What we know as Willamette Park today was in 1941 an undeveloped riverside parcel. The Portland Shipbuilding Co. complex is at SW Nebraska St. at the top of the photo. A 1943 article in The Oregonian stated, “During the last 16 months, Portland Shipbuilding Company, the oldest boat-building plant in Oregon, has turned out more than a mile of of barges for the army, navy, and maritime commission, and now is dropping one a week into the Willamette River.” It continued to repair and rent wooden barges until 1964. Macadam Ave. is at far upper left.
(City of Portland Archives)
Tags: Oregon, Portland, Shipbuilding, Shipyard
August 21, 2012 at 6:39 am
Couple of things. You can see th SP and United Railway lines pretty clearly in this photo. The long rectangle shaped building on the left still exsists but is now painted white. Wasn’t that long ago that Portland had a ton of these small shipyards…
August 21, 2012 at 1:49 pm
That’s were the boat ramp is now. http://binged.it/PTZLU1 I don’t think those are the same buildings. They aren’t shaped the same as the originals and they have different windows.
August 21, 2012 at 2:37 pm
nice to see that doing donuts in a field was popular even in 1941!
August 27, 2012 at 1:28 pm
[...] is a great vintage picture of Willamette Park from 1941. This is where we launch the boat for our [...]