The East Portland Grand Avenue Historic District, located in southeast

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The district includes approximately 20 city blocks on or near Southeast Grand Avenue on the east side of the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

, roughly bounded on the south by SE Main Street, north by SE Ankeny Street, west by SE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and east by SE Seventh Avenue. Most structures in the district are commercial buildings rising two to three stories. Immediately to the west of the historic district is Portland's east side industrial area, and to the east are industrial and residential areas.

History

The

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

is part of a larger area originally designated in 1850 as the East Portland Townsite. In 1861

James B. Stephens James B. Stephens (November 9, 1806 – March 22, 1889) was a settler, pioneer of the U.S. state of Oregon. A cooper (profession), cooper by trade, he operated one of the first ferries across the Willamette River at what was East Portland, Oregon. ...

platted the area into 200-foot by 200-foot blocks from a portion of his

donation land claim The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Preem ...

. The townsite was roughly bounded by the Willamette River to the west, 12th Street to the east, Glisan Street to the north, and Hawthorne Street to the south. By 1870, the

Oregon Central Railroad The Oregon Central Rail Road was the name of two railroad companies in the U.S. state of Oregon, each of which claimed federal land grants that had been assigned to the state in 1866 to assist in building a line from Portland south into California. ...

included a branch through

East Portland East Portland was a city in the U.S. state of Oregon that was consolidated into Portland in 1891. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the portion of present-day Portland that lies east of 82nd Avenue, most of which the City of Portland ...

, and the community was incorporated in 1871. Commercial development increased, and in 1891 East Portland was annexed into the city of Portland.

Designation of buildings

The historic period of significance for the district is 1883 through 1930. Buildings designated as "primary"

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

were constructed between 1883 and 1915. Those designated as "secondary" were constructed between 1916 and 1930. A third designation, "historic but non-contributing," denotes buildings constructed within the period of significance but which have been modernized or altered beyond their historic identity. The East Portland Grand Avenue Historic District includes a total of 74 properties, and 50 are designated either primary, secondary, or historic non-contributing. A fourth designation, "non-contributing," denotes buildings constructed after 1930. The district contains six non-contributing buildings and 18 vacant lots.

References

External links

* * {{National Register of Historic Places Oregon 1991 establishments in Oregon Buckman, Portland, Oregon Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon

History

Designation of buildings

See also

References

External links