According to the University of Oregon Libraries, the Pacific Northwest Bell Building, at the corner of SE Belmont & 17th. was designed by famed Portland architect Pietro Belluschi. Apparently it’s been modified since this 1967 photo; the arched doorway to the left, and all the windows above, have been trimmed off to accommodate a more modern addition.
(University of Oregon Libraries)
Tags: A.E. Doyle, Pietro Bellusci, Portland, Qwest
June 15, 2012 at 6:32 am
My father and uncle worked from this building, together as telephone repairmen, before the Ma Bell and AT&T split!
June 15, 2012 at 7:05 am
It is ugly now!
June 15, 2012 at 8:08 am
Too bad! The “new” addition has nothing to do with the design of the original building…oh, I’m wrong…they used brick! Pity they didn’t hire an architect who had a better sense of design, history and imagination! I know, I know…it always seems to come down to money. I would say that location probably had something to do with it as well, but none-the-less, they could have at least tried to show they cared about the neighborhood. Yeah…that’s too bad!
June 15, 2012 at 8:33 am
This we have been in the old BElmont exchange. How many people here are old enough to remember that?
June 15, 2012 at 8:43 am
Old enough to remember it, but I lived in NYC then, Sheldon, where my exchange was DEwey. ;o)
June 15, 2012 at 9:36 am
As a child I lived near SE 51st & Taylor and we got the BElmont exchange sometime in the 1950s. Prior to that it was the EMpire exchange. Also, the number started out as BE-xxxx but was later changed to BE6-xxxx when they needed more numbers.
June 15, 2012 at 9:38 am
What was the Belmont exchange?
June 15, 2012 at 9:44 am
BElmont covered a pretty large area then. My grandparents lived in Westmoreland and had a BE2-xxxx number.
June 15, 2012 at 9:55 am
Current view from Google Maps:
http://goo.gl/maps/PA16
June 15, 2012 at 10:04 am
Seems to me the exchange at NE 102 & Clackamas got updated as well. I think I remember it looking kind of like that back in the 1970s and 80s. http://goo.gl/maps/692W Too bad, I kind of liked them that way.
Dennis:
That’s where the phone company kept its telephone switching center.
June 15, 2012 at 11:11 am
It’s me again…
Okay, as long as we’re playing with phone trivia again, here are a few greater Portland area prefixes to jog your memories:
ALpine
ATlantic
ATwater
BElmont
BUtler
CApitol
CHerry
GArfield
KEnwood
MErcury
MOhawk
MUrdock
NEptune
OLive
PRescott
PRospect
TWinoaks
WEbster
Yeah, I know, I sent a similar list to Vintage Portland back in April of 2011, but it always seems to come up every now and then! I still miss it. Another funny note…it also helped me learn how to spell way back when!
June 15, 2012 at 11:25 am
Here’s some with locations:
Beaverton—>MItchell 4-6
Burlington—>MAyfair 1
Gresham—>MOhawk 5
Lake Oswego—>NEptune 6
Oak Grove-Milwaukee—>OLive 3-4-9
Oregon City—>OLive 5-6
Portland—>ALpine 3-4, ATlantic 1-2-4-7-8, AVenue 6
Portland—>BElmont 2-4-5-6, BIgelow 6, BUtler 5-9
Portland—>CApitol 3-4-6-7-8-9, CHerry 4, CYpress 2
Portland—>PRospect 1-4-5-7
Portland—>ROchester 1
Stafford—>NEptune 8
Sunnyside—>OLympic 8
Tigard—>MErcury 9
These are post 1955 exchanges when they went from 2L-4N to 2L-5N.
This is probably more than people want to know. Apologies for getting off-topic with this:)
June 15, 2012 at 12:28 pm
And my papa worker for Master Belluschi. He was quite the alerted man
June 15, 2012 at 12:47 pm
They didn’t just remove the doorway, looks like they removed the whole back of the building!
June 15, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Bell had several ‘cookie cutter’ building styles they would utilise to fit a given size central office. Of course they might need to be adjusted somewhat per location but to save costs it was the way.
With that said, One may observe many buildings very similar to this one in archectural details all currently or formerly Bell System properties. Of course as this building needed to grow, Maintaining the archtectural style had to out the window.
Now days with the decline of wired landline service and the fact a telephone switch is but a lunchbox size computer as compared to the day these buildings were erected, Lots of telephone buildings stand nearly empty or have been re-utilised to different tennants.
BTW, the Bell System Buildings in Gateway and N. Lombard were originally twins.
June 15, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Anyone know about the building on the southeast corner of SE 55th & Belmont? It is pink in the current Google Earth view but it was white when I was a kid. I was told that in the 1940s and earlier it was a telephone exchange with operators working within. Don’t know if that was true or not.
June 15, 2012 at 4:01 pm
oldwxwatcher:
Here’s a couple paragraphs of history on the building you’re asking about. The interwebs have some good uses.
http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/Mt_Tabor/newsletters/153241
June 15, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Elliott:
Wow, I always thought that was just a Masonic and model train building.
June 15, 2012 at 9:41 pm
So sad to see on Google Maps Street View that the top of the building, that railing all around the top, is no longer there.
June 16, 2012 at 9:34 am
Since Pietro Belluschi was in the employment of A.E. Doyle when this building was designed, it appears Doyle had a heavy influence on the design. The similarities to the Doyle designed Central Library are quite apparent.
June 18, 2012 at 10:08 pm
But it’s been “improved”! Look at those fine 1970 scored concrete planters along Belmont!