• Vintage Portland
• A SW 6th and Yamhill enterance. Come on down!

Did you know? Public toilets have always been a hit in downtown. The city's recently been caught up in the heavily marketed "Portland Loos"—the downtown public bathroom brigade led by Commissioner Randy Leonard—but little has been leaked on the interesting history of the city's public restrooms. I like to call them the Shanghai Tunnels of toilets (and not because people tossed you into them when you were blitzed).

In 1913, the city opened a handful of public restrooms, or "comfort stations," located underground downtown. They were incredibly classy, with porcelain tiles, comfy seating areas and a lovely ventilation system. Of course, the ruffians of the 80s led these to closure. I'm curious if they were completely filled in or remain creepily in good shape under foot. Here are a few photos of the old poo dungeons (clarification: they were never called this).

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I stumbled across an Oregonian article on the fantastic Portland history Tumblr, PDX Tales, proving that May Day rallies (and shindigs at Chapman Square) have always been tumultuous in Portland. Titled "Socialists To Be Peaceful May Day" (library link), the article explains May Day ralliers' interest in occupying Chapman Square, much to the dislike of the police. Sound familiar?

But this time, the police's main beef was based on slightly different rules: At the time, Chapman Square was only accessible to women and children. Neighboring Lownsdale Square was the man park. Unlike the ongoing Occupy protests, these ralliers seemed to begrudgingly give in to the police force with little protest. Here's the article's opening paragraph:

"The crowds which will probably assemble at the Plaza blocks this afternoon to witness a battle royal between the police and the Socialists are in for a great disappointment. Instead of being “innocent bystanders” in the casualty list of a general riot, they will, if the plans of the revolutionists work out, be benevolently assimilated and towed in the rear of the procession to Seventh and Market streets, where Socialist oratory will be flung to the four winds throughout the afternoon. Thus all probability of serious disturbance in Portland on this international annual festival day of unrest is removed."

Look for more vintage Portland clips on the blog in the coming weeks or check out PDX Tales and Vintage Portland to geek out on your own.

Limitless opportunities, professional success, material wealth. Lately, the key words epitomizing the idea of the "American Dream" are just that — a dream. But, while it's definition may have morphed over the years, the idea of a tangible, liberty-fueled future is far from dead. Just...different. So what's the current status of the "American Dream" for us recession kids?

• Good, Metlife
• Here's a snippet of the multi-faceted fact sheet. Check out the whole shabang here.

Thanks to the infographic-happy folks at GOOD we have a visual answer.

Apparently, more Gen Y-ers are interested in having family and friends nearby than having a roof over their head. And 75 percent of those surveyed said that being wealthy is not necessary in obtaining the quintessential American Dream.

I now deem thee Generation Can't Buy Me Love.

The big news yesterday: New Seasons is opening shop on North Williams! Woohoo! Cue excitement over a grocery store opening in the North Portland food desert and 150 new jobs right in inner Portland!

The New Seasons seems to me like a pinnacle of change in the neighborhood—over the past 15 years or so, many long-time residents of the neighborhood have moved to the outskirts of Portland, crime has decreased in the area, property values have increased, and tons of new businesses have opened. In some ways, the history of the site New Seasons will take over on North Williams and Fremont tells the story of change in the neighborhood.

For most of its lifetime, the lot was an industrial center. According to articles in the Oregonian archives, a bakery set up shop at 103 North Ivy Street in 1915. It became a Wonder Bread factory, employing 75 people in the middle of what became—during the first half of the 20th century—a busy street lined with black-owned businesses. Here's a photo of the factory in 1936:

• city archives

The Wonder Bread factory remained standing while the construction of I-5, Memorial Coliseum, and the failed Emanuel Hospital expansion tore down a total 1,550 homes and businesses in the Albina and Boise-Eliot neighborhoods. The factory that once baked bread the middle of a bustling neighborhood was now surrounded by an unfortunate number of vacant lots.

