A 1905 “Slice-of-Life” View of Portland’s East Side
September 21, 2021
By Ilana Sol
The Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS) research library staff recently digitized a collection of 88 individual glass plate negatives discovered in a house in Northeast Portland in the early 1930s, which were likely left behind by a boarder who had rented a room many years earlier. While the identity of the photographer remains unknown, the glass plate negatives capture candid residential scenes of Portland on the east side of the Willamette River and offer a slice-of-life look at emerging neighborhoods around the turn of the twentieth century.
People in the images carry out everyday activities on their front porches or stoops, are pictured with their pets, and signs of new construction are almost always present — some houses pictured are still under construction, while others stand on streets and sidewalks that have yet to be finished. While the purpose behind the photographs is unknown, one photograph offers a potential clue. In the image, residents pose on the front porch of a house with two white towers visible in the distance on the west bank of the Willamette River. These are the towers of the U.S. Government Building of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, which indicates the house is located in what is now North Portland and was taken in about 1905.
The exposition attracted nearly 1.6 million visitors to Portland in 1905 and the population of the city grew by almost 100,000 in the years that followed. Neighborhoods of new houses sprang up on the east side of the Willamette River to accommodate this population growth. Some of the houses pictured in the collection are from an area that was once the City of Albina, which the City of Portland annexed in 1891 and expanded in subsequent years. There, people built houses of all sizes and styles reflecting the range of new residents.
Below are a few selections from the Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes collection, which are now available online in OHS Digital Collections.
Seven people pose along a fence in front of a large house in Portland. A child sits on a bicycle in front of the group. Two trees grow along the walkway to the house.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 016.
A man poses with a cow while her calf feeds in a grassy lot next to a house. A woman, child, and dog stand in the background while a woman peeks her head out of a window on the first story of the home.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 021.
An African American woman stands next to a baby in a stroller on the front porch of this house on Winona Street, which is located in an area now known as the Woodlawn neighborhood in Northeast Portland.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 006.
Horses pull equipment up a new road in Portland, and a man on the construction crew handles the reigns and equipment behind them. A horse ring is visible in the foreground on the curb bordering the dirt road.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 025.
A man and woman stand next to a horse in front of a tent. The tent is tied down to a long tree branch that has been fashioned into a post.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 026.
A child wearing a white dress holds a puppy. Several of the photographs in this collection feature people with pets.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 018.
A man adds shingles to a new roof. On the left, a small child looks up at the camera from behind a stack of shingles on the ground.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 012.
Two women play croquet in the front yard of a house. Laundry hangs behind the house in the background.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 044.
Five people turn their attention to a dog standing on the walkway leading up to a house with the number “1098.”
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 075.
A man and woman pose among rose bushes in a garden next to a house.
OHS Research Library, Glass negatives of Early Portland residential scenes, Org. Lot 1417, 055.
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