This is completely brilliant. Thank you for posting about the Italian and Jewish neighborhood. My family was there. People today don't recognize what Portland was like. Thank you St. Mary's Academy and thank you St. Michael's Parish.
Thank you for this. I love Portland. I hate what wealthy developers have done to one of the most beautiful cities in America. They, and the mayor and city hall are responsible for the homelessness, the filth, the death. Blood on their hands...
But blm/antifa terrorists destroying Portland, are A-Okay? Wow, you people really have your priorities twisted, bums, scums n racists can burn, loot and kill with impunity all throughout Portland, But, big ol meany weeny developers are the problem... got it! Idiots.
It would be really great if someone would film the same areas today and then cut this old footage together with the new footage, as a before and after comparison. It would be really interesting to see what has changed--and what has not.
There's a book that's been out for many years now called Portland, then and now by Carolyn M Buan that does exactly that. It's pretty cool, I have it on my coffee table in the living room. Google it, you can find several pictures just by looking it up.
The Jewish and Italian neighborhood leveled for the South Auditorium Urban Renewal Area was actually in Downtown Portland, not just south of it. The area stretched from what is today I-405 to approximately SW Clay and from SW Naito to approximately SW 5th. The "monolithic" buildings are the Harrison Towers and the American Plaza Towers, as well as Keller Auditorium. The Lawrence Halprin Park sequence -- starting at the Source Fountain, followed by Lovejoy Fountain, Pettygrove Fountain, and ending at Keller Fountain -- were also created as part of the URA. Photos of the buildings demolished can also be found at the Portland City Archives, which if you haven't been there yet, has an AMAZING repository of Portland photos and history! Thanks for posting this video!
PDX_Civil_Rights my mom was born in Hood River in 1941 and spent much of her childhood and teens in Portland, and told me of the old ethnic and "gypsy" neighborhoods. Apparently they were always told not to go into the gypsy neighborhoods. Love to hear local history. Amazing that we used to have so many areas that you wouldn't want to go to. I remember in the 80's and 90's parts of N and NE that were very unsafe (some more recent), but they've all become trendy. Weird. I don't recognize my own city anymore, nor can anyone even afford it.
Here's a good reference. Goggle "early Parkrose, oregon" and then move down to the pdf link, -East Portland historic overview and historic preservation study-. The very first photo shows an aerial view of Parkrose, Oregon taken in 1930.
Great Depression was responsible for a big chuck of the blight. Lot's of empty business space, a few years of no maintenance shows quickly in a house in a wet climate. I don't think today we really realize the extent or the scale of economic destruction that the Great Depression brought. You can see it this video.
Very true this was when the country was just starting to recover from the depression, I think if we keep going the way we are we are going to see and experience another one
I recognized two buildings in Buckman one on SE 14th and Pine, and the other on SE Ank between 18 and 20 on the north side, right at SE 19th, which is an alley.
I love these historical city movies. This was still the great depression, though the worst was over by '38. I was struck by how many old homes/apartments by today's standards were still considered new (or newer). I would expect many of the structures in this video are still standing, but many are long gone.
One house looks like my Godmothers home in NE. I recognize some others toward the end as being along or near SW Barbur Blvd. Only street sign that I saw was SW Front which turns in to Barbur still, just South of PSU, which was likely one of the "urban renewal projects"
Run down? Looks pretty darned good to me. No homeless tents. No garbage. This looks respectable, except for a few homes, which you're always going to have. Streets look clean. Especially compared with the way downtown PDX looks today, 2021.
Does anyone believe that these could be films of Portland, Maine? The population of that town would have been 70,000 then. These are clearly from a city.
I love these old videos. Especially the color ones. Seeing how people moved and their mannerisms fascinates me. (I know...I need to get a life.) Anyway, thanks for posting them!
oregon is beautiful. Its stunning. More land in oregon is forest than is inhabited by people. Portland is not the best urban area currently but you are foolish if you think all of oregon is just the troubled areas of portland.
I don't recognize this Portland at all. Notice not even 1 homeless person in these films. I think I like the Portland of 1938, more than the Portland of today.
