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)
There were some great business signs along SW 4th Avenue north of Washington Street in 1946. “Paradise Inn Chop Suey” is a classic. Except for the block on the immediate left, almost everything we see here is miraculously still standing.
(City of Portland Archives)
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)
City crews work to remove snow from downtown streets after a 1952 storm. This view is north on SW 6th Avenue towards Washington Street.
(City of Portland Archives)
It was a very busy day in 1905 when the streets and sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians and a few vehicles. This view is west on SW Washington St. at 3rd Avenue. The Dekum Building is a familiar sight on the left and the Oregon Pacific Building another block west still stands.
(City of Portland Archives)
A wonderful look west on SW Washington Street from 2nd Avenue in 1905. A few of these beauties still exist (the Postal and Dekum Buildings on the left and the Waldo Block on the immediate right). The Portland Savings Bank on the near left corner has been a surface parking lot since the early 1950s, and the distinctive, but long-gone, Perkins Hotel at SW 5th was farther down the right side of the street.
(City of Portland Archives)
Very cool 1910 photo of W. Burnside looking east from 19th Avenue through the intersection at 18th; Alder angles off to the right. Burnside was actually Washington Street at this time; Burnside ended where Washington angled in from the east, and Washington continued on to 23rd where it became Barnes Road. A number of buildings seen here are still around.
(City of Portland Archives)
