Building Oregon

I stumbled onto this collection of photos from the University of Oregon Libraries a few days ago. G and I have both spent hours browsing through them, lots of pictures of architectural details and street scenes from Portland's past.

The Blitz Brewery and Jake's Crawfish. Jake's is the only thing on this corner that hasn't really changed a bit since this was taken in 1955.

This is the newly built Waterfront Park, looking towards the Morrison Bridge, just after Harbor Drive was converted to the grassy waterfront we have today.


The Steigerwald Dairy building in the Hollywood District, just around the corner from my work. About four years ago the 7-Up sign was replaced with a garish Budwiser sign that always seems to be malfunctioning. The weird tower is there because the building was originally shaped like a giant milk bottle.

Here's some other favorites from the collection-

Broadway & Taylor, 1970 something
2nd & Pine, mid 1960's
2nd & Pine, early 80's, as the original Old Spaghetti Factory
2nd & Taylor, May 19, 1973
The Curtis, and I-405 being dug through the middle of the city
1st & Yamhill, right before the building was restored
An upstairs room at the White Eagle, before restoration. Yikes!

There's also a google maps application that I just discovered, a much cooler way to search the pictures and get a better feel for where these buildings stood.