If there was homeless people, since this was taken during the 1930's there probably were, they would have not included them in the film unless they were documenting the Great Depression.
@Kenny J you're very right Kenny about Portland being racist today. Let me tell you, I grew up here and still live here today. Portland has grown to really hate white american males.
@@wagnerrr23 because sorry to say but all of the people that cause problems are the white male politicians the people who do the mos drugs also happens to be white males also black people have been going through what white males have been going through for hundreds of years
Nice. A lot of that was still there in the early 1970's. I moved there from the suburbs. I watched a lot of old buildings destroyed in the 1970's. You could always tell when they started a new demolition project. There would be cockroaches all over that area. Big ones.
The Roaches always sense when the "Big One's" a'coming. They'd all head out en masse for the next dive bar down. Now they're all hipster dives. Urban renewal.
It is crazy to me that a town so new could be dilapidated. Not 50years old. I was born 1970 and raised in this Neigbhoor. So I don’t know most of these streets. If anyone whom is more familiar with this era of Albina? Please comment.
Looks stunning and has good fire escapes. Think we forgot about health and safty. In manchester uk fallowfield was stunning .I have photos old black and white ones. You should see it now....bubonic plague will ve back there soon...
I grew up in Portland in the 50s. Can't say I would have been unhappy growing up in Portland in 1938 except for the fact there was a looming war on the horizon.
Any idea where those huge, ugly structures are at about 4:37 with all the broken windows? Tons of them lined up. I imagine some sort of hellish low-income housing gone wrong? Always wondered what some of the old, disappeared neighborhoods looked like that were town down; only seen some. Amazing they're in that poor of shape just by the 1930's; obviously not maintained. Not even THAT old. Of course, it was the depression.
Wanted to see where Grandma lived until about 1921 . South Portland was looking pretty bad when they did urban renewal in 1960s. I think it was OK in 1920s still.
Right in the middle of the video when you show the two houses with piles of dirt out back they look like they are being remodeled but the rest of it looks pretty good kind of like it does now and the warehouse area hey it looks the same to me! What point are you trying to make?
@Salazar payne I wasn't around back then, so I too can only guess, but considering the all wood construction of these homes as well as the very close proximity to each other combined with many people who, during The Great Depression, couldn't afford electricity, used candles and kerosene lanterns to give light there likely was a propensity for them to burn. It would be interesting to review old newspaper accounts of house fires.
@Salazar payne I've read and seen accounts about the Vanport floods. Your relatives were very lucky to have survived although I'm sure it made the hard economic times just that much harder for them. And we must remember there were no federal or state safety net programs such as welfare, social security, food stamps, etc. They were entirely on their own. My mother grew up in the Sellwood area as she was born in 1916 and she used to tell us stories about some things that happened back in The Great Depression. Her father had inherited several square miles of land that is now in the Milwaukie industrial area around Hwy 212, but as he was an evangelistic minister, he gave most of it away to his flock so they could sell it for cheap to buy food for their families. We inherited nothing from him.
Where can I get a copy of this to use for a project with Portland Community Media? I see you have it tagged as being from the City of Portland Archives, so I'm assuming that means it's public domain? Thanks in advance for any information you can supply.
No, the Midwest and their sub-prime lending crash of the 2007 mess, and fentanyl/Meth/Heroin junkies bussed into Portland from so many other places like Kansas, and Indiana is where most of these tent dwelling urchins are from
there was no meth, not much heroin, and no leftist imbecility running city hall. Vagrancy was not coddled and encouraged. There was still shame in being a vagrant junky by choice. Now the virtue signal yard sign commie mob coddles it, basically turing parts of Portland into open-air opium dens. Wanna blame someone? Blame the garbage human left wing voters of Portland.
These neighborhoodswere all fairly new when this was filmed of course it looked well kept up. 2/3 of everything Oregon made was sold to California. Oregon wouldn't exist without trade to California. Snap out of it! Stop being so myopic!
