Aerial view in the Lents Neighborhood looking north from Foster Road. To the left of the image is the old Lents School, located on the corner of SE 92nd Avenue and SE Harold Street. In the upper left is Lents Park, 1948.
City of Portland Archives, Oregon, A2001-045.429
Vintage Portland 
I found some of those houses south of the park on Google Maps, but most of this no longer stands thanks to i-205. The park must have eventually expanded into the area of less-dense housing to the north…
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4841212,-122.5681991,566m/data=!3m1!1e3
Felony flats
C’mon Dave, my house is almost in this photo… And in 1948 it was a nice middle class working neighborhood.
Alright, I was having a seriously hard time digesting this photo. Something didn’t seem quite right. I thought that the north-south street running outside of the bottom right of the photo was 99th. Makes sense right? If you count from 92nd on the left, It seems like the streets should be 94th, 97th, 99th. But after looking at the tax maps, there’s an extra street between 94th and 97th that the freeway swallowed up. Finding the Harold Street Market really helped. Good golly that took a lot of real estate, more than I-5 through North Portland!
Also of interest is that Ramona street looks like the only one to have sidewalks and park strips. As it used to be named Blumauer Blvd it makes sense that it would be dressed up a bit more.
I still find it hard to believe that this is 1948. None of the houses look older than the 30’s. And since the new Lents School opened in 1950 I would expect there to be a large cleared area in the upper right of the photo in the open space. I’m calling foul on the year. Maybe 1943, maybe?
*edit. Can any gearheads pinpoint the year based on the cars?
I’m not a gearhead but I think there was probably very few, if any, auto’s produced between1942-1945 because of the war effort.
Civilian auto production ceased in Feb. 1942, turning to munitions productions. Some 1942’s were released, but they are pretty rare. The only car I see on the photo is the shiny black one on north side of street (above the A2001 title). This looks like a GM product, either a rare 1942, or 1946-48.
For what its worth….
BRIAN DAG: In 1948, this was nice, middle class neighborhood. There was a huge lumber mill called Dwyer’s up on 100th Ave. Log trucks used to roll down Foster Rd continuously. Pal’s Boy Club was built on corner of 92nd and Harold Street with a baseball park. Walker stadium (Lent’s park) would come later. I’m not sure about how often Johnson Creek flooded this area, but I know it’s in the flood plain. I remember the 205 freeway coming late 1970’s. I grew up close by.
I remember the grandstands for the Boys Club and I remember them being torn down a few years ago. The neighborhood last flooded in 1964. There was some standing water in about 2008, nothing major. There’s still a mill south of Foster but log traffic is seriously down. Mostly it’s asphalt and food compost IIRC.
@ Brian
The grandstands were for Lents Little League, which was relocated by PDC over to Lents Park because they’d rather have a big empty field there instead lol. The property always belonged to the PAL club but they leased the property to the little league for mere pennies (rumor was for only 1 cent). Other than that, the PAL club had no relationship with or responsibility over the little league. I played little league there in the early 70’s, and managed and coached teams there beginning in the late 90’s for around 9 years. Fun times. 🙂
Haha meant 1 dollar, not cent. Wish that we could edit our posts.
I grew up in Lents in the late 40 and early 50. My grandmother and grandfather ran a small Dari on the corner of 92 & Cora. Looking at this photo I can’t see any of the farm. I also went to the old lent’s grade school . And oh how I remember the steam whistel of the Dwyer lumber mill blowing at all hours. How about Indian Rock? any comments?
I attended Lents Elementary in 1949 through 1950. Mr. Gamble was my seventh grade teacher in the old school located at 92nd and Harold. An Englishman by the name of Mr. Strange taught shop. When the school was torn down. the shop building remained and was use temporarily as a PAL club. A gentleman by the name of Mickey Pease managed the club. I played basketball while attending the new school located on 97th Street, graduating in 1950. Two names I remember playing with on the school’s team were Inez Guerrero, Don Putnam, and a lad named Burgess (unfortunately, I can’t recall his last name)r. Burgess lived on 92nd street and lived with his grandmother who, as I remember, spoke with a strong German accent..
The corner of 92nd & Harold: the old Lents School, then PAL Club, & Boys Club. Is that what became the Lents Boys & Girls School?