Portland's Lost Waterfront

Loading sacked grain by chutes at an Albina grain dock Not long after the first shipments of wheat and canned salmon were sent to Liverpool by the trading firm of John McCracken, immediately followed by Corbett and Ma Cleay, Portlanders began to imagine their city to be a seaport. I say "imagine" because many months out of the year deep draught sailing vessels could not make it past the sandbars on the Columbia, let alone navigate the "shallow Wallamat" as the Tri-weekly Astorian liked to point out. Never-the-less that did not stop the starry-eyed wharfingers from naming their planks of timber resting on fir piles names like: "Mersey Dock" and "Victoria Dock". But for those months that these vessels could come right into town, and the saloons on the north end were filled with English sailors whose lingo could not be understood even in their own country, let alone the American west, Portland seemed like a city of the world, rough and tum...

The Willamette used to flood every spring as the snow melt in the Cascade mountains flowed down to the sea. Flood waters are also fueled by snow melt as far away as the Rockies flowing into the Columbia river. Now the water flow is mostly controlled by dams. But in 1996 a combination of heavy rains, and sudden warm weather gave Portland a little thrill. I was working on the first floor of Alber's Mill at the time. As the water reached its peak we opened the basement door and measured 14 inches to the water lapping at the steps. Some of these photos I took out the office window. McCormick Pier Apartments--notice thee pyramid shape in the water. That is the very tip of the gazebo where people can sit at picnic tables and watch grain being loaded on board ships at O Dock across the water. On this day they would have needed scuba gear.  Willamette River Flood Willamette River Flood Alber's Mill Parking Lot is now part of the Willamette river Willamet...

The Willamette River Light Station at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Photo taken around 1905 On a foggy day in the late nineteenth century the farmers on Sauvie Island would hear the loud, dull tolling of a fog bell every 10 seconds. On rainy, dusky evenings riverboats plying up the Willamette river heading for Astoria, or Cascade Locks would be guided by the blinking red beam coming from a structure sitting on a sand bar at what is now called Kelly Point. This was the long lost Willamette Light Station that you see in the photograph. Many is the time I have been to Kelly Point. Having worked for the U.S.D.A. Federal Grain Inspection Service for over thirty years I have spent many duty rotations working at the T5 export grain elevator next door to Kelly Point. Often times I would spend a pleasant lunch hour there beneath the oaks and cottonwoods gazing out on the placid meeting place of rivers. When inspecting cargo holds of ships anchored in the Col...

By 1864 the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was well on its way to becoming the largest monopoly Oregon would ever see. That year Captain Ainsworth, one of the early river pilots and a founder of the firm, oversaw the building of a huge dock as a fitting portal to this new and booming town. The dock was built between Pine and Ash streets, and was double decked to accommodate the river at various water levels. By the time this photo was taken, sometime in the 1880s the company had been purchased by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The bridge visible behind the masts in the Morrison street bridge.    

Anyone who bicycles, walks, skates, or jogs on the Eastbank Esplanade wedged between the roaring Interstate 5 freeway and the Willamette river will pass by the Fire Boat Dock beneath the Hawthorne Bridge. In 1905, when this newspaper image was produced (I can't really call it a photograph, can I?), Washington Street ran straight down to the river, ending abruptly at the fire tug dock. In the nineteenth century things were always catching on fire, including boats. Portland burned to the ground in 1873 (well, most of downtown). There couldn't be two steamboats going in the same direction without it turning into a drag race, so that caused a lot of boiler explosions. Gas lights burning everywhere, cigar stubs, candles, oil lamps--and almost everything was built from timber. The historic newspaper databases are as close as I suppose I will ever get to a time machine (something Santa didn't bring me for Christmas). But with a few details, a splotchy old picture, and an act...

There is a useful Pidgin expression I learned from a Hawaiian fellow: "Tengs ah neba no!" It is to be said with the mouth slightly ajar and an expression of amazement at having learned a new and interesting fact. I have been finding myself muttering this to myself a lot lately as I delve into my city's sordid history. Charles Dickens had given a world wide notoriety to the seedy, whore mongering (in the correct sense), haven of drug and drink in London with the ironic name "Whitechapel". It wasn't long before the name was bestowed on the districts of other cities that bore a similar infamy. Portland has done a rather good job of stowing its skeletons in places that are out of the way and hard to find, so when I kept bumping into the mention of "Portland's Whitechapel district" in nineteenth century newspapers it took me awhile to realize that this was a "district of the soul" and not one that I would not find on any map of t...

This being Christmas Eve I deem it to be an appropriate time for this subject. As all of you know, the supercargoes on the sailing vessels of yesteryear had the difficult task of insuring that their vessels would not keel over and sink due to an uneven, or overly light cargo. So, should there be no other cargo weighty enough to stabilize the vessel at the port, they would take on paving materials, or, if it was available, coal. I was once told by an Old Portlander named Alice that the paving stones in the garden of our church were brought to Portland as ship's ballast. She had dreamy blue eyes hiding in her wrinkled smile, eyes that inspired thoughts of the romance of Jack Tar unloading stones quarried on the banks of the Mersey River and loaded at Liverpool. Alas! I have punctured my own dream on this cheery Christmas Eve. It is well known that Portland's biggest trading partner back in "the day" was San Francisco. I have discovered that the streets of that city ...