I think it’s awesome that some of those houses are still there.
“Yours for Liberty” ~Abigail Scott Duniway. One of Oregon’s greatest.
This building is still holding its own.
OPB’s Oregon Experience has a great film on the life and legacy of Abigail Scott Duniway. Quite a lady.
Oregonian January, 15, 1935 Park Project Nears End
Construction of a baseball diamond, rock garden, and walks in Duniway park as a SERA project will be completed this week. The work has been in progress for about two months and has employed from 50 to 125 men.
crazy-pattern brick building is still there, as is house next door.
Does anyone know what SERA stood for? I’ve been looking through the Historical Oregonian, but not finding anything useful. I’m assuming it was a relief project associated with the Great Depression. Perhaps State _____ Relief ______?
Liz as best I can tell this was a 1933 program called the “State Emergency Relief Administration” that used State & Federal funds to provide work for unemployed people.
This has been covered on here before.
Love Duniway park it has been part of my life over the years, for walks and gatherings. Built on top of Porland landfill on the edge of South Portland. Other demolish fill was added up the gulch in time, and the lilac garden added.
Another pillar of our pioneers, Elizabeth Caruthers, once owned this land–a street and nearby park also bear her name. Her marriage and therefore land ownership rights being questioned, she defended her 640 acre land claim at Portland’s southern end, including beyond her death, when a lawsuit for this land eventually reaches the US Supreme Court in an 1868 landmark resolution awarding women–married or not–full property ownership rights under the Donation Land Claim Act.
A glistening clean stream burbled through Marquam Gulch, Caruthers Creek, which provided the first “public water system” to Portland via a network of dugout log gutters.
Of course, for 12 millennia tens of thousands of Native American women also lived here, along the bounty reach Willamette river, who undoubtedly also had stories of strength, heroism, challenge and triumph.
My husband and I walked over to the site this afternoon and found the address of the “crazy-pattern brick building” (as wl put it): 2436-2442 SW 5th. I looked it up online and there are various realty sites (such as Zillow and Redfin) with it. It’s a condo. The Redfin listing has 30 photos! https://www.redfin.com/OR/Portland/2436-SW-5th-Ave-97201/home/25773882
The little building in the upper left of today’s photo is still standing after all these decades; Duniway Park was home to the Portland State College Home Coming rally’s, I watched the bonfire burn from our 2nd story window at 2307 SW 5th Ave in the late 50’s as a child.
Yes, viking58 — we saw that little building; it seems to be the place the Parks Department stores maintenance tools and signs, as a man was pulling out a number of them when we were there.
I LOVE THAT OLD BRICK BUILDING WITH THE ARCH ! I HOPE IT STAYS AROUND
THE BRICK BUILDING WITH THE COOL BRICK WORK IS THE FINEST EXSAMPLE
OF ART DECO ROMANESQUE STYLE
Vintage Portland 
I think it’s awesome that some of those houses are still there.
“Yours for Liberty” ~Abigail Scott Duniway. One of Oregon’s greatest.
This building is still holding its own.
OPB’s Oregon Experience has a great film on the life and legacy of Abigail Scott Duniway. Quite a lady.
Oregonian January, 15, 1935 Park Project Nears End
Construction of a baseball diamond, rock garden, and walks in Duniway park as a SERA project will be completed this week. The work has been in progress for about two months and has employed from 50 to 125 men.
crazy-pattern brick building is still there, as is house next door.
Does anyone know what SERA stood for? I’ve been looking through the Historical Oregonian, but not finding anything useful. I’m assuming it was a relief project associated with the Great Depression. Perhaps State _____ Relief ______?
Liz as best I can tell this was a 1933 program called the “State Emergency Relief Administration” that used State & Federal funds to provide work for unemployed people.
This has been covered on here before.
Love Duniway park it has been part of my life over the years, for walks and gatherings. Built on top of Porland landfill on the edge of South Portland. Other demolish fill was added up the gulch in time, and the lilac garden added.
Another pillar of our pioneers, Elizabeth Caruthers, once owned this land–a street and nearby park also bear her name. Her marriage and therefore land ownership rights being questioned, she defended her 640 acre land claim at Portland’s southern end, including beyond her death, when a lawsuit for this land eventually reaches the US Supreme Court in an 1868 landmark resolution awarding women–married or not–full property ownership rights under the Donation Land Claim Act.
A glistening clean stream burbled through Marquam Gulch, Caruthers Creek, which provided the first “public water system” to Portland via a network of dugout log gutters.
Of course, for 12 millennia tens of thousands of Native American women also lived here, along the bounty reach Willamette river, who undoubtedly also had stories of strength, heroism, challenge and triumph.
My husband and I walked over to the site this afternoon and found the address of the “crazy-pattern brick building” (as wl put it): 2436-2442 SW 5th. I looked it up online and there are various realty sites (such as Zillow and Redfin) with it. It’s a condo. The Redfin listing has 30 photos!
https://www.redfin.com/OR/Portland/2436-SW-5th-Ave-97201/home/25773882
The little building in the upper left of today’s photo is still standing after all these decades; Duniway Park was home to the Portland State College Home Coming rally’s, I watched the bonfire burn from our 2nd story window at 2307 SW 5th Ave in the late 50’s as a child.
Yes, viking58 — we saw that little building; it seems to be the place the Parks Department stores maintenance tools and signs, as a man was pulling out a number of them when we were there.
I LOVE THAT OLD BRICK BUILDING WITH THE ARCH ! I HOPE IT STAYS AROUND
THE BRICK BUILDING WITH THE COOL BRICK WORK IS THE FINEST EXSAMPLE
OF ART DECO ROMANESQUE STYLE