NE Union Avenue [NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard] and NE Hassalo Street looking northwest, circa 1962.
City of Portland Archives, Oregon: NE Union Ave. and NE Hassalo St. looking northwest, A2001-083, 1962 c
NE Union Avenue, circa 1962
Vintage Portland
Vintage Portland 
I see a couple of Lincolns at Les Imus I’d love to have!
I think that whole row of cars would be valued at quite a premium today. Two 1957 Ford Fairlanes on the lot; wonder if either had the 312 V8 in it?
Back in the day when it was auto row. A mixture of new car dealers and small independent used car dealers.They had started moving out in the early 60’s, then the riots came and they all left.
Except for the ones down by Burnside.
I may be wrong but I think this is more 1963 1964. To wit there is a 1963 Chevrolet fleetside on the Powell lot. Also it appears to my eyes that is a ford bronco nose on the the Powell lot. It is next to the building sandwiched between the tin lizzy. And of course the first year of production was 1964. Also parked on the sidewalk of the Les Imus lot looks like a 1964 Chevrolet Impala. Just my .02 cents.
The station wagon on the side street at a stop is a 1965 Dodge Polara. So the photo is dated wrong.
John, that looks like a Jeepster front end, to my eyes. Would make more sense to as they built much earlier than the Bronco.
There is a side view of the front end of a 1965 Cadillac in the photo too. I would date the photo at 1966 to 1968.
I would agree. There is a 1966 Ford Pickup in the used car lot.
And in the background…Holladay Park Hospital…at one time, the Rose City’s psych unit. I vividly recall as a student in nursing school serving a rotation there in the double-doored lock-up unit and assisting with electro-convulsive “therapy” on the less fortunate patients. And those were the days?
Wow! Powell Motors! I forgot all about those bandits! We had a 4 piece rock and roll garage band in 1964-65 and Powell Motors booked us to play their parking lot for about 4 or 5 hours for some “Real Big $$$” and we thought we hit “Big Time”! We played all day and at the end of it all, the guy came out and said the boss couldn’t give us any cash, but would send us each a check for $50.00! Needless to say, WE GOT SCREWED! WE NEVER GOT A NICKLE! My uncle Jack was a friend of F. Lee Bailey and sent them a letter saying that he and his lawyer would be in touch! I think we ended up getting about $100.00 to split 4 ways after working all day! Ahhh…Stumptown memories
Some history of 1023, 1033 and 1101 NE Union.
1023 NE Union (to the left of the picture)
In 1946 there was an ad in the Oregonian advertising tricycles for sale, a prewar standard, ball bearings and over size tires model at that address. In August 1947 West Coast Realty was in that location until late 1948 when F. & R. Constructors took over that address for several years. In 1952 Simmons Credit Co. started and was located there was more than 25 years.
1033 NE Union (Les Imus lot)
That address was used by a used car lot under the name of 1033 Motors from 1950 to 1956 when Tri-Way Motors moved in until 1957 when Huber Auto Sales began selling autos from that location. In 1958 Les Imus opened his car sales operation. Being a small operation advertising costs were kept to a minimum by utilizing three or four line ads describing the car, address and phone number, but rarely using the company name. It is not clear how long Mr. Imus operated from the location, but it could have been as much as ten years. Mr. Imus opened a new used auto location at 2947 NE Sandy in 1968 taking over the Paetzhold Motor Co. location. The last Les Imus ad appeared in 1978.
1101 NE Union (Powell Motors)
There appears to have been a used auto sales operation using that address location since the mid to late forties. Powell Motor Co. set up operations in the summer of 1948 after moving from 4119 NE Union. The last auto ad for the 1101 address was in late 1975 in December 1975 Powell Motor Co. was shown doing selling auto business from 226 NE Grand Ave.
OMG! Don and Fred Imus had a relative up here in Portlandia?! Who knew?
So what year was the hotel (originally named The Cosmopolitan) that is currently on that block built?
This photo would date to 1967 or 1968. I worked at a used car lot at 3103 NE Union Ave in 1971 after it moved from NE Hancock and NE Union. These were the vintages of vehicles sold on the lot then.