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:
- 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).
Thank you so much for your information. I am 4th generation Oregonian and love
ReplyDeletelearning info about my home. I may have missed the information in your resources, but I found this pdf that also lists info on certain street names and why they are named whatthey are. https://www.rcpna.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Streets-of-Rose-City-Park.pdf
That one on 73st see is 73rd street southeast I used to see addresses listed that way all the time. I'll try to locate it again but there's one on se 72nd in that area that says 67th which explains a friend's apartment at 67xx see bybee that is east of 72nd
ReplyDeleteAt the corner of NE 37th and The Alameda, the same error appears on both corners: “TNE ALAMEDA.” (ELWOOD WILES 1911, who did the sidewalks in the Wilshire neighborhood, lived on Bryce St., one block north.)
ReplyDeleteOn the corner of 32nd Place and SE Salmon, the sidewalk stamp reads Glenn Ave, which was its name before the great renaming of streets. I’d be happy to upload a photo, if someone can share how that’s done.
ReplyDeleteHi Ellie: I do have a few Glenns on the map. Surprised I don't have that one, I've patrolled that area heavily! I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't updated the map in years, and I have dozens of photos I should add. Still, if you email or Instagram yours to me, and tell me if it's the SE or SW corner, I'll add it.
ReplyDeleteHello, I love this map as I've been fascinated by sidewalk stamp errors for a while! I am even in the process of creating a geocaching experience based on these errors. One more to add would be "Brooke St" stamp on the SE corner of SE 65th and Stark. Also, there are some other mistakes at SE Morrison and 69th and 70th. I'd be happy to send photos and GPS coordinates if you are maintaining this map.
ReplyDeleteOh, another thing. I noticed the sidewalk crew that just finished the sidewalk corners at 44th and Madison failed to keep the original sidewalk stamps on 2 corners that spelled the street "MADDISON." what a bummer!
ReplyDeleteHave you seen a couple of sidewalk stamps in the Grant Park neighborhood that don’t reflect the current street names? They always confused me until I saw very old maps of the area when it was first platted. The 2 stamps I found are for Hollis and Beverly Avenues, they are around 37-42 Aves, on Thompson and Brazee I think. I have pics if you like!
ReplyDeleteHi Annaneve, those are really surprising to me, they are not in the city's name change spreadsheet (https://sidewalkingpdx.blogspot.com/p/spreadsheet-of-portland-street-name.html). If you use instagram, maybe you can message them to @sidewalkingpdx. That account is much more active than this map, which is woefully out of date. I will also try to go have a look. Thanks!
DeleteI agree they are surprising- I was confused when I saw the Beverly stamp but then was deep diving something else and saw the original platt of the Rossmere addition, which uses these names. All of the N/S streets above Sandy from 37-45 originally had other names and were changed around 1911 to numbers. The Polk’s City Directory of 1920 lists the old names and their “official name”. It’s super interesting to me but no one else! Thanks for having interest in this too! Beverly was 44th and Hillis was 45th, those are the only stamps I found.
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