USA > Oregon > Multnomah County > Portland > History of Portland, Oregon : with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 40
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rich verdure, the stately trees that will always grow, and the tinted atmosphere, will ever give Portland a peculiar tone and coloring of her own-not ruddy or blazing like some tropical or Rocky Mountain city, but rich, warm and entrancing.
Wreaths of smoke from a multitude of stacks, here and there jets of white steam from almost every building on the water front; masts of ships, bustling steamers and the iron bridge, looking in the distance like the work of genii, at length arouse one from the powerful spell of nature, and assure him that he has reached the place. Two great buildings at Albina demand first attention, and show upon what a great scale the city is now working. These are the Portland Flour Mills and the Pacific Coast Elevator. The flour mills occupy two immense buildings of seven stories in height, and turn out a product that not only feeds our own people, but goes the world over. Trains of cars run immediately to their walls. They are the property of W. S. Ladd & Co.
The Elevator is a new enterprise, and a building has been erected this summer at a cost of about $1,000,000. It was estab- lished by a capitalist of Minneapolis, F. H. Peavey, who is the principal owner. Mr. E. C. Michner is the resident partner and general manager. Mr. D. P. Brush is superintendent. All of these gentlemen are thoroughly acquainted with the methods of handling wheat by elevator, and their enterprise undoubtedly marks a new era in the method of shipping cereals. The elevator is an enormous structure, built upon deep water of the river on a foundation of piling, which, however, is being filled in with earth at a cost of $20,000. It is 375 feet in length over all by 70 feet in width, with a heiglit of 150 feet to the peak. It has a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels, being fully up to the eastern elevators in all dimensions. By its eight shippers, or sixteen elevators, eight cars may be unloaded at once, in about fifteen minutes time; and two ships may be likewise loaded. It is furnished with eight separators and cleaners, with a capacity of 3,000 bushels each per hour. There are also sixteen scales of a capacity of 60,000 pounds each. It is in every respect furnished with the latest appliances, such as steam shovels, and is adapted to handling in bulk or in sacks. The entire building is lit by 178
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incandescent electric lights operated by an engine and dynamos on the ground; and is protected from fire by Worthington pumps.
Albina itself strikes one with the general weight and importance of its operations. It lies-so far as the business portion is concerned -11pon a low tract of land about the level of high water, but twenty- five feet above the low stage. It is most admirably adapted to railroad work, and is the terminal of the O. R. & N. line. Here is seen upon the plat a labyrinth of tracks, long trains of cars, the immense brick round-house with twenty-two stalls; the car shops of brick, the largest more than 400 feet in length, and 60 feet to the peak, with arched doors and roofs furnished with windows for admission of light. A brick chimney of 156 feet in height, an engine of 500 horse power, and two other shops of large dimensions, afford means of repair and of manufacture.
Almost the whole river front of Albina is occupied by wharf buildings as much as 200 feet deep, withi arching roofs as much as fifty feet above the water. They rest on piling set systematically and of selected smooth, uniform logs. The business part of the town, aside from its great works, is of rather mnean appearance, of cheap temporary structures, small sized and of inferior architecture. The residence portion is built well back on the face of the bluff or on the plain beyond, and has attractive school houses and churches and inany pretty cottages. On the river bank is the saw mill of John Parker & Co., with a capacity of about 30,000 feet per day.