Hi Go good the ngs. Nice looks and photos. Go good things and tv. And go safe desks. And Department s. And go good the ngs. And go IBM s and computers. Go Xeroxs. And go S grouos and xm and am radio. And go good li- brarys. And go Smart things. And go Smart Machines.
Great job showing pictures of Portland. Landmarks? No. Overview? No. You showed pictures of houses and houses. WTF?! Those could be pictures from anywhere. Not necessarily Portland. I'll cut you slack if this is a HS project. Otherwise, you're just someone posting film of some neighborhoods. I cannot give you enough 👎.
This is completely brilliant. Thank you for posting about the Italian and Jewish neighborhood. My family was there. People today don't recognize what Portland was like. Thank you St. Mary's Academy and thank you St. Michael's Parish.
Thank you for this. I love Portland. I hate what wealthy developers have done to one of the most beautiful cities in America. They, and the mayor and city hall are responsible for the homelessness, the filth, the death. Blood on their hands...
Yup💯
Truth
Capitalism built it..."globalism," and socialism following behind, destroyed it.
But blm/antifa terrorists destroying Portland, are A-Okay? Wow, you people really have your priorities twisted, bums, scums n racists can burn, loot and kill with impunity all throughout Portland, But, big ol meany weeny developers are the problem... got it! Idiots.
@@Iwilldestroyyoo lol, you gonna be okay little buddy?
It would be really great if someone would film the same areas today and then cut this old footage together with the new footage, as a before and after comparison. It would be really interesting to see what has changed--and what has not.
There's a book that's been out for many years now called Portland, then and now by Carolyn M Buan that does exactly that. It's pretty cool, I have it on my coffee table in the living room. Google it, you can find several pictures just by looking it up.
Ian You never know!!!
The only change they made is they quit cleaning the moss off the buildings. They quit cleaning the streets. Then they let the homeless take over.
@@LittleBudd13 There's still a comparison, though.
@@LittleBudd13 screw yourself, you petty worm
Born & raised here... Crazy! Looks a lot like the neighborhoods I grew up in back in the early 80's.
my family is 3 generations of living in Portland starting in 40's, we're still here 2021
The Jewish and Italian neighborhood leveled for the South Auditorium Urban Renewal Area was actually in Downtown Portland, not just south of it. The area stretched from what is today I-405 to approximately SW Clay and from SW Naito to approximately SW 5th. The "monolithic" buildings are the Harrison Towers and the American Plaza Towers, as well as Keller Auditorium. The Lawrence Halprin Park sequence -- starting at the Source Fountain, followed by Lovejoy Fountain, Pettygrove Fountain, and ending at Keller Fountain -- were also created as part of the URA. Photos of the buildings demolished can also be found at the Portland City Archives, which if you haven't been there yet, has an AMAZING repository of Portland photos and history! Thanks for posting this video!
PDX_Civil_Rights my mom was born in Hood River in 1941 and spent much of her childhood and teens in Portland, and told me of the old ethnic and "gypsy" neighborhoods. Apparently they were always told not to go into the gypsy neighborhoods.
Love to hear local history. Amazing that we used to have so many areas that you wouldn't want to go to. I remember in the 80's and 90's parts of N and NE that were very unsafe (some more recent), but they've all become trendy. Weird. I don't recognize my own city anymore, nor can anyone even afford it.
604 bush I live in Parkrose what was this neighborhood like back then?
Here's a good reference. Goggle "early Parkrose, oregon" and then move down to the pdf link, -East Portland historic overview and historic preservation study-. The very first photo shows an aerial view
of Parkrose, Oregon taken in 1930.
My mom was born the next year and lived here until 1984.
People are still living in some of these houses today. Crazy.
Great Depression was responsible for a big chuck of the blight. Lot's of empty business space, a few years of no maintenance shows quickly in a house in a wet climate. I don't think today we really realize the extent or the scale of economic destruction that the Great Depression brought. You can see it this video.
Very true this was when the country was just starting to recover from the depression, I think if we keep going the way we are we are going to see and experience another one
WW2 jolted us out of the last one.
I recognized two buildings in Buckman one on SE 14th and Pine, and the other on SE Ank between 18 and 20 on the north side, right at SE 19th, which is an alley.
