Grime’s 5 Mile Road House in the Montavilla neighborhood at E. 80th and Base Line Road (SE 80th and Stark today) looks like a scene from an Old West movie in this photo circa 1920. The Methodist Episcopal Church (now Montavilla United Methodist) can be seen to the north at Pine Street and a spur of the Montavilla streetcar line came down 80th from Glisan and terminated at Base Line. Thanks again to Bud Holland for this gem.
(Bud Holland)
Tags: Church, Historic Photo, Montavilla, Oregon, Portland
September 13, 2012 at 7:51 am
Awesome, that’s the corner where Ya Hala is now…
September 13, 2012 at 8:37 am
Wow – nice one!
Here it is today: http://goo.gl/maps/kpBWk
I looked up this address on PortlandMaps, which lists the existing property as being built in 1924. There are a lot of similarities in proportions/scale between today’s building and Grime’s — so has it been extensively modified over the years or was Grime’s demolished and another building built in the 20s?
September 13, 2012 at 8:46 am
5 Mile as in 5 miles due east of the Willamette Stone I presume? That would be about the right distance. Don’t see the marker though.
September 13, 2012 at 9:14 am
The marker is at 78th and Stark on the SW corner near the old building that was originally a livery stable , as I have been told.
Several years ago members of the Montavilla Neighborhood Assn. cleaned around it and planted flowers. It is in an awkward place. There has been talk of relocating it to a better place. I will pass this on to members of the Montavilla/East Tabor Business Assn. Hope they can follow up and develope a plan. These markers are so special!
September 13, 2012 at 9:48 am
Here’s the mile marker, behind the truck next to the pole: http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&q=SE+Stark+and+SE+78th+Ave,+Portland,+OR&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x5495a10134411345:0xa923948189dfceb6,SE+Stark+St+%26+SE+78th+Ave,+Portland,+OR+97215&gl=us&sa=X&ei=Hg5SUPn3I6qsiAL6yYGwAQ&ved=0CDoQ8gEwAA
September 13, 2012 at 9:49 am
Sorry for the mess, don’t know how to shorten that link…
September 13, 2012 at 10:51 am
The stone marker is 5 miles from the old county courthouse. The marker has a “P5″ carved on it. Go to http://www.starkstreetmarkers.blogspot.com for more info about the stones and markers.
September 13, 2012 at 11:32 am
Jill-O:
Look at the side bar on the left. At the top of the bar you’ll see a printer and a chain icon. If you click the chain icon you’ll get the link (get it?) to the page. Near the top, you’ll also see a check box that says, “Short URL”. Click that and you’re Google map URLs will be manageable.
Speaking of which, is this the view we’re seeing? http://goo.gl/maps/4URdw I don’t recall a church near that that looks like that and I grew up just blocks from that corner.
September 13, 2012 at 11:35 am
A great photo Bud. The twenties may be a little late for a date though. There is another great photo of this scene looking to the north from almost the same spot with a different perspective dated 1911 in “Portland’s Streetcars” by Richard Thompson published by Arcadia. Worth comparing. Also the costumes seem to be from a earlier period.
@Jill-O. A helpful, and entertaining link.Thank You.
@rumblefish351 That’s a great article. Good that the metal content in these markers is nil or they would have been lost long ago.
September 13, 2012 at 11:38 am
For those of you also wondering “what truck?”, here’s it is, next to the dumpster:
http://goo.gl/maps/eIuS7
Jill, if you find what you want to link to, click the button with a picture of a “chain” (link) near the top-left of the map or street view, next to the printer icon. That will open a small box with direct links, and there will be a small checkbox for “short URL”.
September 13, 2012 at 11:56 am
Ooops, a little slow on the draw.
@Dave, rotate one corner to the right (the NE corner). The church is a block down on 80th.