On the lower part of the city opposite, on the west side of the river, one notices the bone yard of the O. R. & N. Co., where old skeletons of mighty ships-or shallow river crafts-lie white and dry on the embankment. Scant trees, usually shaking in the river breezes, of such deciduous growth as balin or oak, lend grace to an eerie looking shore. There are various river crafts tied up or moored along, or hauled up on the sand, some of which are occupied by families whose cook stove smokes ever curl and blow, and whose red and white garments washed and liung out to dry, ever flap in the breezes. Weidler's great saw mill, a mammoth, whose dust and shavings gild the shore for many a rod, whose corpulent logs float idly in the boom, awaiting the time of their dissolution, and whose
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tall chimney smokes silently, and whose engines still puff white steam, also draws a long gaze. It is next up the river from the " bone yard" or place where steamboats out of service are in100red and as an establishment, ranks as one of the old standbys. Other lumbering establishments, wharves, warehouses, ships, and such amphibious buildings, huddle farther up. All this lower city front for many a mile is raw and wholly utilitarian, not a shingle or pile ever having been set for beauty or symmetry. Nevertheless, there is an immense attraction about it, like the grim, unassuming comeli- ness of rocks; and if kept a little cleaner so as not to offend the senses by a variety of ill odors, would lure one to long vigils and reveries in its environs. Behind the river bank lie the lagoons, green with slack water and aquatic plants, earthy smelling, and crossed and recrossed by trestle roadways and railway tracks. A great work has been done in filling the upper end of Couch lake, making the ground look for a long distance as if it had been the battle ground of the Titans-indeed of the modern coal-smutted dump-car hands of Titanic energies.
From these somewhat uninviting parts, one passes westward up the long streets, meeting with an area of manufacturing establish- ments, and gradually finding himself in the midst of a middle class of cottages, mostly unpretentious, but comfortable and occasionally displaying signs of ambition. This passed, one is led rapidly on by the sight of grand and imposing residences in the distance, of costly structure and splendid ornamentation. Many of these are set upon whole blocks, beautifully decorated with trees, turf and flowers, and supplied with tasteful drive-ways. One notable feature of Portland here first seen, is the elevated or terraced blocks, making the level of the lawn a number of feet above the streets, giving a somewhat regal aspect to the whole premises. Some of the more palatial of these edifices occupy double blocks, the cross streets not being run through. Among those of the spacious and magnificent West End are houses costing about $20,000 to $50,000-some of them $90,000 each-of three and four stories, and mainly in the Queen Anne style. It is upon the swell of the plateau that these fine houses begin to appear, and the views from their upper windows and turrets are
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extensive. For ten blocks back-16th to 26th streets-or even further, and from about N street southward to Jefferson, or some twenty streets, the region is, by popular consent-and still more by prevailing prices-forever dedicated to dwellings of wealth and beauty. The streets here are, for the most part, well paved and delightfully ornamented, but not overshadowed by trees. The houses are projected and their accompanying grounds are laid out on such an ample scale, and there is so little crowding, the sun and sky have such complete access that one is much impressed with the general air of elegance and taste. There is, of course, none of the marble and stony grandeur of New York or Chicago, of the splendor of Euclid Ave., in Cleveland, or the lavish adornment of Jackson street in Oakland, California, or the pre-eminent extravagance of the palaces of the money kings of Nob Hill, in San Francisco; but for substan- tial comfort and tasteful display the west end of Portland has few rivals. It is, moreover, devoid of superfineness, or niceness, but is wholesome and neat. The general spirit of this portion of town might be distinguished from the streets or avenues of other cities, in that the separate houses appear to be built independently and with reference only to their own needs and entirety, while the others referred to are more often constructed as complete streets, each edifice being planned and laid out with reference to the rest, and as but a part in one continuous whole. The characteristic of Portland in its residential quarters will probably prevail even when the city attains its largest population, since the irregularities of ground and peculiarities of situation will necessarily modify the architecture, and, to quite an extent, at least, make each dwelling a complete whole in itself.
On the environs of this region toward the north are two buildings very worthy of note. One of these is St. Vincent's Hospital, under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, among the cottages and shops toward the Lake; and the other the Good Samaritan Hospital, on 21st and L streets, much nearer than the other to the hills. The latter was established in 1875 under the Episcopal diocese, but chiefly by the labors of Bishop Morris. It, like St. Vincent's, has a substantial building three stories high, including basement and 75 feet wide, by a length nearly twice as great. Both St. Vincent's and [28]
.
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the Good Samaritan make amends-to some extent at least-for the evil deeds of the inen stealers and body destroyers that lurk along the North Shore. The Bishop Scott Military Academy on 14th and B streets, founded by the first Episcopal bishop of the Pacific Northwest, the medical college near by, the stately block of houses of Mrs. Judge Williams, and a multitude of handsome dwellings adorn the bulge of the plateau on the other hand. The steep hill to the west is rapidly being cleared of its logs and brush and fine houses are ascending its sides, and perching upon coigns of vantage and in sunny plats on their uneven slopes.
