Parking lot survey photograph, 1976. Does anyone recognize the location?
City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2000-006.80.
Help Us Out!
Vintage Portland
Parking lot survey photograph, 1976. Does anyone recognize the location?
City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2000-006.80.
Vintage Portland 
Looking north from SW Taylor & SW Park. Present-day Director Park.
That’s the Pigeon Hole parking structure thing. Automated parking structure. It was later moved to a different location. That’s the old Pancake house there across the street. The downtown IHOP that was on SW Taylor between SW 6th and SW Broadway.
The IHOP there across SW Taylor was between SW Broadway and SW Park not SW 6th as I earlier posted.
Thats the American bank building on the north side of SW Morrison between SW Broadway and SW 6th there in the background on the right.
I was curious about the billboard, “Marylhurst — Things have changed,” with the photo of a man carrying a toolbox (?) and book, so I looked at the Historical Oregonian and found this:
MARYLHURST COLLEGE ANNOUNCES NEW PROJECT: The Marylhurst Education Center, a Roman Catholic-directed continuing education center, will be the successor to 81-year old Marylhurst College….Opening its doors in September and offering a “family educational experience,” the center will be headed by Sister Veronica Ann Baxter…. Marylhurst College will officially close Aug. 31, the victim of rising costs and declining enrollment…. The director of development said….”We hope to offer non-traditional, truly lifetime education….” — Oregonian, June 24, 1974, p. 26.
SW Park and SW Morrison
Liz: The person in the ad you mentioned is carrying a metal lunch pail, not a toolbox.
It looks like the Orpheum Theatre had just been demolished and the still visible Royal Building would be next. This photo must have been taken around 1976.
As Billy has indicated the surface parking lot and pigeon hole parking structure in this photo is now the location of Director Park. IHOP had a address of 722 SW Yamhill (corner of Yamhill & Park) per 1982 plumbing permit & 1976 ad for a dishwasher, and this block is now FOX Tower. The VP photo from July 22, 2011 has a very good aerial photo of SW Broadway from 1960 that shows the pigeon hole & surface parking on the right side of the photo.
Nordstrom under construction, looking North. Pancake House on right?
How many mustangs do you count in this picture?
Lt. Columbo would be proud of all of you! Nice work…
If the American Bank building is not immediately recognizable in the photo it’s because it had not yet been paired all white as it is today.
Vintage Portland posted a 1955 view of this Pigeon Hole Parking structure on Sept. 2, 2010. https://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/pigeon-hole-parking-1955/
I think the peaked roofline at far right is the IHOP SW Yamhill and Park.
The mystery picture might have been taken slightly west and south of the IHOP
what do you think? Barbara Fischer Smoody at home from basic research job at OHSU (pancreatic cancer/ Using MR imaging tools in mouse and rat models of the disease)
On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 6:01 AM Vintage Portland wrote:
> Vintage Portland posted: “Parking lot survey photograph, 1976. Does anyone > recognize the location? View this image in Efiles by clicking here.” >
Mathew: The 1955 photo of the pigeon hole parking structure was locate on SW Stark (Harvey Milk) between SW 9th & SW Park, and remained there until at least 1975, and today is a surface parking lot.
#Richard
I see 3 Mustangs and 1 Mustang II. Am I missing any? Plus a couple of Mercurys.
All in all, not a great car day at Vintage Portland.
Dave
Can’t believe no one mentioned the Bank of California Building that is visible back and to the west of the pigeon hole parking structure. I instantly recognized it and the American Bank Building as well.
The Marylhurst Education Center I believe became Marylhurst University which sadly has become history.