Portland Sidewalk Stamp Bingo

What a stressful year it is.  And even Pedalpalooza is hollowed out.  That 1/12th of the year that provides 30 days of fantastic socializing, meeting new people, learning interesting new things about your city, exercising, listening to someone else's weird music, and simply letting loose of your mundane cares -- even that is curtailed by social distancing.

Last year I led an easy Pedalpalooza ride to look at historical and/or wacky sidewalk stamps around Portland.  This year, unfortunately, my work is easier, providing you a bingo card to do your own exploring.

Click here to get your own smartphone bingo card.  Feel free to use the Google Map for inspiration, or explore on your own.  Send me tips for anything that isn't on the map!

Map of Interesting PDX Sidewalk Stamps

Here is a map of photos of some of the more humorous or interesting stamps to be found on the sidewalks of Portland, Oregon. 



A lot of the sidewalks that were installed in Portland in the early 20th century were stamped with street names at corners, or with the name of the contractors who did the job.  Many of those century-old stamps are still visible around town; in other places where sidewalks have been upgraded or repaired, the stamps were reproduced or redone.

As time goes on I plan to write a few posts about the stamps, about the various Portland street renaming episodes, and about whatever else may be tangentially related.

Other resources:

• Two great collections on Flickr:
• Portland Sidewalk Stamps
• Portland Cement
• Here's my Instagram feed.
• A Brief Catalogue of the Origins of Portland's Street Names.
• City of Portland Historical Resources
• List of Street Name Changes (spreadsheet)
• OR GenWeb Portland City Directories 
• 1874 list of Portland Additions (can help decode the street name database).