B street, running up from Couch's Addition, is the natural boundary of North Portland on the south, following for the most part the depression of Tanner Creek, and further on over to King's Creek. Between this and Jefferson street, some ten blocks, the land has, owing to the irregularities of the ground, and the little winding vale of the creek, been left lying in large, and often irregular blocks, some of which contain an area of as much as five acres. The lay of the tract is romantic and delightful in the extreme. The creek forms a sunken valley, with little meadows on either side, which have been, and to some extent are still occupied by the Chinese for garden purposes. Ash trees, weeping willows, and various wild shrubs have been suffered to grow, and the winding lines of this depression, cut by water, form a most grateful rest from the strict angularity of the streets as laid out by man. Upon the west side the hill climbs rapidly, but not abruptly out of the cleft, going steadily and confidently toward the Heights. On the way its looks back, figuratively speaking, somewhat lovingly, certainly very gracefully, and makes no such violent assent as the sterner hills to the northward and southward. It is no breathless climb, but an easy ambling gait. The big plats, grassy and set with small trees, lie wide, with but few houses, but those present large and stately. That of Mrs. Gaston on the first swell, and a cluster near forin a handsome group. On the northern side of this hill front a tract of some five acres is occupied by the residence and grounds of Mrs. H. D. Green, the house, whose delightful architecture and
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adornment is almost submerged in a wealth of beautiful trees. Her large hot-houses, filled with the finest of exotics, are a mark for the sun and a gnomon to the whole city upon which they look down.
Going down the slow hill once more one finds that B street heads, to speak in the manner of the mountaineer, in a stony canyon, whose natural roughness has been aggravated by gravel-diggers. Out of this rises, or did rise King's Creek, a stream of most delicious water, which has now been consigned to more than Tartarean gloom in a sewer. In a cleft on the left, which is soft and leafy with trees overhanging, and cool with the shade of some immense firs, begins an inviting path, gently rising, leading between two banks more or less bestrewn with leaves and ornate with fern fronds, maiden-hair, wood-brakes, wild shrubs and fox-tails. Trees of fir, cedar, dogwood, maple and willow lean over the way; logs lie above across the ravine from one side to the other, and upon them have been laid rustic walks.
The city has other parks-a whole string of them from end to end, but some individual of pomological ideas was intrusted with the work of improving them, and set out trees in lines geometrically straight like an apple orchard, making the park blocks almost offensive to a man of sensitive nature. The City park was, however, saved from any such errors. It contains forty acres and was bought as much as ten years ago from A. M. King at the then high price of $1,000 per acre. Lying on the hillside, with gulch and steep brow, and looking like all the other hills surrounding, the people of the city felt no vast interest in the place, and it was difficult to gain any appropriation to improve the same. If $50,000 had been secured at once it is likely that the whole thing would have been grubbed and levelled and set out to poplar trees in straight rows. But having only about enough means to employ a keeper, the city took no such disastrous steps, and the gardener was left to make the place as attractive as possible by his personal labors. Very wisely he decided not to dig up the trees but to simply clear away the rub- bish and to let the native shrubbery and the wild-wood still grow. Following along in this line it was soon demonstrated what a wealth of beauty had already beeu lavished upon the spot. Little firs,
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clumps of crooked vine maples, clean-bolled dogwoods, endless bunches of the scarlet flowered currant that flames in the early spring, and many others such as our suns and showers nourish, were left to their first estate, and were only relieved of the rubbish of years. The roads which have been built from B street and from Jefferson street, must of necessity wind along the hill and thus be as curving as the hill points themselves. As time has gone the ground has been turfed, the roadways terraced above; hothouses and plats of flowers added; pumps, a seal-tub, a bear pit, cages for panthers, and a deer-park have also been supplied.
