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The legacy of Old Town Portland: An illustrated history

A series of drawings depicts the history of Portland's oldest neighborhood Illustration by Helen Hill THE BINDLE STIFFS The early years of the 20th century were the golden years of the hobo. The railroad was still expanding westward, and the demand f ...

18 Jan 2019 - Helen Hill
When Portland had the largest Japantown in Oregon

Portland’s Old Town is well known as Chinatown, but in the late 1800s through 1942, a number of blocks made up Nihonmachi, or Japantown JAPANESE-AMERICAN CHILDREN who grew up in Northwest Portland’s Japantown in the 1930s remember it as a safe, happy pla ...

11 Jan 2019 - Libby Dowsett
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. A CENTURY AGO, Lena Smith and Lillian Allen were fixtures in Portland’s North End, an area that enveloped what is t ...

11 Jan 2019 - Emily Green
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 JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS who came to Oregon in the early 1900s stayed connected with one another and the rest of the world by reading the local Oshu Nippo newspaper. The a ...

11 Jan 2019 - Libby Dowsett
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 PORTLAND, 1964 and 1965: Mayor Terry Schrunk declared war on bars frequented by gays and lesbians follo ...

11 Jan 2019 - Sarah Hansell
The oldest profession in the oldest part of town

Sex has always sold well, and it’s been business as usual in Portland's Old Town for at least 150 years SEX WORKERS have been making money in Portland’s Old Town for as long as the neighborhood has existed. In the late 1800s, prostitutes filled sto ...

11 Jan 2019 - Emily Green
Celebrating the grit and humanity of Old Town

A collection of stories about Portland's oldest neighborhood 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 ...

4 Jan 2019 - Street Roots
When Portland’s Old Town was the North End

A snapshot of a few blocks of Portland’s past “There it was that sailors rested from drunkenness, or held carousal, and slouching men of the woods played greasy cards on a greasy table. Only the ghost of laughter walks where once the nickelodeons blared t ...

4 Jan 2019 - Doug Kenck-Crispin
The Portland IWW: Revolution and music

Cultural resistance – through graphic design, cartoons and songs – was one of the Wobblies’ most effective tools Since Portland’s earliest days, the neighborhood now known as Old Town has been the place for the transient, the homeless and the unwanted. Po ...

4 Jan 2019 - JD Chandler
Portland’s Old Town/Chinatown: ‘The original downtown’

Street Roots reflects on some of the characters that made Old Town what it was – and is today From the rooftop patio of The Society Hotel, guests can relax and enjoy a fine cocktail high above the complex intersection of Northeast Third Avenue and Davis S ...

4 Jan 2019 - Joanne Zuhl