East Portland was a city in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

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 annexed in the 1980s and 1990s.

The city of the late 19th century

The city of East Portland was founded on a land claim by James B. Stephens in 1846, who bought the claim from John McLoughlin of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. The city was incorporated in 1871. East Portland, 1874
- Oregon History Project Stephens platted the land from the Willamette River to East First Street, and from today's Glisan Street to present Hawthorne Boulevard.Corning, Howard M. (1989) ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing. Much of the land east of the river was marshy and crossed by creeks and sloughs, so it was less desirable than Portland riverfront property on the west side of the Willamette River. Development was difficult and expensive since many streets had to be built on trestles. A few years after Stephens acquired his land, Gideon Tibbetts filed a Donation Land Claim for south of what is now Division Street in southeast Portland. Tibbetts founded the first flour mill on the east side of the Willamette, planted extensive orchards, and raised hay on part of his claim. He

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted some of this land in the

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

neighborhood, and platted an addition to East Portland. Tibbetts later sold some parcels and his flour mill to Stephens. The value of East Portland waterfront property skyrocketed in 1869, when the East-Side Oregon Central Railroad connecting East Portland and Salem was completed. Railroad magnate Ben Holladay established ferry service across the Willamette to Portland from the northern terminus of the railroad about that time; the boat was superseded in 1880 by the Oregon & California Railroad Ferry No. 2, put into service by Henry Villard, and later by the

Steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and Morrison bridges. On July 6, 1891, the cities of East Portland, Albina and Portland merged as the city of Portland, Oregon. At the time, the population of East Portland was estimated to be 11,457. In about the same year, Ladd's Addition, which lay between the Stephens and Tibbetts land claims, was converted from farm land to a residential neighborhood.

The modern district in the eastern part of Portland

The term East Portland is now widely used to refer to the portion of the city east of 82nd Avenue, where approximately 28% of Portland's population resides. Much of Portland's black and minority population have moved east of 82nd Avenue, as of 2011, in a trend that was expected to continue. In March 2015, a group called East Portland de-Annexation Secession filed a measure with the City of Portland, and are petitioning to secede from Portland. However, Deborah Scroggin, Portland's election officer, rejected the petition because it did not meet requirements of Section 1 (2) (d) and (5) Article IV of the

Oregon Constitution The Oregon Constitution is the governing document of the U.S. state of Oregon, originally enacted in 1857. As amended the current state constitution contains eighteen sections, beginning with a bill of rights.

. Collene Swenson, a resident of East Portland, said that she will draft the new initiative, with the help of lawyers.

References

External links

Sullivan's Gulch history
{{coord, 45.51556, -122.65917, type:city(0)_region:US-OR, display=title Former cities in Oregon Geography of Portland, Oregon 1891 disestablishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1846 1846 establishments in Oregon Country Separatism in the United States

The city of the late 19th century

The modern district in the eastern part of Portland

See also

References

External links