These houses may be impossible to identify. Shown here circa 1960, it would be hard to imagine they still exist. Though very small in size, the houses in the foreground were permanent; the ones in the background appear to have been moved from (or are ready to move to) somewhere else. As always, happy hunting!
(City of Portland Archives)
Here’s a brain teaser to test your investigative skills. This house could be (or could have been) just about anywhere in the city. The address might be three digits starting with a 1 but it’s very hard to tell from this angle/distance/resolution. It appears to be a rooming house rather than a single-family home and it’s anybody’s guess as to whether it’s still around. Look familiar? Any help?
(City of Portland Archives)
This may be one of our toughest mysteries yet. This pickle shop is very well stocked and organized but unidentified, either with a name or location. Hard to tell if it’s a stand-alone shop or part of an open-air market. As we’ve learned in the past, this might not be in Portland at all so don’t limit your investigation. Good luck once again.
(City of Portland Archives)
Our record of finding the locations of these homes has not been so good lately; the last couple in Southeast Portland have still not been found. Here’s one more from the same year of 1929 and also in Southeast somewhere. Again this has a number displayed in front of it, evidently for some survey purpose. And again, not much to work with, no apparent house number or other identifier. Good luck!
(City of Portland Archives)
This is another house from the City of Portland Archives at an unidentified location. What’s known is that it was somewhere in Southeast Portland and the photo date is 1929. It appears to be a pretty distinctive triplex so if this is still around, it should be easy to spot, right?
(City of Portland Archives)
The City of Portland Archives sent this photo, trying to identify the location (or former location) of this lovely old Italianate house somewhere in Southeast Portland. It looks like a number 33 propped up on the front steps; if this is the address under the old numbering system, that helps a bit to narrow down the site. But if the house is gone, it’s location may be lost forever.
(City of Portland Archives)
VP fan Frank Vaccarezza sent this postcard showing his great uncle and his grandfather, Paul and Frank DeBenedetti, in front of the men’s clothing store they owned. Frank’s grandparents moved their clothing store from San Francisco in 1913. His great uncle was 18 that year and Frank thinks he looks a bit older than that so it would put the store in Portland.
So a couple questions here; is this really Portland, and if so, where? Their San Francisco store was located in an Italian neighborhood and they may have done the same when they relocated to Portland. There’s also an address in the upper left corner that might be “371″ which would be Portland’s old street numbering systems. Frank knows that they had a storefront at 282 Grand in the 1916-1918 time frame so the “371″ address may have been the initial store before they moved to Grand. I’m hoping the expert Vintage Portland community can help Frank add a little information to his family history.
(Frank Vaccarezza)
