The Lents Primary School looked brand new in 1957 and street crews were painting the crosswalks in preparation for the 1957 school year. The building is currently the Traffic Systems Services Unit (TSSU) of the Oregon Department of Transportation, and looks much as it did 55 years ago. It is just south of Powell on SE 92nd Avenue.
(City of Portland Archives)
Tags: Grade School, ODOT, Oregon, Portland
July 25, 2012 at 8:23 am
The reason that the ODOT now owns the property is because they acquired it in preparation for building the Mt. Hood Freeway. There was to be a huge I-205/I-80N (MHF) interchange in the area of 92nd and Powell. After freeway construction was halted, ODOT offloaded much of the property they acquired, but the school remained in their possession. and was put to a new use.
July 25, 2012 at 9:09 am
I guess this non-existent interchange explains why the 205/Powell/Division ramp setup is so weird.
July 25, 2012 at 9:21 am
On the photo they wrote NE 92nd which is a big screw up. We all know it’s SE 92nd. This photo brings back memories for me. I was about 3-4 years old when this school was built and because we lived on Gladstone St, I could watch them build it from my back yard. Whenever my Dad and I would walk to the store on Powell and about 90th (owned by my Dad’s Cousin, we walked by this school, my Dad would tell me in a couple of years I would go to this school. Of course I never did, we moved to 96th and Holgate and I went to Lent’s Elementary………..
July 25, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Go to http://www.mthoodfreeway.blogspot.com to see more info about this freeway and a picture of what SE 92nd/Powell and I205 could have looked like.
July 25, 2012 at 8:12 pm
I knew that building looked familiar but I thought, “I went to Marshall High School, there’s no grade school just south of 92nd and Powell.” Here’s what it lookes like now http://goo.gl/maps/WX7h9 The stairs must have been added later. Ironically that probably made the building non-ADA.
July 26, 2012 at 11:48 pm
I always thought this school used to be named Barlow. When I went to nearby Binnsmead Middle school in 1973 I had friends that said they went to Barlow on 92nd and that it had closed.
July 27, 2012 at 3:50 am
Great article rumblefish, thank you! Read the whole thing and watched the related video. I remember my mother talking about the controversy about putting a freeway up and over Mt. Hood and not understanding the need (she had the facts wrong because of the name). I never fully understood what it was all about.
john:
I went to Binnsmead in the late 1970s. Looks like I just missed you.
July 27, 2012 at 7:25 am
More about the freeway: http://oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/mt__hood_freeway/
March 10, 2013 at 6:24 pm
I attended this school but it was called Barlow Elementary. It handled kindergarten through 6th grade. I attended 4th through 6th, after which I attended the actual O.P. Lent Elementary School, which was, and is, located on 97th south of Holgate.