The 1955 Lego commercial block

This block of shops has a cinema above and in back, a post office at left and a lamp shop and travel agent at right. PTT is what the Dutch Post, Telegraph & Telephone company was abbreviated as at the time, adding Posterijen (Postal Services - pr "pohsterEHyun") on post offices and transport. Philips started out manufacturing light bulbs before branching out into electronics and more (they even made something a bit like Lego Technic before Lego did). And KLM is of course the Royal Dutch Airline Company. 

This block was based on an illustration in the 1955 Byggebog (Building Book), lower right on the page at Brick Fetish here. In the late fifties it would have been built from parts in cellulose acetate plastic and thus very fragile because those don't grip very well. I built it out of ABS parts for stability and strength, except for the ground floor windows and most printed beams. This building makes a very nice addition to the little town, but is so wide that it doesn't fit anywhere on the town plan seen in other posts.

Because I have two narrow shops where the original has one wide one, I've added a door at the side for the travel agents. The post office has a side door as well, which is the service entrance.

While choosing cars to park in front, my eye fell on the VW bus which sparked a memory. The DDB agency was advertising these in the US as alternative station wagons at the time, and came up with the brilliant advert below. So that's why the VW bus just -had- to be parked there as well.