Opening Night



Through the shortest days of 1889 into the first weeks of the new decade, sounds of construction echoed from the blocks around Morrison, between 6th and 7th, as the Hotel Portland and the Marquam building raced toward completion.

The Hotel Portland, re-animated after a six year hiatus by the mercurial George B. Markle, promised to be the city's largest and most luxurious hostelry, while the Marquam Grand Opera House would be its most opulent entertainment venue.

Of the two, the Marquam was further along. As plaster set in the scaffold draped auditorium, its management encouraged speculation that it might be completed by Christmas.




The Marquam building from 6th and Morrison, nearing completion. Judge Philip A. Marquam and his family lived on the opposite corner of the block at 7th and Alder, in a house known for years as "the little New England cottage." -Photo courtesy of Norm Gholston.



Al Hayman, holder of the opera house's concession, also ran the Baldwin and New California theaters in San Francisco. After inspecting the Marquam upon his arrival, he spoke to the Oregonian:

"You can tell the people of Portland that Judge Marquam is going to give them a theater, second to none in the country in point of beauty, comfort and artistic finish. There will not be a bad seat in the house, and the indoor decorative work will be on a scale befitting the general richness of the structure. My efforts will be directed towards giving a series of attractions in keeping with the theater, and of a character to reflect credit upon any first class house in any city of America. I am confident that the result will justify me in doing this, feeling well assured that the public generally, and particularly the better class of people, of Portland will appreciate my labors."


The New Year passed. Anticipation grew as Portlanders looked forward to productions of a quality and scale unprecedented.


"It will be the first time that our people have the opportunity to listen to grand opera by a competent company, and they will no doubt take advantage of the occasion to come out in full force and in full dress."


For the opening, the Emma Juch Grand English Opera Company, fresh from an appearance in Washington D.C. before President Harrison, were to perform a week long engagement of seven operas.




Soprano Emma Juch was born July 4 1865 in Vienna Austria. Her family came to America when she was two. Her debut was in 1883 as Felina, in Mignon, for Her Majesty's Grand Italian Opera company in London. She joined the American Opera Company in 1886. When it disbanded, she formed her own touring company.



As January drew to a close, anticipation turned to ennui as the wait drew on.

"The dramatic world has partaken the same air of dullness and uneventfulness that has characterized the business life of the city in the past week. With the exception of the farce comedy "Rooms to Rent" at the Musee-Theatre and the Georgia Minstrels at the New Park, the last there has been nothing of even moderate interest to attract the amusement seekers." -The Oregonian, January 26 1890.





The New Park Theatre, where the Georgia Minstrels played, on the corner of Washington and Park, seen in a later incarnation as the Empress Theatre.


"Say what one will, there is something interesting and amusing about a good minstrel performance". -The Oregonian, January 26 1890.


At the dawn of the 1890s minstrel shows were in decline but still popular entertainment. Troupes of white performers, their faces blackened with burnt cork, had been portraying stereotypic depictions of African Americans in reviews since the 1840s. The shows featured comedy and songs, largely by white northerners such as Steven Foster, which presented an idealized version of southern slave life with only the most tenuous links to reality.

Richards and Pringle's Georgia Minstrels, opening at the New Park Theatre, were a relative rarity; a successful minstrel show comprised of African American performers.


"As a rule, the colored man cannot illustrate the peculiarities of his race so well as the white man, and for this reason, minstrel companies composed of representatives of the dark skinned race have not been so successful as those composed of their white brethren. But Richards and Pringle's minstrels are of the exceptions."
-The Oregonian, January 26 1890.


Featuring Billy Kersands, singer, comedian and master of "The Essence," a complex forerunner to soft-shoe, the company was nationally popular with both black and white audiences. They had played in Portland before to good reviews. Bound by the conventions and expectations established by white minstrel shows, they performed wearing burnt cork, in blackface.


"The African American Minstrel troupe that captured the larges and most loyal black southern following in the 1890s was Richards and Pringle's Georgia Minstrels".
-From Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music 1889-1895 by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff.




Billy Kersands got his start in traveling minstrel troupes in the 1860s. In 1875 he wrote Old Aunt Jemima, a song thought, unlike most minstrel material, to have been drawn from actual slave song origins. In 1889 it was heard by Chris Rutt, who appropriated the name for his newly created brand of pancake mix.

Richards and Pringle's Georgia Minstrels arrived from San Francisco by steamship early on Friday January 24th and immediately went to work to prepare for their opening at the New Park that same night. In addition to Billy Kersands, the sixteen person troupe featured Billy Farrell and Will Eldredge, solo trombonist W.O. Terry, harmoniconist Will G. Huff and Gauze, a female impersonator.

Miss Gauze's presence was not unique. Nick Tosches, in Where Dead Voices Gather, notes that while females in minstrel shows were relatively rare, drag acts were an element from nearly the beginning. He draws a direct line from the female impersonators in minstrel shows, moving on to vaudeville, from where Milton Berle bought the tradition to television in 1948, to Some Like it Hot in 1959, to Ru Paul in the 1990s.




