Snow, trolley tracks and road apples, plus the occasional car, all presented challenges to pedestrians on SW 5th and Washington in 1907. The 1906 Swetland Building is dead ahead on the southeast corner. We’re looking south here.
(City of Portland Archives)
The Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church was just a few years old when this circa 1914 photo was taken looking west on SE Belmont at 55th. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company Public Station, on the left, was new. Both buildings are still there but they’re much harder to see from a distance with the dense foliage in the neighborhood today.
(City of Portland Archives)
Long before an elevated ramp connected the Hawthorne Bridge with SE Grand Avenue, traffic on SE Hawthorne Blvd traveled at grade level. Discussion is needed on “removing old trestle bents” at the bottom of this photo. This view looks west on Hawthorne from SE 3rd Ave.; a tower and crossing signals indicate the railroad right-of-way on SE 1st. That billboard to the right could be advertising the 1932 movie “Ladies of the Big House” starring Sylvia Sidney.
(City of Portland Archives)
The New Market Theater is shown here on SW 1st between Ankeny and Ash Streets, probably in 1872, the year it was completed. Construction appears to be just starting for the New Market Block, North Wing, which was completed the following year. The North Wing was demolished in 1956 but the cast-iron arches were saved and are in place today. It will be another 16 years before the Skidmore Fountain makes its appearance. It would be placed probably about at the end of the wooden sidewalk at lower center of the photo.
(Library of Congress)
The intersection of SW 2nd & Washington, here looking south, seemed to be a crossroad of streetcar rails in 1940. The 1885 Portland Savings Bank building on the southwest corner would last another decade or so. Long-time Vintage Portland followers can probably guess what’s on that property today.
(City of Portland Archives)
Today’s photo from 1934 is an “after” image to yesterday’s “during” image of the West Burnside widening project. The vantage point is very similar, looking west from 6th Avenue. Some buildings on both sides had their facades moved back to make room for a wider street. In the case of the Scott Hotel, it was removed entirely, leaving the lot at the far left empty even today.
(City of Portland Archives)
The West Burnside widening project appears to be at its peak in this 1933 photo looking west through the intersection with Broadway. The 1910 Lowengart building is losing quite a bit of its north face to make way for the street. On the left, the top two floors of the Scott Hotel have already been removed and the ground floor is not far behind.
(City of Portland Archives)