September 13, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Yes, I made sure it was the right view (Ya Hala corner) by following SE 80th north and looking for the church. Damn, I love the way we can do this now (play before/after) with these maps online! And thanks for the Google Maps link tutorial – you guys rock! I also did some research and found TinyURL…
September 13, 2012 at 2:01 pm
The old wooden church in the background was torn down and replaced by a brick structure on the same property in the 1950′s (between SE 80th & SE 81st Avenues and SE Pine & SE Ash Streets). Services were temporarily held in the Academy Theater on Stark Street during the building of the “new” structure. Same church, just a brick building now with an updated name – Montavilla United Methodist Church.
September 13, 2012 at 6:13 pm
So did Jack and Jill’s get it wrong at three miles out?
September 13, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Jack and Jill’s said three miles east of Portland, not three miles east of downtown. There must have been a city limit somewhere on the east side.
September 14, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Here’s a pic I took just a few hours ago http://twitpic.com/aujmnb
September 14, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Great pic Dave, tires and trash notwithstanding.
I’ve been by there a 100 times and even read the Stark Street Markers blog but I never knew this was there.
September 16, 2012 at 11:04 am
Right in our neighborhood……looks a little different almost 100 years later…….way to go bro!!!!
September 16, 2012 at 11:55 am
Rod Taylor and others are correct in observing that this photo probably dates from an earlier period. A check of The Oregonian historical archives (courtesy of Mult. Co. Library) showed that a William Grimes operated a saloon known as the “Five Mile Road House” at this location in Montavilla from at least 1892 until about 1905. He had a long-running battle with the Anti-Saloon League and local county court over charges that he sold liquor without a license. Still, he managed to stay open until at least 1905. His wife Mrs. Grimes (widowed?) sold the property for $6,500 in 1910.
September 16, 2012 at 1:06 pm
This location is listed in the Nov. 1904 ” Telephone Directory of Portland, etc. Subscribers ” with a telephone number of Scott 23 for ” Five MIle Road House ” and the same number for William as an individual ……… one could assume that he and Mrs. Grimes lived upstairs .
September 20, 2012 at 1:14 am
Interesting, to say the least. But definitely not the 20′s. I have a picture looking west from the same location from approximately where 81st is from 1917. Livery stable was there, but the 5 mile appeared to be a hardware store at that time.
I also have a little phamplet from the Montavilla Centinnial from 1989. which has information, photo’s etc. some of the photographs I know at least two of the photographs are captioned with incorrect dates, but still a neat thing. I’d love to share it, but I don’t have a scanner, and don’t know if its available as a PDF or what.
If anyone out there can help, or offer suggestions, maybe?
October 25, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Thought I would add a bit more. The street car lines on 80th. May have been that previously but I remember in 1967 seeing the railroad cars brought in there and with a blockard to stop there. The railroad cars carried frieght to to the Dickson Drug Co. (where Country Cat restaurant in now) and to Montavilla Dept. Store on the south side of Stark and 80th. Another customer of the train delivered coal to Montavilla Coal Ice and Coal Co. 80th and Burnside. I have an ice pick from there. The ads on it state: “Pick Our Ice, From Bull Run Water” “We Sell King Coal and The Best Washington Coal”. (Yes, there was coal mining in Washington. My husband’s great- grandfather immigrated from Northern Italy and worked the coal mines around Roslyn, WA. in the late 1800′s early 1900′s) The phone number was TAbor3751 and their address was 408 SE 79th as printed on the pick. I am sure this was made before the streets were renamed after East Portland became part of Portland. The address on this would have been right in the middle of a residential block. They were still in business selling bark chips (for sawdust burner furnaces) and other things such as that into the mid to late 70′s. They were on the SE corner of Burnside and 80th.
Well now, given you more info that you were looking for! Thanks for this blog. Is so informative!
April 4, 2013 at 11:56 am
Dan, please delete these spam comments – they are using the link in their username to game the Google ranking algorithm.
April 4, 2013 at 12:48 pm
Thanks, Tad. My spam catcher stops most of these and I usually find the ones that get through. Not always, apparently.
April 29, 2013 at 10:43 pm
This evening a question came up that maybe some one on here can answer. Was the JW Hook Bicycle repair first located on 81st? I remember they had a smaller shop on Stark in the late 60′s and then did a total remodel in the early 70′s when I believe they added space and expanded into a much larger shop. Thanks.