This lovely row of 1893 Queen Anne townhouses sits on NW Irving Street at NW 17th Avenue. The little streetside trees shown here in 1974 have matured into pretty large trees so the townhouses, also known as the Irving Street Brick Rowhouses, can be hard to see. You might get your best view during the winter months.
(University of Oregon Libraries)
Quite a while ago we featured a photo of this Hill Military Academy building from 1943 as it was being readied for demolition. This photo shows it circa 1901 as a brand new building at 2451 NW Marshall St. The area was a far cry from today’s densely populated neighborhood.
(City of Portland Archives)
This lovely 1903 image from Portland Heights encompasses Goose Hollow on the left, Union Station on the right, out to Mount St. Helens in the distance. The large white residence near the center was the Monroe Bennett Rankin home. Mr. Rankin made his fortune in the timber industry and built this fine home in 1890 on the block bounded by SW 16th and 17th Streets, Clifton and Myrtle Avenues. It’s no longer in existence and the four homes now on that block date from the late 1930s.
(Library of Congress)
I don’t know why the artist felt the need to place dozens of biplanes in the skies over Portland but the planes give a rather dramatic, yet whimsical, perspective to the downtown core area of 1920.
(Library of Congress)
We’re moving just a bit northeast on NE Sandy Blvd, overlapping yesterday’s post, with the intersection with 28th Avenue in the upper left corner now. Dan Faulkner commented yesterday that today’s U-Store facility was at one time the Doernbecher Furniture Manufacturing Company. This photo verifies it and gives a nice overall view of the plant, the 28th Avenue viaduct, and the surrounding neighborhood.
(City of Portland Archives)
NE Sandy Blvd slashes diagonally across this 1937 photo and intersects with NE 28th Avenue in the middle. The area south of Sandy hasn’t changed a whole lot; north of Sandy has grown more commercial. 28th at that time crossed Sullivan’s Gulch and the railroad track (upper right); it now spans the I-84 freeway too.
(City of Portland Archives)
SW Columbia Street looking east to 2nd Avenue appeared borderline industrial back in 1962. The KOIN broadcasting studio on the right would move into a new high-rise tower a block to the west of this location (just to our right in this view) a couple of decades after this photo. The cornice of the Ladd Block can be seen beyond the Boyd’s coffee building on the left.
(City of Portland Archives)
Vintage Portland 