Many of these books are on the reserve shelf at the NW Library. Library card holders should explore the Libby Ap a few books from the curated lists can be accessed there for free as digital books. Many of these books can be found locally at Powells City of Books. Other great book stores in areas the we lead tours include: Two Rivers Bookstore, Revolution Books, Daedalus Books, Arches Bookhouse, and Third Eye Books and Gifts. Or you can click on the link to Amazon.
Portland’s Slabtown by Mike Ryerson, Norm Gholston, Tracy J Prince (2013)
An amazing overview if Slabtown History. More photos than text. (If you want text I put a link in for my dissertation below.)
“The book traces the Slabtown neighborhood’s history with photographs from when Native Americans outnumbered white settlers 1,000 to 275, through its blue collar decades, and into its current “Trendy-third” reputation for it Northwest 23rd Avenue boutiques…It was a working-class neighborhood home to marginalized groups–Native Americans, Chinese and European immigrants, gypsies, and black Portlanders…Slabtown’s name comes from the lumber mills that first populated the industrial area with laborers. Mills would sell slabs of log edges, cut to square logs, as a cheap source of fuel.” -Oregonian
Slabtown Streetcars– by Richard Thompson (2015) On Libby. “In 1872, the city’s first streetcars passed close to Slabtown as they headed for a terminus in the North End.” Learn about the West Coast’s very first streetcar manufacturing factory—a place where the hum of industry met the promise of progress, sparking a new era of transportation and transforming the cityscape forever. It wasn’t just a moment in time; it was the birth of a revolution on wheels.
Blue Moon over Thurman Street by Ursula K. Le Guin (1994)
Intro: Ursula Kroeber Le Guin lived just a short walk from Friendly House on Thurman Street. Though best known for her 23 science fiction novels, Blue Moon over Thurman Street combines her poetry with Roger Dorband’s photography. Their seven-year collaboration captures not only a beloved Portland neighborhood but a slice of American life. Thurman street is one street within Slabtown that reaches into Willamette Heights.
Sons of Slabtown and Tales of Westside Sports by Don Nelson (2016)
If you are interested in the fine grain history of baseball and hockey on Portland this book is for you. The book is out of print but is often available used. I’ll see if I can’t request the local library to put one on reserve.
Guild’s Lake Courts : an impermanent housing project by Tanya Lyn March (2010) Free Download.
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