As part of Oregon’s 150th birthday celebration, The Architectural Heritage Center is asking for people to send a list of their 10 favorite Portland buildings. Whether it’s the “biggest Portland’s skyscraper or a favorite house in your neighborhood, old or new, we want to know which buildings you like most,” says their web site. E-mail… Read More Dancing about architecture
Score. Just when I think I’ve exhausted my 60s Portland finds, this sucker falls out of the sky. The Clothes Horse [no, not the Clothes Whore] was located at 721 SW Broadway and was billed as “one of America’s most outstanding specialty shops!” [The exclamation point is theirs.] The keyword here is “specialty” – based… Read More The Clothes Horse on Broadway
Once boasting air conditioning, ample free parking, color TV and direct dialing phones, the Riverside West Motor Hotel has been reborn as the swanky new Hotel Fifty. Here’s a shot from approximately the early 60s: And here’s the now shot: Me likey. Hotel Fifty boasts the H5O bistro & bar, and according to the web… Read More Riverside West reborn as…Hotel Fifty
Then: Now: Broadway in Portland is kind of a boring stretch these days. On the other hand, it also has more trees than it did in 1955 when the above postcard was snapped [my clue was the 1955 “It’s Always Fair Weather” being screened on the theater on the right]. Of course, The Jackson Tour… Read More The late, great Broadway
“Nostalgia – it’s delicate, but potent. Nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again.” – Don Draper So, what years do you consider the good… Read More The good old days
It’s not all kooky 50s architecture, wacky mid-century motels and obvious nods to Don Draper around here. Let’s get heavy. Though it hasn’t been updated in more than a year the local crime blog Slabtown Chronicle is still a favorite of mine. A mixture of current crime, history and mayhem, it’s a fantastic read of… Read More The Milwaukie “Torso Murder” of 1946
Many of the posts on Lost Oregon are neither lost and sometimes not even in Oregon [Vancouver is close enough to fall under my radar]. But, the Monte Carlo is a truly lost relic. Here’s a scan from the early 1960s Portland Fun Guide [loaned to me by Dan at Cafe Unknown which reminds me… Read More Lost: The Monte Carlo on Belmont
So, I’m doing a bit of an experiment with my new Ultra Flip video camera. I’m shooting and editing small films [nothing more than 120 seconds] of mid-century, historical and not-yet forgotten buildings and sites around the Portland metro area. I might even work up to doing interviews and – gasp- edit them into the… Read More Lost Oregon Video
