Fun Facts

Fun Fact #75 Portland Firsts

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Image of a park that just created looks like a train set prop more than a park.

Fun Fact #75 Portland Firsts

Image of a very newly planted park with a path that runs around like a child's Thomas the Train rail set.
City Park land acquired in 1871 from Amos King Courtesy The Oregonian

 

City Wide Firsts Timeline

All Entries Much Abbreviated from A.L. Barbur entry in The Greater Portland Plan: and Municipal Facts published October 1912

 

1843 The city [of Portland] was founded by Wm. Overton was named by F.W. Pettygrove after his native town of Portland, Maine [1845].

1847 Dr. Ralph Wilcox [the first teacher and first practicting doctor in Portland] conducted the first school in a house at the foot of Taylor Street

1850 “The Oregonian’s” first issue was published December 4, as a weekly paper

1851 First Drug Store and first City Election

1853 First brick building was built by W.S. Ladd at 103 Front Street 

1857 First Sash and Door Factory

1859 First Banking House

1867 First Court House erected at Fourth and Salmon, Main and Fifth Streets 

1872 First street car track laid & first Police Force 

1873 The first large fire

1878 First Telephone

1882 First paid Fire Department

1883 Commenced construction of “Hotel Portland”

1883 September 12th, the celebration of the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad into Portland

1887 First steel bridge across the Willamette River

 

Information for our timeline compiled by A.L. Barbur the City Auditor included on pages 42-44 of Edward H. Bennett’s report The Greater Portland Plan: and Municipal Facts. And for those interested in more details here is the link to the Bennette’s book held in the Harvard Library.

I was elated and surprised that in 1912 Wm. Overton was listed by Barber rather than the coin toss Pettergrove & Lovejoy narrative that was perpetuated for decades to learn more about Overton here is a link to an article about my neighbor’s research into  that lost history.

Fun Fact #74 Part Two of Recycle, Reuse Repurpose, Ravage

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Fun Fact #74 Part Two of Recycle, Reuse Repurpose, Ravage

“Fun Fact” Urban Legend #74 

North Portland community members distraught over pool closures rehash a mysterious source of parts repurposed to facilitate original construction of Pier Park Pool. What was the source of those now failed parts?

According to Urban Legend a liberty ship – if that’s true maybe original parts were replace because the timeline for use of parts produced in 1941 in a 1940s structures seems suspect.

   After losing the MLC Pool to budget cuts I prioritized moving my family to a community with a small neighborhood pool.  Images of the pool my children first swimed in were included in Fun Fact #15 in 2015.  Pier Park is a 62-acer park dedicated on March 12, 1922. The park itself grew by absorbing land in 1960 that had once served as WWII Parkside Homes defense housing.  Once again this year my family has experienced a summer without a neighborhood pool. The 84-year old swimming facility (pool) was shut down this summer because of a significant failure in a water line.  Where did the parts come from that  the original designers of the pool repurposed for the  inner mechanical workings? 

Blue Print Above Courtesy City of Portland Archives

    Pier Pool’s water pump is attributed to being a part repurposed from a World War II Victory Ship. The online Bath House & Swimming Pool blueprints drafted on March 7, 1940 by Knighton & Howell lack detailed mechanical details. The Pier Park Pool opened prior to as liberty ships were being produced. Toy industrial factories and other factories stopped producing consumer goods and started producing items for military use. It is potentially that a part pulled off “new” from Portland’s liberty ship production line but the timing seems off. The other guess would be that a pump failed a decade in and parts were pulled off a deconstructed liberty ship post war. As a child I created fictional uses for the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet colloquially known as the mothball fleet – perhaps a fellow daydreamer was also pondering ways to make use of the US mothball fleets.

Al Monner image courtesy OHS collection swim lessons YMCA – Our city’s future lessons without water?

Fun Fact #73 Part One of Recycle, Reuse Repurpose, Ravage

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Fun Fact #73 Part One of Recycle, Reuse Repurpose, Ravage

Fun Fact #73

Question: To what city did the 1905 Lewis & Clark Exhibition water tower relocate? 