Coming around in front of the hill one discovers Portland. One sees now that he has not as yet seen it at all. From the river it is not the city but the back-ground that appears. From the hill-fronts he looks down over the place. To get a full, unobstructed sweep, let him ascend the heights still back of the park and stand on the tree-shagged knob of King's mountain. While on the subject of parks, it may be suggested that forty acres is very small for anything really fine. Let six hundred be added to it. A good piece of land along the river, or perhaps Ross Island; and a square mile or two on the East side should also be secured before values become too exorbitant.
In coming back from the park, one sees on the south side of B street a large wooden building, covering two blocks, 400x200 feet. It is that of the North Pacific Industrial Exposition. It was erected by the people of Portland in 1888, at a cost of $150,000. Its first opening in 1889, from September 26 to October 26, was a great success, people coming in for attendance from all parts of tlie Northwest. The exhibit was good, the music excellent, furnished by special contract witli Liberati, of New York, and the receipts were so large as to assure the success of the undertaking henceforth. From the time of the organization of the Mechanic's Fair on the old Market block it has been the custom of the people of the surrounding towns and country to come to Portland at the time of the exposition, and the transportation lines liave favored them with reduced fares. This lias made Portland a sort of Mecca for the whole Northwest; and is unquestionably the best sort of policy for her to pursue-a liberal
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spirit of general good feeling inviting communication and friendship. The following is a good description of the building: The exposition building is a mammoth structure of brick, iron, glass and fir. It is certainly the largest edifice on the Pacific Coast, and competent judges, who have visited exposition buildings throughout the United States declare it to be superior for the purposes for which it was erected to any they have seen. It is 400 feet long by 200 feet deep and covers two full blocks. Practically it is three stories high, the floor of the central portion or music hall being thirty feet lower than those of the two large wings, while a gallery forty feet wide extends throughout the entire building. With the galleries the building has a floor space of 143,000 square feet, and, after deducting aisles of ample width; can accommodate 250 exhibitors with 200 square feet each. The general plan of the main floors and galleries lias been made so that all pushing and crowding may be avoided, and exhibitors inay have spaces that can be seen by the greatest number of visitors.
The officers' quarters, ladies' parlor and gentlemen's smoking room are on the main floor in the front part of the building, while the musicians' room and dining room are in the rear portion. The interior is lighted by large windows on every side of the building, and by suitably located skylights. Under the main floor is ample room for storage. The boilers, engines and dynamos are separated some feet from the building and enclosed in a stone, iron and brick structure.
The right wing of the building, which is 200x150 feet, witli a gallery 40 feet wide, is intended chiefly for exhibits of machinery. Main lines of shafting may be attached to the outside row of the gallery supports and so arranged that exhibitors can belt to almost any space in the entire hall. Steam pipes run under the floor and are so situated as to be easily tapped by exhibitors of engines and machinery requiring steam. Suitable arrangements are also made for exhibitors of pumps, electric-motors and other exhibits that require special facilities.
The central portion of the Exposition building was originally intended to be used permanently as a garden, with tropical plants, caged wild animals, and birds of rare plumage, but the possibilities
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of the uses to which this central portion could be put, led the management to temporarily at least, abandon the "garden " idea, and make of it a music hall. The rough plank floor on which it was intended to lay from twelve to eigliteen inches of soil, has been covered with a toe and top nailed, best quality wood floor, and when waxed, as it will be, will make one of the finest floors in the country for promenade concert purposes. Two galleries, each sixteen feet wide, extend the entire length of either side. These are roomy, and have a seating capacity of 1,000. From every part of these galleries a full view of the stage can be had. The stage of this music hall is set in an elegantly painted grotto, and is surrounded almost entirely by a semi-circular sounding board which serves to intensify the magnificent acoustic properties of the hall. Behind this grotto is a magnificent landscape painting, executed by an eminent artist from Munich. The scene is typically representative of some of the garden spots of the North Pacific Coast, and is spread upon a canvas 100x85 feet. The roof of this hall, or garden, is of glass supported by eleven semi-circular arches of iron and fir. The diameter of each being 100 feet. The floors of the two wings of the Exposition building lead directly on to the galleries of the music hall. The entire seating capacity of this hall is between 5,000 and 6,000 persons.
