Fun Facts and More

  • Image of the pool in the basement of MLC School. The water has been drained out but the lane dividers are still attached hanging like party decorations. Part of a mural of seas creature is on the right. This is taken from the deep end of the dry pool where there was once a diving board.

    Fun Fact #14 Where did Slabtown Kids Learn to Swim?

    Fun Fact #14 Where did Slabtown Kids Learn to Swim? Answer: In a public school basement. In 1914, the Portland Public Schools District was actively working to replace its old wooden schoolhouses with modern, fireproof brick buildings. One of the highest priorities for replacement was the Old Couch School (built in 1882), located at NW […]

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  • Fun Fact #13 Thanksgiving Trivia!

    Hard to agree on a date for Turkey Day. According to the Oregonian article dated November 25, 1917, the state of Oregon wasn’t always in agreement with the rest of country as to when Thanksgiving should be celebrated. The newspaper reported that in 1894, then Governor Sylvester Pennoyer wrote a handwritten proclamation on an ordinary sheet […]

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  • Image og Man in tie in front of his shop on 23rd, open sign is on door

    Fun Facts #12 Would Jesus have shopped here?

    Would Jesus have shopped here? When Jon Heil opened his Better Beef & Bible store in the summer of 1976, rents for prime retail spaces on the not-yet-Trendy-Third Avenue were still very inexpensive. The sharp young marketing graduate took a chance and opened a small shop in the former Arrow Ambulance office at the corner of NW 23rd & Hoyt Street to specialized in what he […]

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  • Myrtle Casper Playing Pool she looks like a story book tiny grandmother taking a shot at Tavern and Pool

    Fun Fact #11: Who was Myrtle Casper?

    Every Thing She Needed was on the Block The late Myrtle Casper was a longtime resident of the Slabtown neighborhood in Northwest Portland. Her husband, Ben Casper, owned the Saw Shop, which is now the site of the former Northwest Portland Library (2001-20025) parking lot of 2300 NW Thurman. Myrtle enjoyed spending her time shooting […]

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  • Five children sitting on a wooden porch of a Guilds Lake war Housing House. There is a small pet dog in the picture. The big deal it that Swede a 5th or 6th grade student has huge feet you see the soles of his shoes.

    Fun Fact #10 Who was that big guy in the center?

    Who was that big guy in the center? He towered above his Lincoln High teammates, and he let them to a State Basketball Championship. Beverly Meskel: We all had fun down there. Everybody was friends—didn’t matter where you came from, you were all broke. We didn’t have anywhere to go…. We came from Minnesota where my dad […]

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  • Fun Fact #7 Lost Flanders Street Home Found Thanks to Local History Detective Mike Ryerson

    #7 The Mystery of the Lost Flanders Street Home Portland’s layers of street re-naming and re-numbering can some times cause a house to get lost. The Flanders Street home was found thanks to Local History Detective Slabtown team member Mike Ryerson. When Civil War army veteran Captain Joseph A. Sladen retired from the military in […]

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  • Fun Facts #6: It’s not Christmas without Elvis

    Updated 6-19-2025 Added Links, Images, Sources Presley Spun – Deejay Fired: Elvis White Christmas Banned by KEX Radio Portland’s KEX Radio banned Elvis Presley’s recording of “White Christmas” from being played on the air. Al Priddy, a popular deejay, ignored his boss and it cost him his job. When radio station KEX received a copy […]

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  • Text: Old Chapman School. NW 25th and Wilson - 1891-1923- Photo taken about 1910 - Destroyed by arson fire in 1924.

    Fun Fact #5 Who Burned Down Chapman School?

    Answer: Sheepherder John Hardy burned down Chapman School on Wilson St. in 1924. John Hardy claimed he didn’t have any reason for destroying the old Chapman School with a single match. “I just did it,” he admitted. The paper from 1924 lacks today’s political correctness their by-line “School is burned firebug confesses, John Hardy, Sheepherder, Fires Chapman […]

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  • Fun Facts #s 1-4: Joe DiMaggio, Nob Hill, Ona Munson, Ray Charles…

    HISTORY FUN FACTS Written By Mike Ryerson Fun Fact #1: What famous ball player hit two home runs out of Vaughn Street Ballpark in a single game in 1935? Answer: On June 18, 1935, Joe DiMaggio hit two home runs that landed on NW 25th Avenue In Portland. New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio played […]

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