Advertisements for Richards and Pringle's Georgia Minstrels at the New Park, and the Portland Cyclorama in the Oregonian from the previous year.



The Georgia Minstrels played three nights at the New Park, closing on Sunday, January 25th. Two days later, tickets for the opening of the Marquam Grand, set for February 3rd, went on sale at Kohler & Chase's Piano Emporium to a crowd that had waited outside the door since 6am.

"There is no question about the house being ready, as the chairs and fixtures have arrived, the scaffolding is being taken down, the carpets are being laid, and the interior of the theater will be as presentable as though it had been opened for six months". -The Oregonian, January 29 1890.



In actuality the chairs had not arrived. They were delayed in shipment and were not delivered until two days before the scheduled extravaganza. Opening night was pushed back a week. In San Francisco, Al Hayman scrambled to schedule an additional series of performances for the stranded Emma Juch Grand English Opera Company.




On Monday February 10th the doors of the Marquam Grand Opera House opened at last, with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust, to a capacity crowd enchanted by its opulence. Upon entering, the audience encountered a huge drop curtain portraying the countryside, town and castle of Monaco. They marveled at the theaters plush blue seats, the rooms exquisite finish, workmanship and luxurious private boxes. But the spectacle was not confined to the surroundings.


"The opera house was packed from floor to dome by the culture, wealth and fashion of the city and a pleased surprise seemed to run through the entire audience as they gazed upon the interior beauties of this superb house." -The Oregonian, February 11 1890.



Portland society came to see and be seen. Man about town, Cyclorama backer and Ainsworth associate Lester L. Hawkins was in attendance, as was Miss Albina Page, doubtless the only person present with a city named for her. Oregon state senate president and future Portland mayor Joseph Simon, Crater Lake booster William Gladstone Steel, North End entrepreneur and future Portland mayor George P. Frank could be seen among the various Failings, Everetts, Goldsmiths, Starrs, Bickels, Dekums, Burnsides, Ralieghs, Saviers, Holmans, Heitshus and Pittocks. The house of Ladd, minus its aging patriarch, was represented by sons Charles and Wesley.


"It was as if everyone present realized the importance of the event from a social point of view, and was determined to do honor the occasion." -The Oregonian, February 11 1890.


The somber evening attire of the men was offset by the elaborate stylings of the women, as the upper echelons of Portland society strove to outshine each other. Mrs. Richard B. Knapp appeared in a Paris gown of yellow satin with a corsage decorated with rich point lace and a diamond necklace. Mrs. C.E.S. Wood wore a dress of blue grenadine, with ornaments and diamonds, while Miss Nellie Burnside was noted in a gown of white crepe, lace embellished corsage and a opera cloak of gray cashmere trimmed in white fur.

In the center of the dress circle could be seen Mrs. Henry J. Corbett wearing a black laced cloak of white velvet, embroidered with gold ornaments and diamonds of exceptional brilliance, next to Mrs. Charles E. Ladd in black lace, ornamented by pearls. Simeon and Amanda Reed sat in the front row of the parquette circle near the middle aisle. Judge Marquam sat in his own private box with his wife and four daughters.




Builder of the Grand, Judge Philip Augustus Marquam.




Like Billy Kersands and the Georgia Minstrels two weeks before, the 156 member Emma Juch Grand Opera Company had arrived by steamship from San Francisco.

In her interview with the Oregonian, Emma Juch said exactly the right things:

"Such a theatre is a monument to the artistic taste of the people in your city. I have been in the finest in this country and Europe and I find this equal to any. The acoustic properties of the house are all a singer could desire".

The Oregonian, in describing her depiction of Marguerite, returned the love:

"Few reach to a point of portrayal, either dramatically or vocally, which the roll demands. Among those few none, perhaps, so truly realizes the ideal of the master as does Miss Juch. She has the physical attributes which aid her greatly in her work -flaxen hair, the teutonic mold of features and a soft blue eye capable of a world of expression. She shows too, in her conception and execution of the role an intelligent idea of its demands which may singers have failed to exhibit".



The only sour notes to be found were in reference to some of the audience and the dazzling scene's potential to overshadow the music itself.

"It is to be regretted that quite a number of the audience came late, and thus disturbed the many who had good taste to be in their seats by or before 8 o'clock".

"The people assembled on Monday night within the walls of the spacious auditorium of the new edifice, however, seemed to be there more to see each other, to examine the beauties of the house, to pass judgement, as it were, upon the general effect of the entire ensemble, than to listen with attentive ear and receptive faculties to the operatic performance that was set before them."



The general impression of the evening though was best summed up by Henry McGuinn, Esq:

"An inspiring scene. Fair women, well dressed men, and above all immortal music. The building itself is beyond doubt a triumph of architecture".





A program from the next stop on the tour for Emma Juch; the Victoria Theater in Victoria B.C. where she played a three night engagement starting on Monday February 17th. The order of productions duplicated their Portland sequence, minus the last three operas.



