Traffic is heavy where W. Burnside meets SW 18th and 19th Avenues and Alder Street in this 1938 photo. Hard to tell what traffic control system they had in place at that time but it looks like all directions are on the move, including pedestrians. Part of Portland Firefighters Park can be seen on the left.
(City of Portland Archives)
The driver turning left from W. Burnside westbound onto SW 10th Avenue is running a red light, the north/south traffic clearly has the green light. Traffic on 10th was two-way at that time, it’s one-way northbound now. Note the 10th Avenue ramp to the Lovejoy ramp in the distance.
(City of Portland Archives)
So much is the same and yet so much has changed in the last 46 years. This stretch of W. Burnside from about 20th Avenue looking west has mostly the same buildings as in 1967 but the signs and businesses have changed extensively. And you wouldn’t want to try to park along here anytime of the day or night now.
(City of Portland Archives)
Any evidence of these buildings along West Burnside at N. (now NW) 8th Avenue disappeared decades ago. With the exception of the Park Blocks to the immediate left, this is the last full block of Burnside to be widened in the early 1930s; that project would have taken 20 feet off these buildings. A modern residential high-rise sits on this site now.
(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)
Another amazing photo from the City of Portland Archives shows the inner Southwest and Northwest Portland in 1933. The west ends of the Steel, Burnside and Morrison bridges are along the top and we can see west to about Broadway. The riverfront had been tamed with the construction of the seawall but old Portland was essentially untouched at this point and almost no buildings had been razed for surface parking lots yet.
(City of Portland Archives)