Answer: St. Johns

 

My fascination with water towers was kindled during my Place Matter employment. One of the nominated locations was a PWA era public pool, in Harlem NYC. The local narrative iterated by elders was prior to the construction of the PWA pool was learning to swim in rooftop water towers prior to attempting river swims. I have since pestered friends of friends who habited in water towers converted into dwellings and hotels, as well as being drawn to fictional horror stories and researching water tower tragedies like the collapse of the West Bluff Water Tower in Peoria, Illinois. The 1905 Lewis & Clark Exhibition Water Tower was highlighted in Fun Fact #50 in 2019. It was years later that I encountered information that the water towers were relocated.

A Gallery Of Water Tower Images 

The first five are of the towers when they were next to the Forestry Building.  The green space alien tower is the most recent replacement in St. Johns.

In the early 1900s city residents clamored for additional water towers to be built in downtowns as a tool for firefighters. Portland’s Fire Chief Campbell articulated to the press that many costly NW fires could have been avoided if there were more water towers. “Every large city has a water tower as part of the equipment of its fire department.” (9-14-1907 Oregonian p 10). Campbell died in the collapse of the Union Oil Plant building as a result of a fire in 1911. Chief David Campbell is honored along with 76 other Portland Firefighters at Fireman’s Park on SW 18th & Burnside.

The original St Johns Water Tower in 1903 Courtesy St. Johns Review

The City of St. Johns like their neighbor Portland saw the need for additional water towers. Sy. Johns acquired the Lewis & Clark Fair Water Towers that were no longer required after the 400-acre fairgrounds closed on October 15. 1905. This post includes an image of the original towers in 1905 as well as an image of a greatly altered when the round towers were reassembled and added on to an existing rectangular tower. Cassandra Bird published an article for the St. Johns Review as well as the letter to the editor below advocating for preservation:

Although Portland prides itself on oddities, few things are keeping us weird these days. In St. Johns, a green water tower represents pride of place, and the city is trying to sell it. The city says the tank at North Willamette Boulevard and Oswego Street is on track to be “disposed of” because it is no longer “of use.” But it is used as a location marker, it shows our history, it is replicated on postcards, and it defines our skyline.

Oregonian Letter to the Editor 3-24-2021 by Cassondra Bird, Portland

The modern green water tower and the land under it sold in June 1922 for $450,000 according to an  April 22, 2023 Willamette Week article “Why Is Portland Selling Off Its Water Tanks?”. Cities rise and fall based on access to water. St. Johns is no different reemerged with Portland in 1915 of independence mostly for access to drinking water after a decade of population growth. Fun Fact #68 touched on why St. Johns seceded from Portland in 1898. 

 

 

Fun Fact 72 Which fast food chain opened their first first Oregon location on Foster Road?

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Old fast food drive in looks like a gas station on a wide street has a sign that is a giant size bucket of KFC chicken I assume in spins

Which fast food chain opened their first first Oregon location on Foster Road?

A. Burger King

B. Kentucky Fried Chicken

C. In-N-Out Burger

D. Burgerville

You can learn lots of fun facts about SE Portland one of our forth Saturday monthly Foster Road History Tours.

The answer to our mini-trivia was B. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Scholars are in luck that soda distribution  companies hired talented photographers to take images of vernacular building and fast food venue top comply with Oregon Liquor Control permitting even if no liquor was served.

Fun Fact #71 How many city Parks were combined to create Forest Park in 1947?

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Fun Fact #71 How many city Parks were combined to create Forest Park in 1947?

Answer: Four Parks 

Macleay Park, Georg F. Holman Park, Clark & Wilson Park (O.M. Clark Park) Linnton Park (Pioneer Park)

Forest Park was once Native American Land. In 1847 there are records of squatters on the land that practice continued through the Great Depression. Many prior donation land claims make up what we celebrate as a park today. The larger claims were: Solomon Richards, George Watts, W. W. Baker, George Kittridge, Marcus Neff, Levi C. Potter, Milton Doan and William Cornell. The park is not only a combination of prior official parks other land was acquired though liens, purchases and land swaps. Go to our blog on website to lean the names an history of some of the prior parks.

Macleay Park was gifted to the City of Portland by Donald Macleay.  The oral narrative is that he was ranting about having to pay taxes on his holdings that were unable to be developed and that he should just gift them to the city. The gift included a vision to have access for patiences of the four local hospitals.

George F. Holman Park to the north of Macleay Park 52 acres. It was give to the City of Portland in 1939 by George and Mary Holman once their dream of a city suburban residential development fell flat.

