Sewer repair on SE Lincoln Street between SE 47th Avenue and SE 49th Avenue, 1932.
City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2000-025.249.
SE Lincoln Street, 1932
Vintage Portland
Sewer repair on SE Lincoln Street between SE 47th Avenue and SE 49th Avenue, 1932.
City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2000-025.249.
Vintage Portland 
Looking East on SE Lincoln, with the street on the right being SE 48th and the house just beyond the fire hydrant having the address of 4804 SE Lincoln.
So great to see those houses still there.
https://goo.gl/maps/r8Vn4dGv9g55U9j46
What an evocative photo of an old Portland neighborhood that hasn’t changed that much. The guys working in the street add a lot of interest, and if you zoom in, particularly the young guy wearing the newsboy cap looking directly st the camera, adds such a human touch to the picture I love this photo. It brings back lots of memories of earlier times, old neighborhoods, and my Portland boyhood. Thanks, Vintage Portland!
That worker wearing the newsboy cap facing the camera was moving his shovel so quickly that it can’t be seen (much) in the photo.
You fellas who grew up in old Portland are indeed fortunate that you got to experience that before it became what it is today.
And refreshingly, it looks like everyone has a job to do.
Not sure what is going with the stacks of cut logs on the sidewalk. They seem too big for home use. There is what appears to be a business sign but it’s too blurry to read. In any event it seems too far away to have anything to do with the logs.
Above the comments click on the related SE 48th 1932 and you will see another crew working on 48th, and today’s work crew working in the distance.
ssssteven It was the custom back in the day to stack firewood in the planting strips. Some of the old photos show firewood in front of most of the houses. This guy apparently got a deal on uncut wood, and is sitting there looking like he regrets his purchase. He has a lot of work to do!
I think the delivery of these slabs of firewood led to Prtland being called Slabtown.
Ahhh, the hours spent behind a bucksaw cutting up slabs for winter fuel. Or shoveling the piles of sawdust for those homes with sawdust burners. There was always the smell of wood burning in the smoky air.
sssteven & Susan— I found this in the Oregonian from November 6, 1932 (page 58) With in a story titled “Timber Waste Here is Deplored” At this time the good citizens of Portland are buying their firewood, which comes in four foot lengths, and is piled on the sidewalks. Sophisticated New Englanders shake their heads and figure what they could make out of this firewood if it was available in the East.
Hollie— Willamette Week did a story on July 9, 2013 on the book “Portland’s Slabtown”, and they indicate slabtown originated after the piles of wood at George Weidler Lumber on NW Northrup st. starting in 1870’s
Like Steven said the wood appears too big to be for home use. I would agree. Not slab wood.
Yes Slab wood. It was left out on the curb to dry. You cut it up it up after it was dry.
I used to love the sound of the Saw Man when he would saw the slabs into 1-foot
sections. You could hear the “zing” of that saw blocks away.
Always wondered about the motorboat dealership that was at the NW corner of SE 50th and Lincoln. Anyone know the backstory?
Elliott —The marine dealer on the corner of SE 50th & Lincoln was Chic’s Outboard, and the Oregonian archives has ads for the business thru December 1987, but I don’t know if they moved the business, or sold it. The only other info is a obit. that states that the owner of Chic’s Chicalo “Chic” Quinn Shioshi died on October 25, 2006 at age 88.
If you zoom in on the house on the left of this photo, what is that white object above the bushes? Has me curious and I can’t make out what it is.
The outboard dealer at 50th and Lincoln was once a grocery store caller Leader Market and ran/owned by Chic and Key [ probably spelled wrong ] his wife. It was a full service small grocery store and Chic was the butcher too. They also had daily fresh produce picked up early every morning by Chic in his old Chevrolet panel truck. The store even carried gifts and dry goods. Chic and Key lived in the house behind the store building on Lincoln street. Next door to the store in the same building was E.E. Bowen Real Estate which was one of two very prominent realtors in the city during the 1950’s and 1960’s. At the north end of the block on S.E. 50th at Harrison was Mayfair Real Estate [ in a two story building that still exists ] which was the other prominent realtor. They eventually moved to a new building on East Burnside which was built for them. I grew up on S.E. 50th Ave between Harrison and Lincoln.