Probably not the most dramatic Columbus Day Storm photo you’ll see today but this gives us a little insight into what the North Park Blocks looked like in 1962. The three buildings in the distance are still standing. The one on the right provides a hint of what lurks below it’s cladding installed during a modernization attempt. This view is northwest from NW Davis & 8th.
(City of Portland Archives)
Tags: Columbus Day Storm, North Park Blocks, Oregon, Portland
October 12, 2012 at 7:25 am
Those of us who were around then can never forget the Columbus Day storm. Myself and my siblings watched NE Portland blow by our house that night.
October 12, 2012 at 9:58 am
Chuck, I survived the storm too…My brother and I were staying at our Uncle’s house in Raleigh Hills. The bedroom we stayed in got hit by a fir tree, fortunately we were in the living room at the time. If we had gone to bed a few minutes earlier…it would have been lights out! We drove around Mt. Scott the next day looking at all the damaged houses.
I noticed what must have been a rest room building in the park blocks in this photo. I don’t remember seeing that there before. Is it still there?
October 12, 2012 at 10:35 am
No Mike it appears to be gone. Oh & Dan is it the blueish Modern Media Building on the left that got the modernization that you speak of? The ‘Pacific’ building in the distance on the right is another 1 of P-towns numerous “U” buildings. & even the little tree just left of the root ball has grown up nicely, I’m sure that tree has been a witness to quite a show growing up there the last 50+ years!
October 12, 2012 at 1:45 pm
W. l. May co. still going strong at 11th and Madison.
October 12, 2012 at 3:41 pm
I was an energetic lad of ten when the storm hit. I and the rest of the
neighborhood kids found all the downed fir trees a great playground.
We spent hours climbing through all the branches and walking the trunks.
The smell of fir needles and fresh cut wood and the constant buzz of chainsaws.
…but, I was soon put to work cutting and stacking firewood.
October 12, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Parents have a way of taking the fun out of disasters don’t they, Michael!
I had a paper route for the Portland Reporter and it was impossible to navigate the streets in Irvington to deliver my papers. Trees everywhere!