The dimensions of the general exhibit hall are the same as those of the machinery hall, 150x200 feet, with a gallery forty feet wide, extending throughout. The entire building is lit with the Brush system of arc lights and the Swan system of incandescent lights. For an art gallery a space 75 feet long and 35 feet wide has been enclosed in the front gallery of the general exhibit hall. A wall space of 4,600 square feet is afforded by this enclosure.
On the whole this exposition building is one of the inost notable features of the city.
Coming down B street one finds himself again in the North End, but above the area of inean buildings. He strikes the center of the great wholesale houses, and there are few finer anywhere. It is a region of brick blocks, three to five stories in height, of massive iron fronts and deep cornices. The shore is here lined with wharves. It must
Donald Macleay
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be said, however, that for the water front there remains much improvement. It looks, at present rather crude and backdoorislı. Time will be when the beautiful lime-stone of Southern Oregon, or some other kind of rock, will be used to build substantial docks or inoles from one end of the city to the other, and the wharf fronts and roofs will be carried to a height of seven stories. Our docks at present are all two-story to accord with the rise of water of twenty feet in June. The coal bunkers and the railroad bridge across the Willan- ette give a deep emphasis to the scenery here. The latter is of iron, completed in 1887, at a cost of nearly $1,000,000, and is double, for both the car track and a roadway. It connects on the west by a viaduct with Third street.
Passing from Couch's and Stark's tracts to Lownsdale's one reaches the region of retail houses, banks, offices, halls, hotels and churches. The streets are paved with Belgian block, basaltic stones cut in brick shape, making a durable roadway, but as the weather surfaces grow smooth, very severe on horses, sometimes giving them heavy falls. The buildings here are massive, elegant, of three to five stories, and kept reasonably clean. Many are set with turrets or small towers, and occupy for the most part five or six streets, and nearly half a mile along the river front.
To strangers there is nothing more attractive than the Chinese quarter. This comprises about three blocks on Second street, Alder being their cross street. The buildings which they occupy are mainly of solid brick, put up in the first place largely by Americans, but on long leases to the Chinese merchants and have been fixed over according to their convenience and ideas of beauty. They are intensely oriental in their general air, with piazzas of curved roofs, highly ornamented with yellow, white and vermillion paint, and paper globes and gewgaws. Red paper inscribed with characters in black serve as signs, and are pasted numerously over doors and windows. On gala days the entire area is lit up by lanterns, or gaily ornamented with paper, and thin, peevish tones of their flutes and fiddles, and the falsetto twang of their gongs, making a noise, exceptionally flat and weak, lacking even in energy of tone, which is kept up with monotonous persistency. If the Chinese heart is as
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devoid of sentiment as their music would indicate, it must be quite barren. But as if to contradict such a conclusion the long rows of flowers of gaudy hue, and in the spring time their basins or vases of early blooming lillies should be observed.
The main fact to notice is their presence, and Portland's tolerance of them. They are not a particularly desirable people and are subject to the usual criticismns and strictures that apply to man in his natural state, but it has not been found necessary to expel them, and it is acknowledged by thinking people that the work they perform so well-laundrying, housework, wood-cutting, clearing np land and railroad construction-is no detriment but inakes work of a more desirable and better rewarded kind for the American. Also to those who believe that the race which claims the more enlightenment owes fraternal care to those inferior, either in attainment or opportunity, it seems odious to deny an equal chance in our city.
The middle portion of the city has been spoken of as the place of churches, the large Catholic Cathedral built of brick, and surmounted by a tower with a fine chime of bells, erected on Third and Stark streets; the old Presbyterian Church on Third and Washington; the Baptist on Fourth and Alder; the Congregational on Second and Jefferson; the First Methodist Church on Third and Taylor; and Trinity Church on Sixth and B would justify the remark. In truth, however, the area of churches is moving back. Already the roar of business, the pressure of other buildings and the centres of the residence quarters, have moved the church area more than half a dozen streets westward. This is all the more to be desired since, as is usual, business buildings of a very inferior sort liave been made to occupy the cheaper ground just back of the main grand mercantile houses. Some of the church edifices have therefore found themselves almost submerged in a drift-wood of mean, wooden shanties, devoted to occupations highly offensive to religious feeling.
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