Portland – Page 13

Back to…. History!

Dear Liza,

We returned to McMenamin’s History Pub at The Kennedy School on Monday night for dinner, fun and education. This time the subject was an odd combination: The Poor Farm and the Rose Garden.

Let me explain. From 1868 to 1911, there was a farm in the West Hills of Portland where people who were poor or sick and couldn’t take care of themselves could go. At the Poor Farm, there was shelter, food, a farm to work on, a hospital, and doctors to care for the people. It wasn’t fancy, but it was care, and over time the population of the farm grew from 20 to more than 200. Some of these people were sick and needed the hospital to recover and then go home, but others couldn’t live on their own and stayed for the rest of their lives.

In 1911, some nurses came to see the farm and decided the whole place was no longer acceptable as a health care facility. It was too old and falling apart.

**The Poor Farm in the West Hills Oregon Historical Society photo**

Besides that, the property in the West Hills which had been so remote from town in 1868 was now on the western edge of a city needing to expand, and was very valuable. (Eyebrows up!) The city of Portland wanted to develop City Park, right next door, as “the crown jewel” of the city. Some of the property was sold to be developed into fancy homes, which would be near the newly developed park and have lovely views over the city to Mt. Hood in the east. The Poor Farm, with contagious people living right next door to the new Park and the expensive homes, was a problem. The Farm was torn down and the people moved east, by a town called Troutdale.

But the hills weren’t stable! Every bit of land that was moved to get the hills level caused landslides. No housing development was possible. (Sad sigh from developers.) By then, the city of Portland was even bigger, and City Park was getting too small and crowded. The whole top of Mt. Washington were brought in and developed into the park. The old Poor Farm property became the Oregon Zoo.

Then, in 1915, World War I was raging in Europe. Besides the danger to the people, buildings and gardens that had been developed for centuries were being destroyed. Jesse Curry, a Rose lover in this “City of Roses”, asked the city to set aside land to plant roses brought from Europe, to save them. The unstable land where the houses couldn’t be built became this Rose Garden and tennis courts. The Rose Garden now has 607 varieties of roses and is cared for by paid gardeners and hundreds of volunteers. It has become the Crown Jewel of The City Of Roses, and gets 700,000 visitors every year.

I am learning so much about how cities grow. The basic needs of people don’t change: food, shelter, jobs, and fun. But a city of 2,000 deals with these very differently than a city of 200,000 or 2 million. Change is hard and messy, but necessary.

And, in Portland, you also get roses.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Architectural History

Dear Liza,

Architectural history is a fancy term that means studying old buildings. Portland has been building since 1845, so there have been lots of buildings. Some have been torn down for new buildings, freeways, or parking lots. Some, being made of wood, have burned or been damaged by floods on the Willamette River. But many if them are still standing.

**This guy used to help hold up a building**

On Saturday, Grandpa Nelson and I walked about a mile to SE 7th and Grand Streets, to the Architectural Heritage Center. This is a group of people dedicated to saving old buildings, or at least pieces of them. Inside were statues, windows, and decorations from many buildings that had been torn down.

**She was over the door of the old Ladd Building**

There we also photographs of these buildings along Front Street taken by Minor White. This area had been a busy and very prosperous part of the city at the turn of the century, and many of the buildings were made of cast iron, which was the newest way to build.

Cast iron is strong, durable, and can be made with incredible detail. Delicate curves and flowers were cast into the pillars that weighed tons and held up 10 story buildings.

**Stained glass window saved from Richard B. Knapp House**

But in the 1930s and 1940s, these buildings needed to come down to make room for a new highway, and the city wanted to record them properly before they did. The city hired Minor White, a famous photographer, to make portraits of the buildings. These lovely photographs are on display. The photos were beautiful and showed so much detail, but they were also sad, like pictures of someone you love who has died. But we also learned there are still about 50 buildings that use cast iron, including the very nifty New Market Theater Building (which isn’t new at all, but very old).

**Minor White’s self portrait with arches**

After we had looked and talked and learned, it was time to start home. Grandpa Nelson knew of a new cider house on Belmont Street, on land where they used to keep goats. We walked and walked, figured out we were on Morrison and not Belmont, turned around, walked some more, and finally found the Schilling Cider House for a snack and a cider. It was tasty.