Clark & Wilson Park 18 acres was gifted in 1927 to the city by Clark and Wilson Lumber
Company in 1927.

Linnton Park (also called Pioneer Park) 287 acres of land clear cut by timber industry  transferred to the City of Portland when A. Meier died in 1938.

 

Fun Fact #70 Halloween Firsts in Portland

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drawing of a shack like house on a hill. Full moon with a bat flying infront.

Fun Fact #70 Random Wholesome Timeline of Halloween Firsts in Portland (area)

Sauvie Island is to Halloween in Oregon what the North Pole is to Christmas. The wholesome Halloween marketing in Portland advertisements started in the 1950s. In 1961 the largest pumpkin patch in Portland was at Lloyd Center Mall, 4 tons of pumpkins were given away. Halloween postcards were first introduced in the late 1800s. they are rare and if in excellent condition can be worth thousands of dollars. Vintage postcards often depicted images of witches, black cats, pumpkins, and other Halloween-themed motifs. We explore the Oregon Journal and The Oregonian’s “first coverage of Pumpkin Patches, Haunted Houses and Corn Mazes.

1902 Bishop Scott Military Academy’s First Halloween Party  

Image of Cadets and one of their instructors gather on the front steps of the main building on Marshell St and 24th in Northwest Portland in 1905-the party in this timeline was the second year the school was opened. The school would have been four years old when this photo was taken. Credit OHS #017499

1906 First Haunted House Sale Listing in Portland (Value $12,000 lists at $700), owner willing to pay a man and wife $10 a night to sleep in the house until it’s sold. He did not get along with his supernatural guests, who made themselves felt when his last child moved out of the home. Despite the undead disclosure there was a line of perspective buyers willing to pay above asking for the 9 rooms and good yard. OJ August 20, 1906 p1.

1915 Confiscated Pumpkins Used to make Prisoners Pumpkin Pie

1926 First time “Pumpkin Patch” was a above the fold in the Oregon Journal 

“Halloween,” the time of witches, ghosts, black cats and owls, who join together in making that day one of merriment. Carolyn Bowers, prominent Journal Junior, dons the role of a fair farmerette and trods the lanes of a pumpkin patch in quest of two fated pumpkins- OJ Oct. 31, 1926, p1

1961 First Celebration of the 1959 Appearance of the Great Pumpkin. Linus explains: “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”

1961 Four Tons of Yellow-ripe Pumpkins Given Away at Lloyd Center Mall

The Oregonian October 18, 1962 page 8. Image of the second year of the Lloyd Center Pumpkin Patch.

1994 First Oregon Corn Maze

Ian Skinner & Mike Sherman at a Corn Maze in 2023.

Hayrides, a corn maze and a country store are among the holiday attractions at Gramma’s Place pumpkin patch, 21235 S.W. Pacific Highway in Sherwood. Weekend hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.  (TRICKS & TREATS FROM ALOHA TO SHERWOOD
October 27, 1994 | Oregonian, Byline: BETHANYE McNICHOL – p. 10) The first full-size corn maze is believed to have been created in Annville, Pennsylvania in 1993, so Oregon was not far behind.  Corn mazes are popular tourist attractions, and are a way for farms to generate tourist income.

Fun Fact #68 Why did St. Johns Seceded from Portland in 1893?

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Fun Fact #68 Why did St. Johns Seceded from Portland in 1893?

Fun Fact #68 Why did St. Johns Seceded from Portland in 1893?

Above image c. 1908 A panorama view from a scrapbook of Chief B.F. Dowell’s Scrapbook 4 held by the City of Portland Archives and records center shows the waterfront at St. Johns. Among the businesses pointed out in the picture are: Woolen Mills, Flour Mill, George W. Cone Lumber Company, ST Johns Lumber Company, Shipbuilding Plant, Veneer and Basket Factory, Excelsior Mill and the Dry dock.