The Emma Juch Grand English Opera Company continued to play the Marquam Grand to rave reviews for the next five nights and one matinee, then continued on to Victoria B.C.

Portlanders could look forward to the next extravaganza, a comic opera, The Pearl of Pekin, featuring John C. Leach, said to portray the cleverest Chinese characterizations ever seen on stage.





A rare view of the Marquam building from the north, taken at Alder and Park, including the auditorium itself, by then known as the Orepheum. It is likely this is a picture of the funeral for Portland Fire Chief David Campell in 1911. The colonial style house at Alder and 7th is the old Marquam residence "the little New England cottage." torn down in 1912.-Photo courtesy of Norm Gholston.





Afterword:


Emma Juch retired from Opera in 1894. She died in New York City in 1939.


Billy Kersands, along with "the great Gauze" and Richards & Pringle's Georgia Minstrels next appeared in Portland at the Marquam Grand Opera House on April 30 1893, with a much expanded company that featured a band and orchestra.

The troupes continued success would see them to travel in The Georgia, their own private rail car, an accoutrement which was, in the words of Lucius Beebe, usually "...the hallmark of millionaires, and mostly rich millionaires at that."

Billy Kersands own view of the demeaning aspects of minstrelsy is perhaps captured in his quote: "Son, if they hate me, I'm still whipping them because I am making them laugh". He died in 1915.

A late edition of Richards and Pringle's Georgia Minstrels played Portland for the last time at the Oriental Theater on Grand Avenue on October 27 1933.



The Marquam Grand Opera House closed on April 1 1906 on the orders of Mayor Harry Lane's Executive Board for ignoring their fire safety recommendations pertaining to entertainment establishments. The final show featured George H. Primrose's Big Minstrels, lead by veteran white minstrel George Primrose who promised "...darkey life from long befo' the war to the present day". "Nothing but minstrelsy, no acrobats, or slap stick comedians -just minstrelsy pure and simple".

The theater would reopen under numerous incarnations, often as a vaudeville house. It survived the collapse of the southeast side and demolition of the main portion of the Marquam building in 1912 and was torn down in 1922.





The south east side of the Marquam building after its collapse in 1912. The building would be demolished shortly thereafter. -Photo courtesy of Norm Gholston.

A link to a very early post on Cafe Unknown about the collapse of the Marquam Grand.


Cafe Unknown, Portland Oregon History on Facebook

Thanks to Norm Gholston for the use of his photographs, which to my shock included one of the Marquam under construction!

The Guide

"Nah, I don't think I've anything worth telling. Nah, nah. I don't want to be bothered. Here's a little book... Nah, I won't let you see it -I wouldn't let my own mother see it. It's a guide to the old bawdy houses in Portland, back in '94. Here, I'll read you some of it, if you must have it."

-William (Billy) Mayer to Sarah B. Wrenn. March 23 1939.


Sarah Wrenn was having trouble establishing a rapport with the proprietor of the cigar stand in the lobby of the Davis building. When they me the day before, Billy Mayer claimed to have stories from Portland's early days, which he had already shared with a famous author. His manor and dapper clothes suggested he had been somewhat of a man about town in his day and he seemed enthusiastic to talk. She made an appointment to return the next day for an interview. Now, as they stood in the dim, mahogany lined lobby, the frequent interruptions by his customers (they all bought cigars, not cigarettes, she noted) seemed to make him clam up.

The Davis building, where Sarah Wrenn interviewed Billy Mayer on March 23 1939 was on the east side of Third Avenue, between Washington and Stark. It was built in 1886 as the Abington building and once had a central tower that made it the tallest building in Portland until 1889. The building was demolished in 1967 to make the surface parking lot that still occupies the site. -Photo courtesy of Doug Magedanz. (click on pictures to expand)


Sarah Wrenn's job with the Federal Writer's Project for the Oregon Folklore Studies program made her used to conducting interviews. She decided to pull back a bit and soft peddle the questions. After awhile he reluctantly produced a small book: The Guide, a description of amusement resorts of Portland, Oregon and vicinity.

Mayer explained as he flicked through the pages:

"There was a back on it that had advertised the old White House, out on the Willamette River, where the fine homes of Riverdale are now. There was a little race track out there -a quarter mile track I think it was -and all the bloods with fast horses used to drive out there on what was called the Macadam Road. It was the only road of that kind in the country. That's how the street leading out that way got its name. It had verandas out over the river...

Here's an advertisement of the old restaurants in town, and there's advertisements of the theaters and pool rooms too. Those old restaurants, with their private booths and dining rooms, could some tall tales. There was the Louvre, and up on West Park there was the Richards Restaurant. That was a big place, with side entrances where they served fine food and wines and liquors if every sort. There was a dining room, of course, but likely most of the paying business was in the private, small dining rooms leading off from the narrow corridors.






