24 thoughts on “N Lombard Street, circa 1955”

  2. Good catch George. The date of the photo on the original post in George’s link (1944) appears to be much more accurate than today’s date. Look at those cars; that photo is clearly not “circa” 1955.

  7. My 2 cents: The newest cars I can see are a 1940 Hudson approaching camera, and a 1941 Nash at curb. Most of the rest are the late ’30’s models.
    My guess is this is possibly the mid to late ’40’s, owing to the fact civilian auto production ceased for the war between 1942-46…probably c. 1947?

  10. That’s my neighborhood!

    Susan, yes that’s a drinking fountain (bubbler), and it’s still there. The left hand side of the picture has changed substantially. As you can see from Brian’s comment the house on the corner is gone, and the lot holds a church. The building whose corner you see at the left edge is gone and an Auto Zone auto parts store, with lots of parking, is in its place. Not net positive change for that corner.

  13. When seeing the older photo (City of Portland Archives, Oregon, A2004-002.7304) above, my first reaction was that this was the building at the SW corner of Lombard and Portsmouth. (gas station complex now?) When I was a child in the early 1950’s a dry goods store – entered by the corner door – was owned by the Teeny Family. My visual memory looking west suggests that this is Portsmouth rather than Fiske Ave. The clothing store closed in the late 50’s I believe, and a branch of the Teeny Family made their fortune making pita bread. If these are two different buildings, they must have been conceived by the same architect. I live in North Dakota now, and haven’t been to St Johns/Lombard for many years, but I recall that there was a grocery store in an ugly stucco bilding directly across Portsmouth from Teeny’s which later became a fabric store.

  14. NO, My dad was working at Willis Hardware in 55 and and was located on the NE corner of Lombard/Portsmouth and the building is still there.. that’s the Beauty School / Morrison center on the Right, background and University drug right foreground. the Parsonage is on the left, background. The foreground Pure was torn down and Park and Shop replaced it, now Auto Zone… Portsmouth was a market (Amotos ran it) on the NW corner and Drug store on the SE corner….

  16. The traffic signals are a Crouse-Hinds Type D model that entered production in 1938 and the style of ‘WAIT’ lens on the pedestrian signals is wrong for 1955. I’m going to go with the consensus here and say it’s probably the early 40s.

  17. I remember Willis Hardware, but the building I recall was on the west side of Lombard exactly opposite. The older view above (City of Portland Archives, Oregon, A2004-002.7304), is looking toward the West Hills. I’m not sure of the corner compass designations for the streets. I only recall N. Lombard and N. Portsmouth.

  19. yes, and no Harry Willis Hardware in Above Pic. But there is on in my Link…. this IS Fisk, the Pics prove it

  20. Actually, my comments are about the photo referenced by: wl on
    February 26, 2016 at 8:14 am

  22. 4800 Lombard would not be near Portsmouth – it would be Lombard and Fiske. That building was a grocery store when I was a kid (1950’s), owned by a Japanese family, and later became a beauty school. My address in that area was between Fiske and Portsmouth and it was in the 5000 block, so Portsmouth would have been a higher number than 4800. I remember Willis Hardware on Lombard and Portsmouth, and Teeny’s directly across from it, also another Japanese-run grocery store on another corner, a Drug Store – pharmacist was named “Lucky”, the Crest Theater (2 movies, cartoon, news reel and serial, I believe it cost 25 cents), a meat market, barber shop, and I think there was a variety store, but not positive. Willis used to have bunnies and I think chicks and ducklings around Easter.

  23. Elle ~ I remember Teeny’s being owned by a Lebanese family which expanded their business into making pita bread which became very successful.

  24. Thank you – I didn’t know that. I went to school with their son or grandson and the girl he married. Nice family.

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