The Vintage Portland staff is taking a 9 day vacation May 18-27. Please continue to browse around and revisit old favorites or maybe find something you missed in over 850 entries of terrific old Portland images. Thanks for your continued support and we’ll see you after Memorial Day weekend! Filed under: Uncategorized

This 1947 aerial photo covers a lot of area of Northeast Portland. From Burnside at the bottom, the view stretches out past Alameda Ridge in the distance. There’s some pretty good detail in the foreground, including Buckman Field Park, Benson Polytechnic High, Sullivan’s Gulch and the site of the future Lloyd Ce

Hard to believe that somebody would build on the the lot on this corner due to the steepness of the slope. It would take almost a half-century but a single family home sits on the SW Montgomery Drive site just below where it meets SW Vista (beyond railing at top). It looks like Montgomery was […]

There’s nothing particularly historic about this photo but it’s a classic mid-century American scene. If these two kids were standing here today, they’d be in their 60s and standing in the Rose Garden/Memorial Coliseum parking lot. Neither Cherry Street, nor Ross Avenue, just a house away to the right, exi

The biggest change in this scene more than a half century later is that the Max tracks now go east and west on NE Holladay Street. That’s NE 13th Avenue we’re looking north on with the brand-new Lloyd Center in the background. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 13th Avenue, 1960s, Holladay Street, Northeas

We’ve seen the 1881 Ladd Block before; this gives a bit of a closer look at this once-fine building in its later years. This view is to the north up SW 1st Avenue from Columbia Street. (University of Oregon Libraries) Filed under: 1960s, 1st Avenue, Cast-iron Architecture, Columbia Street, Downtown

This is a quaint and long-gone 1937 landscape looking south on SE Union Avenue. There’s no on-street parking today, and certainly no $1.50-$3.00 weekly housekeeping rooms. However you will pass under the Hawthorne ramp at this intersection today. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1930s, Hawthorne Blvd., Southea

It was a wet, dreary day in 1939 the day this photo was taken looking north on 6th Avenue at Alder. The sidewalks seem unusually crowded; lunchtime maybe? That’s the old Oregonian Building on the far left. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1930s, 6th Avenue, Alder Street, Downtown

There is a lot of good detail to pick out of this 1937 photo, especially if you’re an automobile fan. This view looks northwest on Foster where it curves to meet 50th Avenue at Powell Blvd. Fast food restaurants dominate most of the intersection today. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1930s, Foster Rd., Powell

Snow, trolley tracks and road apples, plus the occasional car, all presented challenges to pedestrians on SW 5th and Washington in 1907. The 1906 Swetland Building is dead ahead on the southeast corner. We’re looking south here. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1900s, 5th Avenue, Downtown, Streetcar, Washingto

Fairley’s Pharmacy is still on NE Sandy Blvd. at 72nd Avenue more than 70 years after this 1940 photo. Soda fountains were once a staple of American drug stores, and Fairley’s still advertises one on their sign. Is it still in fact there? This photo looks west on Sandy. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: [

There were some great business signs along SW 4th Avenue north of Washington Street in 1946. “Paradise Inn Chop Suey” is a classic. Except for the block on the immediate left, almost everything we see here is miraculously still standing. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1940s, 4th Avenue, Downtown, Washi

We might as well finish this intersection since we’ve looked at two other corners this week and this one in 2010. Today we’re looking from west-to-east on SE Powell Blvd. at 82nd Avenue. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1930s, 82nd Avenue, Powell Blvd., Southeast

Yesterday’s discussion raised the possibility that the Anderson’s Food Market building still stands. This photo, taken on the same day (if the Meadow-Land delivery truck is any indication) shows the same intersection looking west. Anderson’s is definitely on the northwest corner, roughly where the KFC/A

It appears the Anderson’s Food Market staff is cleaning sidewalks and stocking produce for another business day at SE 82nd & Powell in 1939 1937. Parking a delivery truck at the curb in those days didn’t seem to be a traffic problem like it would today. We’re looking south on 82nd here. NOTE: Other ph

Fourth Street, now SW 4th Avenue, looked impressively wide in this 1907 image looking south through Stark Street. Pantages Theater was on the southwest corner and the extant 1898 Oregon Pacific Building can be seen another block down on the right. The tall building on the immediate left is the Chamber of Commerce building.