Mayor Harry Lane, afterwords U.S. Senator, was responsible for closing up the Richards place. He had it raided and closed. Seems some of his women relatives, or one of them at least, frequented it. There was quite a scandal at the time. Nah, I don't remember the details. Anyway, Lane closed up Richards, and shortly after all the other places with booths was closed up."

"Ah here, you might as well take the book and copy the stuff. I haven't got time to read it all..." -William (Billy) Mayer to Sarah B. Wrenn. March 23 1939.



Sarah Wrenn took the small book and hand copied the contents. The next day she submitted a typed transcript of the interview and the book's contents to the Federal Writers Project.





What follows is The Guide, as transcribed by Sarah Wrenn, with my annotations. It sheds some light on Portland's notorious "North End" with its human trafficking on an almost inconceivable scale, and a forgotten district of "amusement resorts" to the south of Burnside, whose madams were celebrated in poetic verse.

(1)



September 1894

THE GUIDE

A description of amusement resorts of Portland, Oregon and vicinity




(2)


Preface


This is a guide without avarice tainted
A "tip", as it were, before you're acquainted.
And now, my good friends, you've had my excuse;
I could have said more, but what is the use?
This thing I've "writ" and its dedicated
To strangers and those who're uninitiated



(3)


A FAST LOCALITY

In Portland is a notorious locality, known by the name of the "White Chapel District." It is the home of the most abandoned members of the demimonde, and on a small scale resembles the famous section of London, after which it is named. Within its boundaries are several hundred women, most of whom live in small one story houses or cribs. The inmates of these cribs represent every nationality, with French predominating.

On Lower Second Street can be seen Japanese and African women.

The district lies north of Ankeny street, and owing to the surveillance of Portland's admirable police department, is perfectly safe for the stranger to visit, provided he does not got too familiar with the occupants of the "cribs."

The "North End", defined in an 1915 Oregonian article as "about 4th Street, 3rd Street and Burnside, Couch, Davis and Everett streets" was regularly described by drawing comparisons with like districts elsewhere: "White Chapel," "Barbary Coast," "the Bowery," "the Bad Lands" and "the Tenderloin" were all terms used by the press in reference to the area.

Newspaper accounts place its origin to around 1889, after the area had been abandoned as a residential district. Prior to that, from the time following the Great Fire of 1873, the "Tenderloin of Portland" was on the "north side of Yamhill street and the east side of Third and scattered about a general district converging on Third and Taylor" (Oregonian, December 15 1915). Political pressure from the First Methodist Church, that was surrounded by it, caused prostitution activities to move to the North End, in "frame shacks built specifically for that purpose."

The Guide then shifts to describe activities in another area, bounded roughly by Ankeny, Fifth, Morrison and Park; a residential neighborhood under pressure by the expansion of the downtown commercial district, where madams catered to a more genteel clientele.






Four brothels are visible in this picture, a portion of a panoramic photograph taken, circa 1893, from the tower of the Oregonian building at 6th and Alder. The original Trinity Church as well as the Cyclorama building (near the right corner) can also be seen.

"Here are the verses -Sam Simpson, the old poet of Oregon is said to have written them. I don't know. But they advertised the "madams." Yes, they were all called "madam" then. I don't know why they all have "Miss" in front of their names here." -William (Billy) Mayer to Sarah B. Wrenn, March 23 1939.

(4)

MISS MINNIE REYNOLDS

89 Fifth Street

In handsome parlors, skilled to please,
Fair Minnie waits in silken ease,
And at each guest's desire supplies
Dear pleasures, hid from prying eyes.
With such a haven ever nigh
Who could pass her parlors by?

The two story white frame house near center is at 89 5th street (old numbering system), the home of Minnie Reynold's establishment. Below: the site today, (near the doorway of the Oregon Trail building).

Minnie Reynolds appeared in Portland City directories as Miss Minnie Reynolds at the same address until 1902.




MISS FANSHAW

151 Seventh Street

Lets live while we live;
We'll be dead a long while,
And tho Fortune may frown,
Fair Miss Fanshaw will smile,
If a kiss will not sooth you,
She has pleasures that will;
The chalice of passion overflowingly fill,
And your troubles and cares,
You will lightly ignore
When love's rich libation
This Charmer will pour



"Madam Fanshaw and her girls were extremely polite, but you didn't sit around there a great while without spending substantial sums of money. It was no place for the loggers, the miners and the fishermen."
-Stewart Holbrook in the Oregonian, August 9 1936.



Lida Fanshaw operated her establishment, across 7th from the opulent Marquam Grand theater until around 1900. Donald R. Nelson's piece in the September 28 2001 Portland Tribune tells what is known of her story.




The Broadway building is on the site of Lida Fanshaw's establishment at 171 7th (Broadway).


(5)


MISS MABEL MONTAGUE

94 Fifth Street Cor. Stark

Here is a mansion, of which is related
That on all this Coast it is not duplicated.
Its well-furnished parlors the fashionable seek,
For comfort is here, joined to the unique,
And the girls who respond to the visitors call,
Are the pride of Miss Mabel, and the pride of her hall.





