Excavation for Reservoir #5 on the southwest slope of Mount Tabor is well underway in this 1910 photo. Steam power helped lighten the load but much work was done the old fashioned way, by physical (human and animal) labor; quite a few men are wielding picks and shovels in this image.
(City of Portland Archives)
Tags: Mount Tabor, Portland, Reservoir
June 13, 2012 at 8:12 am
This is a great Photo of why the good old days, were pretty hard!
And how most of the old jobs have been replaced by technology and machinery.
June 13, 2012 at 10:04 am
Wow, how’d you like to have that going on in your back yard?
I wonder if that house is still there? It seems pretty “in” the park.
June 13, 2012 at 10:47 am
In the center is a clump of trees. If you look on the right edge of that clump you can see the pump house of the reservoir down on Division street.
June 13, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Good eye Dave.
This demonstrates the height of the the age of steam. There is a real ” steam shovel ” in use as well as a small construction model locomotive both of which are mounted on temporary tracks. Most of the hand and animal labor here is devoted to locating these tracks as they require frequent moving as the work proceeds. Also very interesting to me is the vertical boiler providing steam to power a small winding engine operating an incline. The incline is the method by which the other equipment and supplies were raised to the work site from far below, up a otherwise impossible grade These workers no doubt thought they were on the cutting edge of technology . And they were.
Can you just imagine yourself a small child living in that house that Tad points out and having this in your yard. Your parents may not be amused but in an age before radio or tv—–.
Great stuff
June 13, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Steam power is fascinating… I’d love to build a scale-model steam engine someday.
If anybody else has an interest, the annual steam-up at Antique Powerland in Brooks is fascinating. They have a working steam-powered sawmill (among many many other steam and antique gas/diesel contraptions) that they demo.
http://www.antiquepowerland.com/info/annual.html
June 13, 2012 at 1:12 pm
This OPB website has a number of pictures of No. 5 including one showing the house on the lip of the newly concreted reservoir.
http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/25-Bull-Run/slideshows/15
June 13, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Thanks for the link Elliott.
It appears that they built the reservoir right around the house! One would have to assume that the owners probably weren’t happy about the situation… presumably the city tried to buy them out and they didn’t want to go.
It would be interesting to learn the rest of that story…
June 13, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I never miss the Steam-up at Antique Powerland in Brooks. If you have never been to the event or it has been a few years, it is worth a trip.
The last weekend in July and first weekend in August..
June 17, 2012 at 11:45 am
I might be wrong… If Hosford owned the land at Res #5 then the map that was referenced would be incorrect. It shows that he owned the land on the north side. I would guess that the house was owned by someone else. I’m sure this could be figured out through tax records.
August 23, 2012 at 6:00 pm
The house would have been at 45°30’38.99″N 122°35’49.55″W. I wonder if it was moved or if it got razed?