**Bubble Man outside the Schilling Cider House**

We also learned something new. This is a restaurant that does not take cash money. It is a “card only” pub. I didn’t know this was even legal! On our dollar bills it says “For all debts, public and private”. But it turns out, states can make laws that allow businesses to only take credit cards. Weird. I guess in some cases, money CAN’T buy you love (in the form of cider, anyway…)

We finished our snack, walked home and napped, and met with Auntie Katie for pizza at Dov Vivi. It was so good! Corn meal pizza crust with veggie toppings….sweet and filling. Then home for chat and finally to sleep. What a long, learning, exhausting day!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Mardi Gras and Pinball

Dear Liza,

Friday nights are usually fun here…we find something different to do. But last night, the different came to us! Or rather, it went by us.

While we were having the first chili of the year (because it’s finally cool enough that cooking is fun), we heard a weird noise outside. We are used to loud noises here, since we live a block up from a yoga studio and many lovely places to eat and drink. But this was not traffic, car alarms or delivery trucks.

GetAttachmentThumbnail-28 — **Mardi Gras coming down Pine Street**

What is was, was a Mardi Gras style marching band! Dixie land jazz musicians and people in white suits waving streamers, were marching and sauntering right down the middle of our street. We went out and stood on the back porch, clapping and waving, and realized it was a wedding! In with the musicians and revelers was the happy couple, waving at everyone and looking goofily happy. The procession mosied on down towards the Goodfoote Lounge and the music faded..but what a treat.

The nice people who got married chose to share all that joy and silly and music with a whole neighborhood of people they don’t even know, and we were grateful. Serendipity seems to be guiding our lives at this point, and I am happy to go along for the ride.

Later, with the memory of Dixieland jazz still ringing, we walked down to a new place, the Belmont Inn. This is a pub at SE 33rd and Belmont which we have walked past many times and wanted to see what it was like.

GetAttachmentThumbnail-25 — **Grandpa Nelson being silly**

There were six pinball games! One, “Star Wars” was more expensive than the others but not very much fun. The best one by far was “The Monster Bash”! Five games for two dollars, and monsters that move, cool voice overs, and sounds effects. We had way too much fun for grown ups. Auntie Bridgett and I played, mostly, but Grandpa Nelson got into the game, as well.

We wandered home thinking how lucky we are to be living in this fun city. And when we got here, we had a package! Eight, count them, eight classic monster movies had been delivered! Frankenstein, Bride of, Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, and Phantom of the Opera, along with histories and how-they-were-made features, the theme of the evening! How can life get any better, I ask you?

SO, after an already full evening, we made popcorn and watched Bride of Frankenstein and drifted off to bed. I love my life!

And you, of course,

Grandma Judy

Seasonal Mysteries

Dear Liza,

I was born in Southern California and, except for three years around when your daddy and Auntie Katie were born, lived in California my whole life. I am used to warm dry summers, slightly damp winters, and trees that mostly stay green all year.

i am also used to crocuses making some sort of sense. Yesterday as we were walking through the neighborhood, looking at houses for sale and heading for the market, I saw these:

These are crocuses sprouting up in front yards! In every other part of the world, crocuses are a spring flower, usually the first spring flower….back east, they come right up through the snow. But here it is, the first day of fall, and up they come.

Maybe they are trying to come up out of the ground so they don’t drown in the rain? Maybe they are as confused as the rest of us about the world in general? Or maybe they are just messing with me…..

Today is chilly but dry, and we are trying to decided what we want to do this weekend. With summer passed, the roses have lost most of their petals and the gardens will rest until spring. There is an Architectural History Museum down by the river that looks interesting, or maybe we will bundle up and walk around downtown. It is going to stay chilly, but no rain is predicted for a whole week!

Take care of yourself, your mommy and daddy.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Downtown again

Dear Liza,

Yesterday I went downtown to do some more research at the Oregon Historical Society Library. The ladies there were very helpful and I learned about the horse pulled and electric trolley car lines of 1880’s Portland.

Because the streets were so muddy before the days of storm drains and paving, street cars made getting around easier. They let the city grow and have room for more people. The lines ran north and south from downtown and east across the Willamette River, opening up East Portland for housing and businesses. I am glad they did, because that’s where we are living now. Except we take buses to get downtown.

There was rain this morning, but it cleared up and then didn’t rain again until afternoon. I enjoyed having some time to look around downtown. I like how the lovely old stone buildings and the shiny new ones seem to get along.

I also enjoyed a nice cool drink of water from one of the Benson Bubblers.There are 20 of these lovely drinking fountains in downtown Portland, and they run all day and all night, year round. There is no water shortage here in the rainy northwest like there is in California, so this isn’t a problem.