94 5th Street (the Italianate house on the corner). The large commercial building at the end of the block is a harbinger of things to come, built on the site where the original Temple Beth Israel stood until 1888. Below; food carts on the site of Mabel Montague's house.








MISS DELLA BURIS

150 East Park, between Alder and Morrison

Here is a lady of such ways all admire
She no flattery from the best does require
Modest as a maiden, youthful,
Good-natured as she is truthful,
Della Buris has a name
All might enjoy, none can blame


"Della Buris' place was no joint. It was patronized largely by men who have since made their mark in the city's professional and business life." -Stewart Holbrook in the Oregonian, August 2 1936.

Ankeny at Park during of June 1894, three and a half blocks north of the house of Della Buris and two months before the publication of The Guide. -City of Portland Archives.

The site of 94 East Park.

MISS DORA CLARK

MISS MAUDE MORRISON

95 Sixth Street, Cor. Stark

No man in this City who is known as a sport
But will tell you he's seen and enjoyed this resort
It's a house full of beauties, whose rooms dazzling bright
Shimmer and glimmer with mirth and delight





The roof of 95 6th street is visible at the left corner, partially obscured by the flat roofed building across Stark from it. The original Trinity Church, beloved by the Portland establishment, is a block south. Below: the site of 95 6th street today.






MISS IDA AURLINGTON

No. 90 Fifth Street

To reign is beauty's queenly right,
And he is but a shabby knight,
Who is not charmed, aye wholly won
by lovely Ida Aurlington,
Whose grace of manner and of form
Takes every manly heart by storm.







Ida Aurlington's house was directly across 5th from Minnie Reynolds, between the large commercial building and Mabel Montague's house on the corner. Below, the site today.







(6)


MADAM FLORA (likely Flora Hoyt)

130 Fifth Street

The gay rose gardens are (illegible)
But blooming Flora is still here
To make us quite forget the rose
Has sighed her gentle adios.







The peaked roof of Madam Flora's appears beside the flat roof on the right side of the picture. A block east, the low slung building with awnings is the Louvre Restaurant, between the elaborate Washington Block and the four story Holton House building, where the Louvre eventually moved to. Below, the site of 130 5th.







DORA LYNN

If you're out for a lark, or that is your passion,
Just call on this house, so lately in fashion.
With its fairy like nymphs and Dora Lynn its queen,
Where privacy, rest, and all is serene.
There are a great many Doras, but I write this one down
As the best one that ever has lived in this town.



(End)



In his 1936 Oregonian series on Portland's moral crusades, Stewart Holbrook states the "parlor house" operators were raided by police in an 1895 campaign that resulted in no convictions, but the long term affect of which was to consolidate prostitution activities to the North End by 1906.



Sarah B. Wrenn first appeared in the 1905 city directory as a stenographer for the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. She likely married a Bert Ramsey in 1910, a union that ended within two years. From 1912 on, she would appear sporadically in city directories, sometimes with long gaps in between. In 1939 she lived in the Elk's building on SW 15th.

Most of the work of the WPA Federal Writers Project in Oregon was published anonymously. The recently digitized American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1937 , that this piece draws upon shows Sarah Wrenn's keen eye for detail, both in the description of the interviewee and surroundings. She would use earlier interviews to build upon her questions. Two months after Billy Mayer mentioned the White House, she brought it up to another subject, who added that there was a second, less elaborate resort known as the Red House on the Macadam Road, and the road once had a toll gate.

In the early 1950s Sarah Wrenn worked for the Portland Chamber of Commerce. She last appears in the 1960 directory.

It is unlikely that a copy of The Guide exists outside of her transcription.

William (Billy) Mayer first appears in Portland directories in 1905 as a clerk at a boarding house (there are numerous prior entries but it is impossible to ascertain which one is him). In 1909 he ran a billiards hall at 390 East Morrison, that moved to 113 4th in 1911. It moved once again to 133 1/2 in the Couch building in 1917. He closed the pool hall in 1936 but continued to sell cigars in the Couch building's lobby. He moved to the Davis building in 1939. In 1944 he was managing the lunch counter at the Miami Club at 610 SW 4th. His last appearance in the city directories is in 1950, with his wife Ina, whom he married in 1918.

Stewart Holbrook (1893-1964). Billy Mayer claimed to have shared his stories with a "famous author." Stewart Holbrook, a raconteur who rigorously combed Portland's streets for anecdote, is a likely suspect. If so, Billy Mayer could have been a source for Holbrook in his Oregonian columns and works such as The Portland Story (1950).


Samuel L. Simpson (1845-1899). Did Oregon's first Poet Laureate, author of Beautiful Willamette, write the verses in The Guide as mentioned by Billy Mayer? In Oregon Literature (1899) John B. Horner refers to the troubled Simpson, born of a prominent family and beset by alcohol problems, as "the Edgar Allen Poe of Oregon." A denizen of journalism's Grub Street, familiar with all strata of Portland society, the verses in The Guide could have been just another job to make ends meet.