In 2000, Wonder Bread closed up shop, too, consolidating its operations and shutting down the whole factory. In 2007, according to the Oregonian, developer Ben Kaiser purchased the site at a bankruptcy auction and planned to turn the "bakery blocks" into BackBridge Station, a mixed-use development with 41 residential and commercial units. At the time, Boise neighborhood land use chair Chris Sahli told the O that the neighborhood could really use a market. "One thing we could all really agree on is a grocery to talk to," said Sahli.

The developers demolished the Wonder Bread factory but the big development plans fell through. Since then, the site has been sitting empty—a giant eyesore on the street. But while it's lain fallow, the neighborhood around it has continued to change. The market value for the site was $2.85 million, including the land and factory. In 2011, it's worth $5.52 million—nearly double.

OoooOOOooo! Check out this fancy history nerd feature from the local Architecture Heritage Center.

Today is Labor Day, the day the federal government and all 50 states reserve to ostensibly celebrate the contribution of workers. Although we don't call it Worker Day or Employee Day, or even Manager-Worker Mutual Appreciation Day, but rather Labor Day, as a deliberate recognition of the contribution of organized labor. You know... unions.

So if the union-busting Scott Walker wing of the Republican Party were honest about their politics they wouldn't celebrate the day, or at the very least, would call to change the name to Business Day or Capital Day or Plutonomist Day or White Male Christian Labor Day or something else that better reflected their beliefs about who truly contributes to our economy.

Bonus Labor Day Trivia: Oregon was the first state to officially celebrate Labor Day, on the first Saturday in June of 1887; several other states followed later that year, choosing the first Monday in September. The immediate impetus was the infamous Haymarket Riot and Massacre of 1886. President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday in 1894 in an effort to appease organized labor after the brutal suppression of the Pullman Strike.

Which just goes to show you: The rights and privileges so many working Americans take for granted (the weekend, the 40 hour work week, basic workplace safety, etc.) were not a gift of benevolent capitalists, but were rather won through the spilling of workers' blood, and the threat/fear of even greater economic and social disruption.

It's our first day in the new office, guys! For some reason, the Oregonian wrote about it.

Our office is now in the New Market Theater Building, which has an exciting past. The building was originally the home of Captain Ankeny, a shipping magnate who won the title "Captain" during the Indian Wars. The old timey, native-routing capitalist settled in Portland and built his home here on SW 2nd and Ash in 1857. He built the New Market Theater building, which takes up almost the whole block and was designed by architect William W. Piper, in 1872. I believe the section of the building our office is actually in Built in 1889 as a warehouse, forge, and annex to theater. This is back when theaters needed forges, I guess.

The property had a well which, 150 years later, inspired the name of a bar up the street. The bar is actually a rather apt memorial because when the property was renovated in 1983 (based on a design from SERA architects), they found a bunch of historic alcohol bottles on the premises, including brandy, wine, and Schnapps. Classy guy, the Captain.

• Venerable Properties

• The Captain and his alcohol!

Thanks to the tasteful renovation and no one tearing it down to build a parking lot, the building remains a prime example of a cast iron architecture in the city. The vaulted fifth-floor windows also offer a prime example of a place to watch the firemen across the street hose off their trucks. Just sayin'.

• Does anyone in Portland still own this shirt?

... whatever a "hipster" is.

Enjoy.

ht

Always excellent local history blogger Dan Haneckow just put up a post about a small guide, circa the 1890s, of Portland's brothels.

The funny little handbook seems to have been mostly written, of course, in bawdy poems. It details various addresses of whorehouses around downtown and Old Town Portland. On what is now one block of the transit mall, for instance, there used to be a whopping four brothels.

Here's the section on Miss Minnie Reynolds of 89 Fifth Street:

In handsome parlors, skilled to please,
Fair Minnie waits in silken ease,
And at each guest's desire supplies
Dear pleasures, hid from prying eyes.
With such a haven ever nigh
Who could pass her parlors by?

• Cafe Unknown