The first streets were laid
out in 1845, parallel with the river, which
here flows a few degrees east of north, and
were thereby deflected to the same extent
from the points of the compass. Front street
was then a part of the levee, and extended
to the Willamette, making a broad landing
place for the equal use of all residents.
But four streets were at first laid out.
They were numbered First, Second, etc., and
were but 60 feet in width. The side streets
of the same width, were named Washington,
Alder, Morrison and Taylor, being christened
by Pettygrove, as is thought. It was natural
to name the first for the great president;
"Alder" probably was derived from a tree of
that species at its foot; "Morrison," was in
honor of a resident of that name, living on
the street; "Salmon," named later, was for
the senior partner of the firm of Salmon &
Elliot, of San Francisco; and "Taylor" was
without doubt to signify the Whig politics
of the city. As the city was extended in
1849, surveyed by Short, and mapped by
Brady, it became natural to use the ordinals
to designate the north and south streets,
and to the cross streets the names of
presidents were applied with no thought of
mnemonic value for the school children,
giving us "Jefferson," Harrison," etc.
"Clay" was probably named by some one who
thought that the great Kentuckian ought to
have been president. "Stark" was from
Benjamin Stark, who owned the site from that
street north to "A." The names "Oak," "Pine"
and "Ash" were naturally suggested by
"Alder." Upon the addition of Couch's
donation claim all effort td think up names
significant or pretty was discarded, and
with the barrenness of nomenclature for
which Americans are remarkable, the letters
of the alphabet were used for the cross
streets, making in. truth a convenient
method for finding blocks, and when the
Roman letters are exhausted we hope to see
the Greek and Hebrew applied.
On the environs of the city, as the streets
were multiplied, the names of early pioneers
have been bestowed, such as "Chapman," "Lownsdale,"
"Carruthers," "Corbett," etc. North Portland
is laid out by the point of compass and
South Portland is also square with the north
star. The east and west streets are all 60
feet broad, excepting A, which is but
30-Stark not meeting Couch half way, when
the latter laid out his claim. From Third
street the width of the streets north and
south is 80 feet, except East and West Park,
which are but half of this. Such narrowness
would be fatal, but for this one thing-that
between East and West Park are the park
blocks, 120 feet in width, and, except for a
small distance in the center of the city,
are entirely free. These are of little value
as parks, but will make, together with the
streets on each side, a splendid avenue 200
feet broad, from one end of the city to the
other-barring the encumbrances from Yamhill
to B, which may be removed. An avenue 125
feet broad leads down to the water front in
North Portland, and this and the park
boulevard will become the common center for
motor lines and driveways. Properly
ornamented, provided with fountains,
statues, arches, seats for the strollers,
and shade trees, it will become the pride
and joy of Portland. This prediction-made by
another-will be fulfilled.
The bend of the river, determining the
course of the streets, gives Portland,
particularly upon the map, the irregularity
of appearance that Europeans contend is
picturesque--or at least like their
capitals. By reason of the undulating face
of the hills to the west the uniformity of
straight lines and parallels is still
further prevented. The blocks on all the
Heights are so laid off as to best suit the
knolls and hollows, and to make the grades
of the streets as easy as the incline will
allow. In this manner the curves of the
hills are preserved in the streets, and the
"line of beauty" cannot be banished, even by
force. In time this will cause the residence
portion of the city to assume a striking
grandeur of appearance, and stimulate the
erection of buildings, and the beautifying
of grounds, on a style and scale to consort
with the requirements of the topography.
There is something in having a site which
forbids the geometrical homeliness into
which the crudely civilized so insensibly
slip.
Some sort of improvement of streets early
began to be imperative Digging stumps was
the first, and the millionaire now lives who
worked out road taxes by removing the roots
of a fir tree from the highway in front of
his store. The surface was also very
irregular, from gulches, knolls, hummocks
formed by the roots of fallen trees, and by
the hollows or pits left by the lifting of
the soil beneath. All these inequalities
were to be remedied, and the work was early
undertaken. The grading of the streets was
heavy and expensive.