The bubblers were a gift to the city from Simon Benson, a man who came to Portland with nothing and ended up being very rich. He chopped trees, built buildings, and eventually owned a lot of land and even some banks. Being so successful, he wanted to give something nice to the city.

One thing he noticed was that, except for saloons and bars, there was no where to go to get a drink of water. This bothered him because once a man was in a saloon, he tended to order a beer or two, and wasn’t much use for the afternoon. He had the bubblers installed in downtown and people have been enjoying them ever since. People still drink beer, though. Sorry, Mr. Benson.

Mr. Benson did a lot of other good things with his money. He said that no rich man should die without giving some of his money away, and he wanted to give it away when he was still around to enjoy seeing the results. He donated $100,000 for a high school, now called Benson High School, on the east side of Portland. He donated some property in the Columbia Gorge, called Wakeenah Falls, to the city as a park.

Portland has many people who have been successful and donated nice things to the city. I will tell you about them as I come across their stories.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Rainy Morning

Dear Liza,

It was raining this morning when we woke up! It was actually chilly! I know there will come a time when this gets old, but for now, I am enjoying the cool, the sound of rain, and the way the light reflects off the drops.

After breakfast I bundled up and went walking in the park. It felt even more like a forest than ever. With fewer people and dogs, the ducks were more active, and the soft sounds of rain and wind were everywhere. (Sigh)

Walking my regular route through the park, I noticed changes. Small dents in the path had become small ponds, and the squirrels were drinking from them. Clear paths had become upholstered with leaves and small branches which had come down in the wind.

I have recently learned a new word: susurration. It means a whispering sound, or a murmur, especially in contrast with louder noises. Laurelhurst Park, this morning, was full of susurration. The wind whispered in the tops of trees, the rain whispered on the puddles, even the bicycles whispered as they rolled past.

**Layers of light, color, and a duck….**

And of course, the surface of the pond was alive with drops and ripples. One duck was awake and drifted along with me under the protection of a tree. The reflection and soft music of the textured surface made it worth getting a bit damp.

This all made me smile and remember a poem from The Wind in the Willows, and of Laurel Bloombaum:

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling,

Up tails all!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Last Thursday on Alberta

Dear Liza,

Last Thursday, we went to an event called “Last Thursday Art Walk.” It happens on the last Thursday of every month during the summer, up on Alberta Street, about three and a half miles north of our house. They close off about 7 blocks of Alberta Street and people set up tables, booths, musical instruments, or just themselves, to sell, sing, dance, see, and be seen.

We went into some some galleries first, with exquisite assemblages and ceramics, paintings and sculptures. These were very well organized and air conditioned, which was welcome in the hot evening. We spent lots of time looking at each and every piece, but I didn’t take pictures, because artists are touchy about that.

Then we stepped out onto the street, where there was no traffic. This was sort of like the Hawthorne Street Fair a few weeks ago, but also really different. The street being closed to traffic and full of tents was the same…everything else was different. That had a ‘doing business’ sort of feeling…friendly, but there for a purpose. This felt more like friends getting together to hang out, make music, enjoying each other’s music and weirdness.

And weirdness there was. Belly dancing, drum circles, people dressed in costumes and posing like statues, and kids playing rock and roll were there, as were t-shirt shops, ice cream carts, and tarot card readers.

There were also some very talented musicians playing great music, while jugglers juggled in time to the music. Amazing.

We walked all the way west, (into the sun again!) and back east, ending at O’Leary’s Irish Pub for a cold drink and dinner. The cider and Guinness were welcome, and the fries, grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized pear, and roasted brussels sprouts were exactly what was needed. While we sat, we watched the people passing by, which is always the best show ever.

Another thing that made the fair so much fun was getting to see Alberta Street. There are so many murals on the outside walls, where the artists don’t mind if you take pictures, and since there was no traffic, I could take pictures without being killed. I have included quite a few here.

After we had seen, listened, laughed and eaten, we walked back to the car and headed home. Portland has so much to offer, I just can’t keep up! I may need to take a break tomorrow. But I will be back soon.

P.S. And of course, there were mosaics. Maybe so many people make them because the tiles last so well in the rainy winters, or maybe because it is fun to turn broken bits into art, but there sure are a lot of them around! And I LOVE it!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Mosaics in Portland

Dear Liza,

This will be a short post today. I have a story idea in my head that won’t let me think about much else. But I wanted to share something I have noticed about Portland ….mosaics.

You know I love mosaics. I make mosaics. I teach my students to make mosaics.