St. Johns seceded from Portland in 1893 because of a combination of higher taxes and unsatisfactory municipal services. The St. Johns-Portland love-hate relationship ramped up in 1891. In February of that year, the unincorporated area of St Johns was annexed by the City of Albina. (The City of Albina had been incorporated in 1887.) In a matter of months, on July 6, 1891, Portland, East Portland, and Albina were consolidated into one city. The relationship “failed” and St. Johns seceded from the City of Portland in 1898 with permission of the Oregon Legislature. And then, on February 19, 1903. St. Johns was incorporated as a city. St. Johns did not have tax base an access to clean drinking water to operate as an independent city. A majority of residents voted for the merger; St. Johns rejoined Portland in 1915. The St. Johns affirmative vote to remerge with occurred in unison with its neighbor across the river, Linnton. The voters approved annexations to Portland, increased the land area Portland’s by twenty-five percent.  Once again St Johns expected to benefit from improvements in municipal services by joining Portland proved to be a disappointment. Portland’s increase tax receipts St. Johns businesses residents did not initially enhance the quality of life in St. Johns.

Merger Ballot (There were two layers of the vote- St. Johns residents voted first. This is merger ballot is phase two for Portlanders to vote to expand the city note that the vote tally is in pencil YES 29,957 NO 5160)

During the first year after incorporation, St. Johns residents continued to pay high prices for well water when they had been enticed to merge with the promised use of the Bull Run watershed.  These requirements over inequitable access to the services within the City of Portland continue to be a source for discontent for some St Johns community members.

 

New Paper Article
For Portland according to The Oregon Daily Journal., April 07, 1915, Page 6, Image 6 the relationship with St. Johns was destiny.

 

Fun Fact #67 What animal marched next to two dump trucks during the dedication of the St. Johns Bridge in 1931?

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Fun Fact #67 What animal marched next to two dump trucks during the dedication of the St. Johns Bridge in 1931?

What animal marched next to two dump trucks during the dedication of the St. Johns Bridge in 1931?

Answer: An Elephant 

AL G Barnes Circus poster for Tusko
Image from article: https://around.uoregon.edu/oq/the-elephant-in-the-room
Prior to 1921 Tusko was known as Ned. M. L. Clark Broadside.
St Johns Bridge with cars a floats covered with flowers driving in one lane people standing on both sides of suspension bridge.
Courtesy Norm Gholston

Tusko, a male asian elephant, lived a horrible life in the United States.  Born in Siam (Thailand) in 1892 this male Asian Elephant was ship to New York City at the age of six. The elephant performed under the name Ned until he was resold in 1921; renamed Tusko because of his 7 foot long tusks. By that time Tusko was 10’2″ tall and considered to be the “meanest” and possibly the largest performing circus elephant in the US. Tusko had escaped a circus in 1922 causing $20,000s worth of damage over a distance of 30 miles. In 1931 Tusko was sold to the owner of the Lotus Isle, Portland’s largest and shortest lived amusement park built on Hayden Island in 1930. The publicist billed the elephant as “Tusko the Magnificent”.  Disaster struck on March 23, 1931 when a plane crash at Lotus Isle into the artificial mountain of the Scenic Railway scaring Tusko and sending him on a rampage of destruction.  It boggles the mind that three months later Tusko would be forced to join the dedication for the St. Johns Bridge on Saturday June 13, 1931.  He was chained in front and back to dump trucks owned by Wentworth & Irwin.  Lotus Isle was not able to recover from the damage and closed in the winter on 1932.

Courtesy Salem Public Library Historic Photo Collection.

Life only went down hill for Tusko when his owner abandoned him at the Oregon State Fair in 1931 where he had been exhibited chained to a flatbed trailer.  His final living years were spent at the Seattle Zoo where he died of a blood clot because the Zoo did not provide the space he needed to amble. 

According to an August 25, 2017 story in the Statesmen Journal  his bones traveled “as a sideshow act for about 15 years before being donated in December 1954 to the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History.”

Two elephants a man a horse a man and a camel
Elephants Ned and Mena with their trainer in 1921 part of the M.L. Clark Circus. Courtesy Alexandria Tpwn Talk Jan 24, 2022.

Fun Fact #65 When did Oregon go dry?

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Ad for Gambrinus Brewery, only one of the pitured buildings still stands NW of 23rd and Burnside
Image of a five story apartment building. Low quality B&W image from a newspaper.
Courtesy: The Oregon Daily Journal, Jul 30, 1911 p. 14. This building during Prohibition would house an elaborate Speakeasy operation in Nob Hill.

Answer: Oregon prohibited liquor 1916.  Three years after Oregon went dry the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.  It prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors…”.  Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment.  One of the last places that continued our state’s temperance tradition was Monmouth, Oregon, which stayed dry until 2002.