ABANDONED AND FORGOTTEN - THE BURGER KING ON BURNSIDE
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ม.ค. 2025
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Y’all Portlanders ought to know this site well depending on your age, where you like to go in the city and what sort of cooky history you might be into. This is the story of the Burger King that was located at NW Broadway and Burnside Street. Even though the structure itself has been demolished for a while now and was vacant for years leading up to that the spot still holds a specially sketchy spot in the hearts of many from this city. This is the story of the Burger King on Burnside.
When I moved here from west Michigan back in '87, I rented a studio apartment just down the street at Burnside and Couch. I remember that area as being too sketchy to even stop the car.
The intro was enough to get me subscribed. The content was enough to get me to start a slow clap x
Excellent documentary
Agreed
👍
The one at the end of Hawthorne is all abandoned now too..I remember going into the one on burnside way back in the day and it was always so sketchy with people loitering, good video steve
Oh yea? I went there a few times.
@@BeingMe23 not when it first opened but later on it was kinda a not to safe place to eat at..just my opinion
@@KLEARSKITHEKREEPER I always used the drive-thru
@@BeingMe23 oh I didn't remember it having one I always went inside
@@KLEARSKITHEKREEPER Hmm. Maybe wrong location. 😬
I first went to this BK in 1987 before playing a show at the Satyricon, and it became a staple eatery when in PDX, My bands were from Eugene, and the danger element of this place and the general area was exciting and made you realize you were in a real city with real big city issues, homeless, junkies, skinheads, and this was THE spot they all converged on to eat a quick $3.00 meal, thanks for reminding me of this
I went there a few times for hang-over breakfasts on the way to work in the early 2000s. It was... interesting... and I sorta miss it. The building itself WAS really cool.
Very well done. I remember the ordering area was small and there was always people standing and sitting around staring at you.
This man: Would you like to hear about this abandoned BK restaurant?
Me: YES.
*watches video intently*
Amazing work, Steve.
good job steve thx for the vid
Great video. Very interesting
When I clicked on this, didn't expect to be reminded of my 3 weeks right in this area of Portland in the late 80s. Almost had to be the BK I got my first and probably only Croissandwich from. Seeing this, I realize some of my impressions of the city may have been affected.
1970s: "...an area you just simply avoided at all costs..."
Today: basically the exact same thing
That's what I recall. "Don't walk down Burnside."
Used to go to this burger King with my girlfriend when I was in high school 90-91 and for a few years after that, we would go there and cruise Broadway or go down to the water front. I never thought downtown was that bad in the 80's and the 90's. Used to go to alot of things down there in the 90's like the Christmas tree lighting and Saturday market.
We used to cruise Broadway back then as well. 🤣
A friend of mine was a security guard there. He had quite a few interesting stories
I remember seeing the BK in the 80s and 90s.
The drug market had a drive through too. Just drive down Couch or Davis starting in Chinatown, and by the time you got to Broadway you were good to go.
Who would have guessed the back story to the cool looking abandoned brick building? I'm glad they've repurposed it finally. Great documentary once again!
When I worked near paranoia park in the 90’s, I had a coworker that got mugged in old town/Chinatown. She fell on her purse and was beaten badly so they could get her unconscious body off her purse. That was in the middle of the day. I lived in the Henry Building in the early 90’s (4th near Burnside) and it wasn’t a bad area to live, but I was glad to move to Goose Hollow.
I know more about Portland Oregon through this channel than I know about my own town.
I remember driving past the old BK for years...and drove by the location for the first time in a long time and was surprised it was gone.
I can't believe that it was torn down a dozen years ago.
Sounds like the MC Donald’s on Burnside 😂
It's similar really. I ate there a lot in the late 1990's
When I was a teenager and into my twenties I ate here often. It was edgy and full of homeless guys some times. But it was also comfortable and clean usually....
I worked at the BK on 35th and Broadway for 12 years in the 80s and 90s. I heard the compactor story from my managers about it. I stayed away from the Burnside one whenever possible.
I'm glad you did this video because I have some memories of the place from the early 90's. Going through the drive through wasn't too bad but the bathroom was always interesting, and the dining room had a sketchy vibe. Too bad it's not there anymore, it was architecturally beautiful and one of things that made Portland memorable to me❤
I remember this place and went in with a friend to grab a whopper. Whole lot of life going on there that was NOTHING that I was used to/had grown up around. Never went back in. I think it was actually scarier than the Burger King on Market Street in San Francisco, but they were both skeevy as hell.
I went in there after partying one night in the 90’s and ran into my childhood friend’s old neighbor that they found barking at the moon one night. Seriously. A lot of wild going on in there that night.
This and the two story McDonald’s are fond memories of downtown Portland in the 90s. I remember it had a lock on the restroom door you had to pay a quarter to get in
My know deceased father in law did the masonry for this burgerking.
Used to watch the starlight parade outside there every yr while growing up.
@Steve! We need to talk dude. Im a fifth plus generation (1850's) portland native who is on his late 40's. I can tell you alot of stories. Inlove your work and I learn a ton of pf things Indidnt know already. But I bet if you ask !e questions you will too!
I have a friend who worked at the Burgerville on Southeast Powell. On two separate occasions he went into the bathroom to clean it only to find a dead junkie. My friend Kristine worked at an adult bookstore in Southwest Portland and she also found a dead body in one of the booths. When she called it in to the oolice, the dispatcher asked if she was sure the guy was dead, and she said yes because he was unresponsive and gray.😊
I remember it well. In 1988 or 1986, a homeless person crawled into the trash compactor to sleep after the place closed and didn't get out before the early morning shift arrived. He was crushed to death.
No joke. True story.