This 1938 aerial photo covers much of the heart of the old South Portland neighborhood. Except for some of the area below the inked-in double line, virtually everything here was flattened for the South Auditorium Urban Renewal Project, the Stadium Freeway (I-405) or the PSU campus. One could almost match up this photo with

This fine home sits just a half block east of the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church we visited a couple weeks ago. Located at 5631 SE Belmont Street, the Jacob H. Cook home is an excellent colonial revival example. Even the low block wall is still beautifully intact. (University of Oregon Libraries) Filed under: 1910s, Belmont

The days of horse-drawn fire apparatus were nearing an end when this 1915 photo in front of Fire Station 16 was taken. Drive by the building at 1436 SW Montgomery St.; it still looks much the same today, minus the horses. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1910s, Fire Station, Southwest

Another image of the May 1948 flood that swamped many low lying areas along Portland’s waterfront. This photo looks north along NW Front from under the Steel Bridge ramp. Union Station is to the left and the Broadway Bridge in the background. The industrial property along the right was decades away from becoming McCo

Wood frame buildings were still common on SW 6th Avenue in 1914. The street looked like an entertainment area of sorts with many bars, pool halls, theaters and restaurants. The new and elegant 12-story Wilcox Building, at left at the intersection with Washington Street, was a sign of a growing city. This view is south [...]

An exceptionally clear image of the area between Duniway Park and the Ross Island Bridge in South Portland in 1938. The 4th Avenue (Barbur Blvd.) extension was complete but Harbor Drive (and I-5) were still in the future. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1930s, 4th Avenue, Aerial, Arthur Street, Barbur Blvd, Bridge,

Officials of some sort stand on the west end of the Broadway Bridge ramp around 1947. The St. Johns trolley bus is probably continuing south on Broadway; turning right would take it down the Lovejoy ramp. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1940s, Bridge, Broadway, Lovejoy Street, Northwest

Very little has changed in this quiet neighborhood in the last 70+ years. This view is east on SE Ash St. looking to 44th Avenue. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1940s, Ash Street, Southeast

Traffic is heavy where W. Burnside meets SW 18th and 19th Avenues and Alder Street in this 1938 photo. Hard to tell what traffic control system they had in place at that time but it looks like all directions are on the move, including pedestrians. Part of Portland Firefighters Park can be seen on the [...]

R.L. Glisan’s Building, constructed in 1914 on the northeast corner of NW 5th and Couch, was probably a handsome building in its day. It’s not known when it was demolished but that corner could use a little its charm today. (The Oregonian. Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com) Filed under: 1910s, 5th Avenu

There are some nice details to be found in this 1939 aerial looking down on Washington Park. The Rose Garden and reservoirs are evident in center. Canyon Road snakes down to Goose Hollow under the Vista Avenue Viaduct on the left. It appears the old Portland Railway, Light & Power Company’s building was still on [...]

From the police historical “Red Squad” archives is this 1932 image of anti-war protesters purportedly outside the Japanese consulate on SW 4th Avenue. The view is to the north and the first cross street is SW Oak. (City of Portland Archives) Filed under: 1930s, 4th Avenue, Downtown, Oak Street

The Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church was just a few years old when this circa 1914 photo was taken looking west on SE Belmont at 55th. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company Public Station, on the left, was new. Both buildings are still there but they’re much harder to see from a distance with the dense [...]

NE Weidler Street takes a small shoo-fly to the south while the permanent overpass over the Eastbank Freeway is being built in 1962. This view looks east on a landscape that no longer exists. You can see the overpass in the upper-right of this aerial view of the construction area. (City of Portland Archives) Filed [...]