"The Louvre Nude" once hung in the Louvre Restaurant on 4th Street, an advertiser in The Guide. After the restaurant closed the painting disappeared. Years later it emerged from the closet of a prominent Portland woman whose husband had acquired it from Louvre owner Theodore Kruse, in payment for a cigar bill. Walter Holman, the owner of Jake's Famous Crawfish, bought it in the early 1960s. Initially covered by a red and white tablecloth, the painting was finally unveiled at Jake's on April 27 1962. It hangs above the bar there to this day.

Thanks to Doug Magedanz for the use of the picture of the Abington / Davis building and Mark Barthemer for tipping me off to the "Louvre Nude"!


Now on Facebook!




One of my frustrations (along with not having enough time in the day) is that there is no good way to mix updates, short pieces and arcane facts with the posts on this page. So now, Cafe Unknown has a facebook page where I can post finds, like this wonderful stereoview of the the Great Light Way that I purchased on ebay. I can also give a heads up when a new post is finished. Talk Portland History, badger me to get back to work if I take to long between posts, post early and post often... Enjoy!

Restoration




Portland had been incorporated for two years in 1853 when W.S. Ladd commissioned Absalom Hallock to design a brick building on Front street, between Washington and Stark. The use of brick added a sense of permanence to the cluster of white-washed wooden, frame and false-fronted buildings rising between the river and the towering fir trees. It was a vote of confidence for Portland's long term prospects.

Absalom Hallock arrived two years earlier. He went into business as an architect, the city's first, on July 21 1851. A year after the Ladd commission he began to incorporate cast-iron into the buildings he designed, which encouraged a modular construction of repetitive elements and tall entryways and windows to let in light. At the same time Hallock became the Portland representative of the Phoenix Iron Works of San Francisco.

His own building, in partnership with contractor William McMillan, was constructed on the northwest corner of Front and Oak in 1857.






The Hallock and McMillan building was typical of the eighteen brick structures built or retrofitted with cast-iron that Absalom Hallock designed in Portland prior to the Civil War. Its fabricated columns and arches allowed a light filled work space. (click on images to expand..)






Minor White photograph of the corner of Front and Oak, circa 1939, shortly before the remodel that would radically alter the Hallock and McMillan building. The neighboring Fechheimer building (1885, existent) is followed by the Snow building, likely designed by Hallock, torn down shortly after the photograph was taken. The last building on the block appears to be in the process of being demolished.



The Hallock and McMillan building is the oldest commercial structure in Portland. In its one hundred fifty four years, it has survived numerous floods and spared the reach of the Great Fire of 1872. The Harbor Drive freeway destroyed its grand descendants across Front Avenue and ramps off the Morrison Bridge, accompanied by surface parking lots, cut a wide swath through its neighbors to the south. Since the 1940s its historic significance has been obscured by a remodel that altered its east facade. This is about to change.





The Hallock and McMillan building has faced down floods, fire and freeway.




In December the Hallock and McMillan building was purchased by developer John Russell, with the goal of restoring it to its original appearance.

With his company, Russell Development, John Russell is known for major projects in Portland, such as Pacwest Center and the renovation of the 200 Market Building, bestowed America's first LEED award for sustainability in the Existing Multi-Tenant category. Less known is his work on a smaller scale; a decades long restoration of a quarter block bounded by Front (Naito Parkway), Oak and First. It can be seen as a template for the revival of the Skidmore / Old Town National Historic District, which, he states, could be made the best place in Portland to live and work. It is a sentiment born of direct personal experience.





The Delschneider building on Oak street (1859) is Portland's second oldest commercial structure. Its third floor was added in 1876. The Hallock and McMillan building neighbors it to the east.



The Delschneider building was "an empty pigeon roost" when John Russell purchased it in 1974. Inspired by the brick-built historic Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston, where he lived while in grad school, he renovated the building for mixed use by adding an apartment space on the third floor. Upon completion, he and his family moved in. His children still count it as their favorite residence while growing up.

In 1980 he acquired the Fechheimer building (1885), an early preservation success in Portland that had been restored by Ralph Walstrom and Jeff Holbrook. At the same time he inquired into purchasing the Hallock and McMillan building, the start of what would play out to be a thirty year long series of conversations over dinner with its owner, Peter Corvallis.






The Freimann Building (Oak street facing segment) neighbors the Delshneider building to the west.


His next acquisition ushered a historic reconstruction that could have positive potential implications for redevelopment in Skidmore / Old Town, an area that has been blighted for decades by acres of surface parking lots.





First and Oak, prior to 2004. -Portland Maps.


The run down building, on the corner of First and Oak was purchased, in two segments in 1999 and 2004, to arrest the decay of property that neighbored the Delschneider building. Shortly thereafter, Portland historian Donald R. Nelson found a 19th century illustration of the corner. It was realized that, beneath layers of Roman brick and stucco, was entombed remnants of a 1880s building. Using the picture as a guide, Russell decided to return it to its original appearance.

