The Elephant Car Wash is disappearing from its iconic perch just blocks from Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, but a piece of the historic business will live on inside one of the tech giant’s buildings.
Amazon confirmed Wednesday that it has been gifted the smaller of two pink elephant signs from the Denny Triangle location where the car wash has operated for 64 years. The Seattle Times reported that Amazon asked owner Bob Haney for the sign and he gave it to them.
A spokesperson for Amazon told GeekWire that it will invest in restoring the sign to its original condition and then find a place to display it somewhere on its campus. The spokesperson did not know what building the sign could end up in and the best location was still to be determined.
The larger pink neon sign, which has been a beacon of sorts for a more nostalgic Seattle as Amazon and the city have grown up around it, is headed to the Museum of History and Industry. But The Seattle Times has also reported that a group called Friends of Historic Belltown wants that sign to receive landmark status, which would keep it at the current location even if the land around it is developed by owner Clise Properties.
Elephant Car Wash still operates more than a dozen locations across the Puget Sound region. When the business announced the closure of the Denny location back in early October, it cited increasing crime, drug activity and homelessness that have made it difficult to retain staff and customers. The company also criticized Seattle’s “burdensome regulatory demands” which it said made it impossible to successfully operate within the city.
The Times called the 19,000-square-foot lot — now back-dropped by Amazon skyscrapers to the south — “one of the most valuable pieces of empty land in the city,” appraised by the county at $1,050 per square foot.
The elephant is not the first piece of historic signage Amazon has landed as office building decor. The company said the sign for the old King Cat Theater hangs in its Coral building, also known as Blanchard Plaza, at 2201 6th Ave.
Amazon also chipped in $250,000 to help repair and strengthen the Macy’s Christmas star, another Seattle landmark, on the old downtown department store in which Amazon now occupies a majority of the floors.
