempt to turn the old Bridgeport Hotel into an office building at the east end of the Burnside Bridge for seven years. Construction to add several stories to the space began in 1985 and stopped suddenly, leaving metal beams jutting out of it until a heated legal battle led to its demolition in 1992.

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Oregonian file photo

Vaughn Street Park

The original home of the Portland Beavers baseball team (and its many renamed incarnations), Vaughn Street Park was a hit with the community from its opening in 1901. It was small, but beloved, and its low walls made for a batter's dream.

The ballpark burned partially in the late 1940s, and the Beavers played their final season there in 1955. The team moved to Multnomah Stadium, which is now Providence Park, and Vaughn Street Park was torn down and converted into industrial space.

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Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

Want more history?

Dive deeper into Portland's and Oregon's past at Oregonlive.com/history.

And remember, appreciate the places you love. They won't be around forever.