In the course of restoration work, it became evident that little of the building's original material was in suitable condition to be reincorporated. This meant the project would go forward without incentives such as Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits from the National Park Service or the Oregon Special Assessment program from the State Historic Preservation Office, eligibility of which is set by rules drawn from a distinctly western view of preservation that places a high value on original fabric. An eastern view, born of the use of less permanent materials, might place less; where a temple built of wood or bamboo can be seen as five hundred years old, with most of its components dating back only a quarter century, yet suffer no loss of authenticity.




Genuine upper-strata Rocky Butte basalt.


New hand-made brick from South Carolina was used to duplicate the original. The damaged iron corner column, previously hidden, was removed, measured and reproduced. A lone surviving piece of stone work on the foundation level presented a singular problem. It came from the long defunct Rocky Butte quarry which provided rock for many local buildings such as the Hotel Portland. The basalt's light color placed it from the early years of the quarry's excavations; as depth increased the rock darkened. Incredibly, matching stone was found, available from the foundation of the Simon Benson house, made surplus after its move to Portland State University due to differences in site profile.

The building is a meticulous recreation of when Friemann's Restaurant and Cafe occupied the corner in 1889. It illustrates the potential of infill that is respectful to its surroundings, should the parking lots in the area be redeveloped.






The Hallock and McMillan restoration. -Emerick Architects.



As in the case of his earlier earlier restorations, painstaking attention to historic detail is being applied to the Hallock and McMillan building. The assembled team for the project: Emerick Architects and Bremik Construction, in consultation with Jessica Engeman of Venerable Development and architect and historian Bill Hawkins, author of The Grand Era of Cast-Iron Architecture in Portland Oregon, have as their goal to returning it to its original nineteenth century appearance. Like prior restorations throughout Skidmore / Old Town, the missing cast-iron pieces will be fabricated in fiberglass or aluminum. Work on the project began immediately upon Russell assuming possession.





The Feccheimer and Hallock & McMillan buildings.



John Russell's quartet of buildings, two of which were built before Oregon was a state, provide a tangible link to Portland's early past. Their incredible survival, against all odds, is rivaled only by the amount of care and effort spent on their restoration. With his patient pursuit of authenticity, he has shown how Skidmore / Old Town's potential can be drawn upon to revive an area that can indeed be made the best place in Portland to live and work. It a long term vision that would be familiar to W.S. Ladd and Absalom Hallock.




Sincere thanks to John Russell for sitting down with me. Peggy Moretti of the Historic Preservation League of Oregon and, as always, Bill Hawkins, a constant source of information and inspiration for this website.



The Hallock & McMillan and Fechheimer buildings. October 31 1953. Marion Dean Ross photograph. University of Oregon Libraries, digital collections.






The Delschneider building, before the purchase and renovation by John Russell that restored to it the missing cornice. Also visible is the rear segment of the building on First and Oak (Freimann building) prior to its being stuccoed (the First Avenue facing segment was covered up in Roman brick). -Marion Dean Ross photograph. University of Oregon Libraries, digital collections.






Portland's notable buildings, 1858, just five years after Absalom Hallock designed the first brick building in the city for W.S. Ladd. The Hallock & McMillan building is at the top, center.

Alder Street Station






"For all sad words of tongue or pen / The saddest are these: It might have been!" -John Greenleaf Whittier

Less prosaic, but more tantalizing: It almost was.






In the long run, Ben Holladay was right; grass would grow on Front street. At the time of his infamous quip, delivered as he touted his plans for East Portland, it seemed unlikely. Lined by grand iron fronted merchant houses, such as Starr, Allan and Lewis and most importantly, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Front street drew commerce directly from the river and pushed it into the heart of the city. Its enterprises were at the root of the Portland establishment's fortunes.





In the century that followed, Front would morph from street, to avenue, to parkway and witness the rise and fall of the Harbor Drive freeway and the birth of Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Prior to both, a very different waterfront nearly came into being.





By the second decade of the the twentieth century Portland had turned its back on the river. Behind the impressive facades, the warehouses and wharfs of the old city had become a decrepit, disused warren as the harbor moved down stream. In 1919 the City Council called for a massive reworking of the waterfront. The resulting plan, by City Engineer Olaf Laurgaard, was released in 1923.




The Report of City Engineer, Pursuant to Resolution No. 11130, With Plans and Estimates For Water Front Project , March 29 1923 was an ambitious recasting of the riverfront that sought to address multiple municipal ills. For flood control and fire abatement, the old docks were to be removed and a sea wall installed from Jefferson to Glisan streets, back-filled by material dredged from the Willamette. Behind the wall a new interceptor sewer would serve downtown. The area from the Hawthorne to Morrison bridges was set aside for a public market. Between the Morrison and Steel bridges a new wholesale district of large, modern warehouses would be built, accessed by trucks from the west and rail from the east.





The proposed public market at the foot of the Hawthorne Bridge.
-Multnomah County Library (non-circulating collection). Photo courtesy of Alexander Craghead.