Mark F 1:57 lol
@@larrybird5844 yup
I love these historical city movies. This was still the great depression, though the worst was over by '38. I was struck by how many old homes/apartments by today's standards were still considered new (or newer). I would expect many of the structures in this video are still standing, but many are long gone.
Those 2 little girls could still be alive today.
Eh? They'd be in their 80"s . Possible.
Biden sniffed them!
One is my grandma and the other is my aunt.
@@TheHopetown Q-Anonners got to inject their delusions into EVERY conversation.
Love to see Portland when it was part of America !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great views of the river and associated industry at about 7:42.
Not a Hipster in sight, thanks for sharing this classic footage
Tent cities!
Thank you for posting.
Not run down!! At least they work for their money. Not like city hall.
What are you talking about? Where is your evidence of the people at City Hall not caring?
@@akishot6735 Because they leveled the neighborhood of working class people.
@@akishot6735 And because they are allowing it to be burned down now.
I recognize some of these houses. Seeing them 85 years ago, the year my parents were born, is a surreal window to the past.
One house looks like my Godmothers home in NE. I recognize some others toward the end as being along or near SW Barbur Blvd. Only street sign that I saw was SW Front which turns in to Barbur still, just South of PSU, which was likely one of the "urban renewal projects"
Run down? Looks pretty darned good to me. No homeless tents. No garbage. This looks respectable, except for a few homes, which you're always going to have. Streets look clean. Especially compared with the way downtown PDX looks today, 2021.
What’s so hard by putting Portland Oregon I’m trying to figure out which Portland it is!! What’s so hard about being specific??
If only Antifa existed back in 1938 and someone burning an American flag in the street in all black. It for sure would be Portland Oregon :)
Does anyone believe that these could be films of Portland, Maine? The population of that town would have been 70,000 then. These are clearly from a city.
@ Michael Horner- It certainly isn't the south where you would find men in white hoods burning a cross.
@@bigpapa2730 the kkk have history in Portland Oregon. They had a strong presence in Oregon in the 1900s/1920s.
It's the one in Oregon bro... C'mon now.
1938 Portland: Good morning Bob, how are the kids?
2021 Portland: You have a huge aura and your face is melting. Got a cigarette?
You can still see a lot of these types of homes and buildings around Portland.
Better see 'em quick!
I love these old videos. Especially the color ones. Seeing how people moved and their mannerisms fascinates me. (I know...I need to get a life.) Anyway, thanks for posting them!
Oregon is such a s*** hole I was actually going to buy property there and a real estate agent told me I shouldn't!
oregon is beautiful. Its stunning. More land in oregon is forest than is inhabited by people. Portland is not the best urban area currently but you are foolish if you think all of oregon is just the troubled areas of portland.
Ahhh, urban blight. The best parts of these gems are the attics and the basements
And porches to look at the world.
I don't recognize this Portland at all. Notice not even 1 homeless person in these films. I think I like the Portland of 1938, more than the Portland of today.
If there was homeless people, since this was taken during the 1930's there probably were, they would have not included them in the film unless they were documenting the Great Depression.
@Kenny J yeahh that isn't true at all
@Kenny J you're very right Kenny about Portland being racist today. Let me tell you, I grew up here and still live here today. Portland has grown to really hate white american males.
@Kenny J oh it isnt hatred from POC. It's all the transplants that have moved here in the last 15 years. Guilt ridden transplants.
@@wagnerrr23 because sorry to say but all of the people that cause problems are the white male politicians the people who do the mos drugs also happens to be white males also black people have been going through what white males have been going through for hundreds of years
Nobody had money for upkeep and maintenance on their houses during the great depression
Wow....what a shame that California destroyed this city. I will forever have a hole in my heart for the portland of yore.
Would have died ages ago without California cash infusion
Not even
Your mayor is from california?
Can you stop! Everyone is from somewhere else! Change is constant. Cause Native Americans can say the same about everybody!
@@RS-dm4yo nah, Californians are worse that white people and they ARE white people.