A year later, someone hung themselves from a tree next to the drive-thru. Someone ordering coffee that morning thought the dead, swinging body was a Halloween decoration.
Then, in 1997, a homeless guy froze to death in the bus station across the street from it. My verdict? That location is cursed and haunted.
I lived for 22 years in NW Portland's Nob Hill. What I am telling you is true.
I ate there tons of times when I worked at a hotel supply in the area for about a year. It was probably the very first Burger King I ever went to.
Yes, it is a strange thing to have nostalgia for, but I admit I felt it watching this. I think that nostalgia is less about the place itself and more about Portland in general from that time in my life. I can vouch for the shady reputation it has; it was a place to avoid unless you were desperate for either a place to pee or drugs (or “food” I guess?), and thankfully I was never that desperate for any of those things when near there. Nowadays, the sense this spot gave then can be easily found strolling around most of Downtown Portland and many other surrounding areas. I find part of the nostalgia, for me at least, comes from missing a Portland in which this kind of sketchiness was more contained, like at the old Burnside BK, and a clean and serene city that felt safer and kinder was available in contrast. It really is a shame what Portland has become - with entire neighborhoods that look and feel like this Burger King did about twenty years ago.
I moved into my first apartment a few blocks away in 1996. I lived almost entirely off 1 $1 whopper per day that I got from that Burger King.
Old Town China Town is still crack town. I lived in that massive low income apartment building. It was called the 8x8 in 20011ish and probably still is. It's a sober living facility. Awesome!
I adore your channel and live just next to Swan Island!
This Burger King was part of my first experience of Portland. My dad took my sister to Union Station to take the train to Idaho and I went along. We walked down to this BK for lunch and I was a little overwhelmed by Portland then coming from a tiny town in rural Southern Oregon. This was the big city to me, like my idea of New York. 😂 I now live here, and sometimes I think about that BK when I drive by that corner.
That was always my favorite location. It was the first place I ever saw hobos have sex through a window lol.
I know this is 2 yrs old, but i wanted to clarify that, yes, those other areas were likely not blighted enough. Blight is measured numerically, and blight eradication is its own funding area, meant to address the areas that pose the highest immediate risk to the community through the factors that determine blight (code violations, abandoned structures, criminal activity, animals where they shouldnt be, etc). Blight money cant usually be used for prevention, just resolution. It's one of those aspects of bureaucracy that seems frustrating but there's always got to be separate funding for separate goals. But it isnt an aesthetic thing, fundamentally, it's that the awful aesthetics encourage all sorts of problems. Blight eradication funding is easier to get than long term community improvement funds, so unfortunately often problems dont get solved until they reach a crisis stage. My city is shockingly full of blighted areas for a small city in a rural area.
Is this the one that had a mural of a Japanese lady in front of Mt. Fuji on one wall. And a dock worker on the other wall?.
The trash compactor story.... I grew up in a rural area about 30 miles from downtown Portland. When I was a kid in the '80s, there was a local young man that actually did happen to. My grandmother knew his family and him when he was younger. I know he was homeless at the time in downtown and crushed in a trash compactor. I had never heard it was at Burger King.
@@kmel503 Thanks for the info! It’s nice to see some verification behind the story cause it seems like wherever you look it’s one of those maybe it happened, maybe it’s just an urban legend type thing.
@StevetheAmateurHistorian I was just asking my mom about this, and she confirmed this did happen. She said that his last name was Viles. He was from Scappoose. Oddly, his family lived on the same road in Scappoose mentioned in another one of your videos about the lady and her young son being murdered.
I remember dodging hordes of crackheads there to buy 99 cent Whoppers.
That drive thru was not safe back in the late 70s I worked at Wilfs at the train station and I saw some heinous stuff while waiting in line for food in the drive thru
good for u
Also do a story on Mt.St.Helens. I was there.
there is a Mcdonalds near me that has the nickname of "Smaky d"s " because people shoot up in the parking lot. the Mcdonalds its self is fine. quick service and clean for a fast food place.
I miss the race car mural on the wall next to the drive through.
Second comment! Then I spotted the 1996 desktop computer and new we were soul mates 😂😂😂😂
Shame, it's a rad looking building.
I live five blocks from there
Are used to eat there in the 90s
I remember that BK back in the 80s, had been there with friends a few times in my teen years.. I never used the restrooms because you never knew what you would walk in on.
I remember hearing that a homeless man had been sleeping in the trash compacter and got crushed. I'm not sure how true that is. Burnside in those days was nasty no matter what side of town. You walked by the BK and you could smell the dried urine on the sidewalk, and wine & body odor off the people outside.
Now do an episode on the infamous "Psycho Safeway" across the street from the Portland Art Museum.
Who now owns the property?
The Central City Concern owns the three story building that sits there now.
💯
In 70s, why did Portland closed so many asylums and mental hospitals? Do you have vid on this subject?
In the '80s, Reagan cut off funding for all mental health facilities, kicking them all out onto the street. Isn't that nice? What a piece of shit human being.
I once saw a vagrant sucker punch an employee in the face in there. Everyone was shocked because it was so unexpected. Management must have had problems retaining employees there.
I ate here as a kid.
Walked by, never went in.
Narrow drive-thru
I loved this place until the druggies took over and you couldn't even use the restroom without a code. Bad place for a BK
Yeah it really didn’t make sense putting it there which maybe adds to the appeal. It makes sense as there’s not another fast food place even now within blocks of there.
The c I a did it,hay you know the old well forgo tower is closed a water leak building,yes look it up I alway want go in look around top floor I hear always empty hmmmmmmmmm,I hate Portland can’t wait move to Palm spring my fiture