The report's transportation amenities balanced auto, rail and pedestrian modes. Bridge approaches were to be raised. Madison, Morrison, Burnside, Glisan and Front widened. Thousands of parking spaces were to be provided to alleviate downtown congestion. On top of the sea wall, a twenty five foot wide esplanade would "create a very pleasing recreational walk for the citizens of the city."


Chief among the proposal was a consolidated terminal for the region's interurban electric rail lines and ocean going travelers to be located on First and Alder, with a breezeway over Front to the river.








Alder Street Station. (click on images to expand). -Multnomah County Library (non circulating desk). Photo courtesy of Alexander Craghead.




Portland was served by three interurban lines: The Portland Railway Light and Power Company and its affiliates ran to Troutdale, Estacada, Oregon City, Mount Angel and over the Interstate Bridge to Vancouver Washington. The Oregon Electric Railway served Woodburn, Salem, Eugene, Albany and Forest Grove. Southern Pacific's "Red Electrics" connected Portland to Lake Oswego, Hillsboro, Newburg, McMinnville and Corvallis. The new terminal would provide a single boarding point for all three networks and remove the trains from downtown streets.


"At the present time a great deal of time is lost by these interurban lines crossing the business district of the City. As much time is consumed in traversing the business district as is consumed in traveling 15 or 20 miles after the City limits have been reached."
-The Report of City Engineer, Pursuant to Resolution No. 11130, With Plans and Estimates For Water Front Project







The "Red Electric" steel cars boarded at Union Station, while the Oregon Electric operated from North Bank Station in what is now the Pearl District and from a station near the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge. The PRL&P Lines loaded at First and Washington.









At river's edge the terminal would also serve ocean bound traffic such as from the Pacific Steamship Company, aka the Admiral Line.
-Images courtesy of Timetable Images , Bjorn Larsson.






The plan called for the Red Electrics and the Oregon Electric to share the latter's tracks out of town to a point near Burlingame. The vacated Red Electric right of way would then be used as a new route for the Pacific Highway into Portland.




The placement of the terminal, market, esplanade and parking facilities was anticipated to generate large amounts of pedestrian traffic that would revitalize the lower downtown district as people crossed back and forth to the city center. But the components of the plan were never to fully coalesce.


It is tempting to view the Laurgaard plan as another instance of Portland dreaming big and spending small, alongside the Olmstead parks plan, Bennet's city beautiful re-design, the initial response to the Robert Moses report and the stadium proposals of the 1960s. Much of the plan though was implemented in relatively a short time. Work on the sea wall, interceptor sewer and esplanade, Oregon's largest public works project to that date, was completed in less than four years. Bridge access improvements, street widening and a public market were finished within a decade.






The proposed sewer was hardly a panacea. Back ups into downtown basements ended as hundreds of makeshift outlets into the river were replaced- by a single overflow.
-City of Portland Archives.




The Public Market building opened in 1933 on the site proposed by the Laurgaard Plan. Initially a success, its popularity with customers and vendors soon dropped off. It closed in 1942. From 1948 to 1961 it was home to the Oregon Journal. The building was demolished in 1968.
-City of Portland Archives.





A street level view of the Portland Public Market and the smaller Sea Wall Public Market at Taylor and Front Avenue, prior to 1943. The railroad tracks were freight only, operated by the United Railway, an Oregon Electric Railway affiliate.




Only the interurban / ocean terminal and the wholesale district proposals were not acted upon at all. With each recasting of the plan through the 1920s the rail component shrank as the popularity of the automobile grew. By 1930 it was gone. In 1933 the Pacific Highway would be built on the former Red Electric right of way as Barbur Blvd. In the early 1940s the waterfront would be used for transportation, in the form of the Harbor Drive freeway.





Portland takes on a Le Corbusier tinge with the 1932 Bartholomew Plan. Intermediate between rail and freeway, it featured a park along the river.



What if the report had been fully implemented? Any counterfactualist historic revelry has to be tempered by trends already in place at the time. As attractive as a regional electric rail network emanating from downtown would be today, Alder Street Station was unlikely to have arrested the decline of the interurban systems in the 1920s and 1930s.


Perhaps the city envisioned in the Laurgaard plan is best viewed along the lines of the many Portland's dreamed in Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven, familiar elements recast to form alternate realities -made all the more intriguing by how close it actually came to pass.






The proposed waterfront of 1923, a fold out in the report.
-Multnomah County Library (non-circulating collection). Photo courtesy of Alexander Craghead.






The Portland Railway Light and Power (later the Portland Railroad and Terminal Division of Portland Traction) lines continued to load at First and Washington for another thirty three years, until its tracks were removed from the Hawthorne Bridge, cutting access to downtown. The rare view above was possible only between 1954, when the Dekum Block (1871) was demolished to make a parking lot, and the end of downtown interurban service in September 1956.

The surface lot expanded upon the city's first, on the site of the Labbe Block, immediately next door. It is still there.