Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Historic Portland

Recently this book arrived in my mail. A beautiful coffee table book of historic Portland from the 1860's to the 1970's. The pictures are all black and white, which definitely portrays the feel of history.
Here is the original Forestry Center built for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition of 1905. Inside was exhibited forest products and photos of Native Americans by Edward S. Curtis, circa 1905. Later this spectacular log building burnt to the ground and was later rebuilt in a different location in Washington Park.
I loved this picture of the swimming pool at Sellwood Park taken 1935. The pool is still there and looks much the same. It is a round pool, which was fascinating to me. In this picture I wondered what is everyone looking at. A fun picture.
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It was fun to see the pictures and realize how much Portland has grown and changed over the years. But at the same time, it was a joy to see buildings I recognized that are still standing, such as the City Hall, the main library, the Skidmore Fountain, the Thompson Elk Fountain, and the Courthouse. There was one bridge that is no longer in Portland, but others that were being built replacing the use of ferries to get back and forth across the river. As my son and I looked at the pictures we thought it would be fun to travel through the city seeing how many more buildings were still standing or how much a particular corner had changed. Historic pictures tell a story of consistency and change. They are a part of each of us and give us pause to remember and reminisces. Thanks for the memories of Historic Photos of Portland.
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Do you have pictures that depict your history? Old family pictures? Pictures of the places you have lived?

3 comments:

Annie Jeffries said...

Hi Marilyn. Does the book have any photos of underground Portland? I was watching the History Channel recently "The Underground City of . . ." series. They focused on Portland in one episode. Really interesting.

Anonymous said...

Pictures and words from the past is very important to understand today.

What a lovely book!

Relyn Lawson said...

Oh, I have this book. My friends gave it to me when we moved away. That was ten years ago and I still miss Oregon.