Portland Then & Now

Aerial of Cedar Hills in 1958. This neighborhood is near Bernard’s airport, which today is Cedar Hills Crossing.

West Burnside Street and 23rd Avenue had streetcar barns (left) and a two-story saloon-hotel (right). This intersection was considered the city’s outskirts.

Downtown Portland circa 1930, near 3rd and West Burnside.

The Ladd and Tilton Bank, built in 1868, at Southwest First Avenue and Stark Street.

The third section of the Stadium Freeway (I-405) shown on Feb. 23, 1969, just two days before its opening. The $14.3 million, 1.17-mile-long section of the westside Portland freeway contains 55 retaining walls and 18 overhead structures. 

Council Crest, 1925. At 1,071 feet Council Crest park in SW Portland has a 360 degree view. On a clear day you can see majestic mountains, vast stretches of land and rivers. Memorial Day in 1907 Council Crest Amusement Park opened. There was a Scenic Railway (roller coaster) and the Columbia River Water Log Ride, which encircled the park. After several seasons of failing revenues and the nation heading into a depression the park closed on Labor Day in 1929. Photo taken by Delano Photographics aerial, ca. 1925, courtesy Ken Hawkins.  

Steel Bridge looking from east to west, 1890.

Operating room at Good Samaritan Hospital, 1920.

Street car tracks laid in cobblestones formed a rough pattern on SE Hawthorne Boulevard in the early 1920’s. Electric cars received power through trolleys from overhead wires above the street. Sargeant Hotel is in the background.

Pioneer post office in 1876 dominated the chiefly residential scene in downtown Portland. Panorama effect was obtained by swinging the camera.

The Willamette River, 1938.

West Burnside street looking west from second street. The top photo was taken in the 1930s.

Construction of the Memorial Coliseum, shown in a photo dated Nov. 2, 1959.

A large residence at SW 14th and Taylor Street. Portland in 1888 featured many board sidewalks and wood fences.

Downtown Portland, circa 1912 at SW 5th and Morrison Street. On the left edge of the photo is the Pioneer Courthouse. Just to the west of that is The Portland Hotel built in 1890. The hotel was built at the cost of $1,000,000 and 4,000,000 bricks. It stands where Pioneer courthouse square is today. On the right side of the photo where all the people in hats are standing is the old Meier & Frank store. It was a five-story building that took up half a block. Then the structure was razed to make way for a new sixteen-story building and Portland’s first skyscraper.