"Urban renewal," Memorial Stadium, I-5, etc. (1960s-70s) carved away tons of Portland's soul and history.
Nice. A lot of that was still there in the early 1970's. I moved there from the suburbs. I watched a lot of old buildings destroyed in the 1970's. You could always tell when they started a new demolition project. There would be cockroaches all over that area. Big ones.
The Roaches always sense when the "Big One's" a'coming. They'd all head out en masse for the next dive bar down. Now they're all hipster dives. Urban renewal.
It is crazy to me that a town so new could be dilapidated. Not 50years old. I was born 1970 and raised in this Neigbhoor. So I don’t know most of these streets. If anyone whom is more familiar with this era of Albina? Please comment.
neighborhoods, the cars, people👍
Going on 90 now and I remember there being a whole lot more T&A back then.
Absolutely riveting to watch this. Someone needs to place text explaining the GPS location and direction.
Looks stunning and has good fire escapes. Think we forgot about health and safty. In manchester uk fallowfield was stunning .I have photos old black and white ones. You should see it now....bubonic plague will ve back there soon...
I grew up in Portland in the 50s. Can't say I would have been unhappy growing up in Portland in 1938 except for the fact there was a looming war on the horizon.
Where are all the junkies?
Is this Portland Maine, or Portland Oregon?
Looks eerie.
Any idea where those huge, ugly structures are at about 4:37 with all the broken windows? Tons of them lined up. I imagine some sort of hellish low-income housing gone wrong? Always wondered what some of the old, disappeared neighborhoods looked like that were town down; only seen some. Amazing they're in that poor of shape just by the 1930's; obviously not maintained. Not even THAT old. Of course, it was the depression.
Southwest Portland in some portions of the video. Some northwest before industry took over.
Maybe a little rundown, but not burned down!
Before all the Californians moved up
Portland's crying now that Californians realize it's a sh!thole
@@andrewhill1251 A shithole full of cry babies that demand everything be given to them for free.
they have such a massive drug problem up there I was going to buy property and the real estate agent actually told me not to do it!
Kinda surprised that (1) color film was used and (2) not all of the color has faded away
Portland was dumpy then and it is dumpy now.
And you are still insignificant
Wilkes-Barre, PA still looks like this.
Fredmeyer was founded in Portland Oregon.
It makes me so sad.
Lots of mom and pop grocery stores Several in NW Portland
@7:22 I wonder if these things hanging off the windows were for giving your baby a taste of the outdoors and fresh air?
rarehistoricalphotos.com/history-baby-cage-1934-1948/#:~:text=In%20order%20be%20%E2%80%9Caired%E2%80%9D%2C,Feeding%20of%20Children%2C%20by%20Dr.
Would have been nice to make the distinction that this was Portland Oregon and not Portland Maine an older and grander city.
Portland, ME is weak sauce.
Thank you for clarifying. I am from Canada, and wanted to know which Portland this was
Wanted to see where Grandma lived until about 1921 . South Portland was looking pretty bad when they did urban renewal in 1960s. I think it was OK in 1920s still.
Most of Buffalo still looks like this lol
Is this Portland, ME or Portland, OR?
Portland still looks the same now that it did then.. old and beaten down
Kinda like the woman who don't shave their !
Maine? Oregon?
The latter, thenkfully. Less brutal Winters
I could not say for sure where any of those places were.
…other than the few street signs..I think.
I wonder who filmed this ?
Was this ever on TV ?
Old south Portland by Duniway Park
Some of that is not up to code.
Does anyone remember WEDDING'S GROCERY store??
Right in the middle of the video when you show the two houses with piles of dirt out back they look like they are being remodeled but the rest of it looks pretty good kind of like it does now and the warehouse area hey it looks the same to me! What point are you trying to make?
youtube wont let me post videos of portland now
Keep trying
try removing the questionable content
portland needs to washed away by an epic lava flow.
Gee thank, stop hating
I wonder how many of those old firetraps caught fire and burned to the ground before the fire department could put it out.