There is a lot of public art in Portland, statues, murals, and fountains for playing in. I have posted pictures of your cousins and Auntie Bridgett with statues of deer and lots of other public art. Even some of the buildings are like art. These are all public art, as in, paid for by public money. I respect this, and love it. I like that my tax money goes to make art that I enjoy.

The other kind of art that everyone can see is privately funded art that is in public. The Buckman School, in our neighborhood, decorated their retaining wall with mosaics made with donated tiles and dishes. The Calico Room restaurant in East Portland advertises with a wonderfully modern cat mosaic.

These are interesting, pretty pieces of art that we walk by all the time and get to enjoy. They help me see things differently. They inspire me to make my own art. I am grateful for the creative people who share their art with all of us.

“Tell them, dear, if eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.” Emerson

Love,

Grandma Judy

Something Else has Changed

Dear Liza,

Yesterday we bought a new car! Our dear old VW Golf, Junie B., was 16 years old and had hauled us back and forth across the country and now back to Oregon. It was time to donate her to a good cause and move forward.

We drove out to Dick Hannah, a Volkswagen dealership in east Portland, and met Allyn Jordan. He helped us get the the car we wanted. Turns out, he had just what we wanted, but it was across the river in Vancouver, Washington. He went there to fetch it while we waited and Auntie Bridgett and I had some lunch. I always forget how long it takes to buy a car….paperwork, waiting, fetching, cleaning, explaining…about 5 hours in all.

Once our new car was with us, Allyn showed us all the gadgets. It has a blind spot warning, so we can change lanes more safely, and a rear view camera, to help us park without running into things. These are all good.

But there are also toys! A great music system with speakers in the back, air-conditioning (we are having more hot weather) and a phone built into the car are going to make driving more interesting.

After we had signed the final papers, shaken Allyn’s hand one last time, and fed poor, hungry Grandpa Nelson, we went for a drive to celebrate. Grandpa Nelson drove out of town toward the east and went up the Columbia River Gorge. The Columbia is an even bigger river than our Willamette here in town, and must be a mile or more across. It is forested all along the banks and very wild and beautiful. There are huge rock formations and waterfalls. We drove to Multonomah Falls, but it was so crowded the parking area was closed. We will try again some other time. Turning around, Auntie Bridgett drove west until we were able to get out at a vista point to gawk at the huge river and take pictures.

By this time, we were pretty tired. Back in town we rested, ate, and enjoyed looking at, learning about, and thinking about our new car. We still haven’t decide what to name it, and a car isn’t really yours until you name it….so we will let you know.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Visitors for the Eclipse

Dear Liza,

Yesterday, Auntie Bridgett’s Aunt Chris and Uncle Ken came to visit us while they were in Oregon to see the eclipse. We had fun showing them some of our favorite places. They were only here for the evening, so this list had to be short.

First, we walked north on 30th Avenue to Flanders Street, a restaurant called Stammtisch. Their motto is “Sit here, always”. We have been there before, but only for dessert, which was very good. It is all German food, and the menu gives the German name first, then describes what is in the food in English. This can be scary, because you don’t want to sound silly saying the food wrong. But the waiters are very friendly and don’t mind.

The menu has small plates (kleine) medium sized (mitter) and large (grosse). This lets you order just enough and not have tons left over. I like this because regular restaurant portions are always way too much for me!

I ordered the Bier Geschmort Hasen, which is a beer braised rabbit. Auntie Bridgett got a forelle (trout), Uncle Ken got a wienerschnitzel and latkes (fried pork loin and potato pancakes). Aunt Chris got hausgemachte wurst (home made sausage). Grandpa Nelson, of course, ordered frites (french fries). And everything was delicious!

We were there early enough that the place wasn’t crowded, we had a nice long conversation and everyone tried a little of everyone else’s food. Then we needed dessert. We walked just a block, and there was Fifty Licks, the ice cream place closest to our house. Blood orange creamsicle, blackberry sorbet and carmelized honey cones were ordered and shared. Again, we were ahead of the crowd and saw a line forming as we left.

We couldn’t let them leave without seeing Laurelhurst Park, so we walked over there. The trees, lake, and beauty helped all of us digest our food better. We sat on the bench by the lake and saw the ducks out for their evening swim and a few turtles climbing up on logs to sleep. We walked home and saw dogs chasing balls and being incredibly happy….both the dogs and us!

We had worn ourselves and our company out, but had a lovely time.

Love,

Grandma Judy