In this series, Street Roots looks back at the history and diverse voices of Old Town Portland.
Old Town: ‘The original downtown’
Street Roots reflects on some of the characters that made Old Town what it was – and is today
When Old Town was the North End
A snapshot of a few blocks of Portland’s past
The Portland IWW: Revolution and music
Cultural resistance – through graphic design, cartoons and songs – was one of the Wobblies’ most effective tools
Remembering Portland’s Japantown
Portland’s Old Town is well known as Chinatown, but in the late 1800s through 1942, a number of blocks made up Nihonmachi, the largest Japantown in Oregon
The Oshu Nippo: Translating Portland’s Japanese newspaper into English
In the early 1900s, the publication was a way for Japanese immigrants to stay connected
Lillian and Lena: Two black women from early-1900s Portland
One was a society woman, the other a prostitute. Together, their stories show what it was like to be an African-American woman in Old Town.
The oldest profession in the oldest part of town
Sex has always sold well, and it’s been business as usual in Old Town for at least 150 years
What became of Portland’s queer hub
Stark Street was once the heart of LGBTQ+ culture, but now ‘we can go anywhere,’ says Walter Cole, better known as the legendary drag queen Darcelle XV
The legacy of Old Town Portland: An illustrated history
A series of drawings depicts the history of Portland’s oldest neighborhood
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This article appears in 2019-01-04.