@Salazar payne
I wasn't around back then, so I too can only guess, but considering the all wood construction of these homes as well as the very close proximity to each other combined with many people who, during The Great Depression, couldn't afford electricity, used candles and kerosene lanterns to give light there likely was a propensity for them to burn.
It would be interesting to review old newspaper accounts of house fires.
@Salazar payne
I've read and seen accounts about the Vanport floods. Your relatives were very lucky to have survived although I'm sure it made the hard economic times just that much harder for them. And we must remember there were no federal or state safety net programs such as welfare, social security, food stamps, etc. They were entirely on their own.
My mother grew up in the Sellwood area as she was born in 1916 and she used to tell us stories about some things that happened back in The Great Depression.
Her father had inherited several square miles of land that is now in the Milwaukie industrial area around Hwy 212, but as he was an evangelistic minister, he gave most of it away to his flock so they could sell it for cheap to buy food for their families.
We inherited nothing from him.
House fires were common in that era. Lots of periphial damage and fatalities.
Where can I get a copy of this to use for a project with Portland Community Media? I see you have it tagged as being from the City of Portland Archives, so I'm assuming that means it's public domain? Thanks in advance for any information you can supply.
+John Baxter It's on the City of Portland efiles, this is the link efiles.portlandoregon.gov/record/3233029/
Where are all the tents? Portland has regressed not progressed.
No, the Midwest and their sub-prime lending crash of the 2007 mess, and fentanyl/Meth/Heroin junkies bussed into Portland from so many other places like Kansas, and Indiana is where most of these tent dwelling urchins are from
Where's all the garbage and homeless? This was during the depression
Unlike now they weren't slobs and very little got thrown out everything was reused until no possible use could be wrung out of it.
there was no meth, not much heroin, and no leftist imbecility running city hall. Vagrancy was not coddled and encouraged. There was still shame in being a vagrant junky by choice. Now the virtue signal yard sign commie mob coddles it, basically turing parts of Portland into open-air opium dens. Wanna blame someone? Blame the garbage human left wing voters of Portland.
Dominic S. Well said.
@@utalk2much455 Self immolate, or better yet- Stay in Gresham
There were a number of "shanty towns" located in outskirts. Hobo villages. etc.
6:04 looks like St.Johns at terminal 4. 🤔
@12:51 nice Rainier Beer billboard
WHICH Portland?
sumbodyshero
Portland,Oregon
West coast, waiting for the earthquake
Go good things and notes and note pads. And go Sony and go Apple and Amigas.
Go good things and cvision. And Zeniths..
Go good times and good desk s.
Hi
oddly looks the same in most areas
LOL I LIVE ON THE STREET
These neighborhoodswere all fairly new when this was filmed of course it looked well kept up. 2/3 of everything Oregon made was sold to California. Oregon wouldn't exist without trade to California. Snap out of it! Stop being so myopic!
Now everyone's brain in Portland is in poor condition!
I have no idea whick portland
Mexico
Where are the riots?
A fallen city.
AHH when there was no crime
Hi
Go good the ngs. Nice looks and photos. Go good things and tv.
And go safe desks. And Department s. And go good the ngs. And go IBM s and computers.
Go Xeroxs. And go S grouos and xm and am radio. And go good li- brarys.
And go Smart things. And go Smart Machines.
Such a sad derelict view of a brand new country. Why can’t the people have anything of quality?
things wear out, especially in areas with harsh Winters
Wow wouldn't that be a horrible horrible life with neighbors just house after house
❤️😎❤️😻❤️😍❤️😂❤️
Must of been during the last pandemic....where's all the people?? LOL!
22 seconds of basically NOTHING at the beginning. This is known as "padding" a video to give it more length.
Great job showing pictures of Portland. Landmarks? No.
Overview? No. You showed pictures of houses and houses. WTF?! Those could be pictures from anywhere. Not necessarily Portland. I'll cut you slack if this is a HS project. Otherwise, you're just someone posting film of some neighborhoods. I cannot give you enough 👎.
The dramatic shirt preferentially arrive because bone postsurgically scatter sans a wonderful jacket. tall, blue group
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