Southeast Portland’s Reed College campus is shown looking northeast in this nice 1940 aerial view. SE 28th Avenue and Woodstock Blvd. meet in the lower left corner. Those look like tents to the north of the campus; anyone have any idea what those could be?
(City of Portland Archives)
Vintage Portland 
From Reed History
Reed secures a place in the U.S. Army Air Corps Pre-Meteorology program (AMP), bringing 268 men to campus for a year of scientific training, a move that helps provide financial support for the college during the war years.
I think it should be SE 28th & Woodstock.
Must. Have. Coffee. Thanks, Lauré.
I think that’s an orchard in bloom.
I thought it looked like an orchard also
yea it looked more like trees to me than tents to me, even after zooming into the picture.
Could be : from http://americawhatwentwrong.org/stories/martha-rutherford/ On part of the grounds of Reed College there was a big cherry orchard, and we went over, and my dad would put me at the bottom of the tree. They had ladders in the orchard, and they were pie cherries, and he would climb the ladder with a bucket on a rope, and when he’d fill the bucket he’d hand it down to me and I’d put in it the big peach basket.
I remember being in that orchard as a child in the years 1948-52. By that time the fields north to Steele St. were being used to grow strawberries and raspberries.
Its definitely a cherry orchard. There was also a big, mostly wild rose garden to the north of campus during that era. Also notable in this picture is the President’s home (Prexy) and the Parker House. See: http://www.reed.edu/facilities_services/buildings/prexy.html
And: http://reedevents.reed.edu/parker_house/index.html
Servicemen staying in tents on Reed property? We share:)