Immediately following was the paving. During
the, soft months the mellow brown soil was
quickly cut into mire, and trodden into
mortar. Planks were first used. In about
1858 a macadam road was built out to the Red
House, some three miles south, the first of
its kind in the State.
In 1865 the Nicholson pavement was laid on
Front and First streets, and for a number of
years was in great favor. It soon began to
fail, however, due either to improper
construction, or to the extremes of moisture
and dryness of our seasons, and, quickly
fell into condemnation. In the June floods,
moreover, which occasionally overflowed the
levee part of the city, it had to be
weighted down. with rock to be kept in
place. As this pavement gave away, the
Belgian block was substituted, and now
prevails on Front, First and Second streets,
from G street on the north, to Jefferson
street (with some exception on Second
street) on the south. It is a block clipped
or split out from the basalt along the
river, the principal quarry being near St.
Helens. It is obtained in brick-shaped
pieces, some 4x10x15 inches. The stone is
hard and when evenly laid makes a firm, but
noisy, road. By constant use, however, the
corners of the blocks are worn down, making
a sort of cobble stone surface, which is
slippery and difficult of hold to horses
drawing heavy loads. Owing to the
non-uniformity of the ground beneath, as to
firmness, the old sections are becoming
Warped, hollows and bunches. The constant
lifting of the blocks to repair sewer and
water pipes, or for street railway purposes,
has also worked toward an uneven surface.
A short piece of bituminous rock pavement
has been laid on Washington street, and as
affording a very easy, neat and quiet
surface is far in advance of all else, but
it has not proved substantial.
The rest of the streets are macadamized. The
material, made from the andesite rock of the
hills near by, is rather soft, and a little
hard wear reduces it, under exposure of the
weather, to fine dust, which is washed into
the sewers or carted off with the street
sweepings. Much: of the macadamizing has
been cheaply and improperly done, and the
recommendation of Street Commissioner
Chapman that heavier rollers be used in
compacting the work should be heeded. It is
hardly excusable to use improper material,
since the hardest of basalt, limestone, and
even granite, may be obtained-although not
without added expense. Much consideration
has been given to the use of gravel, which
exists in immense deposits near East
Portland, and is extensively laid on her
streets. A proper assortment of boulders,
coarse and fine gravel, with sand
intermixed, is believed to afford the best
of road beds, and will perhaps be tried.
Cross-walks of the streets are of plank or
slabs of stone, the latter a foot or more in
breadth by some four or five in length, laid
treble. Many of them are of granite, brought
from England or China in ships as ballast,
being most cheaply obtained in that manner.
The sidewalks in the business portion of the
city are of stone squares, quarried from the
hills, or, now almost universally, of the
artificial stone, manufactured from sand.
This is handsome and durable. Brick, with
concrete dressing of fine gravel, was used a
little in old times, and now remains on a
few walks on Front street. The manufactured
stone is used extensively around the blocks
occupied by fine residences, but for the
most part the walks are of plank. Quite
frequently they are made too broad for
beauty, especially on the upper streets, but
the most are not thus cumbrous, and a space
for turf is left between the foot-walk and
the pavement, giving relief from the glare
and hardness of aspect which is painful to
the eye and offensive to the East.
In 1885 there were fifty-two and one-half
miles of improved streets-thirty miles
macadamized, three Belgian blocks, three and
one-fourth planks, sixteen and one-fourth
graded only. There were one hundred miles of
sidewalks, sixteen and one-half of wooden
cross-walks, nearly two of stone and over
two miles of trestles.
In 1886 about nine miles of new sidewalks were built, a mile of cross-walks, a mile of macadamized, three-fourths of a mile of pavement, six miles of plank roadway, quarter of a mile of bridging, and two miles of grading.
In 1887, sidewalks, ten and a quarter miles; cross-walks, two; inacadamaged, one and three-quarters; bridging, one-half; grading, four; sewers, three.
In 1888 were built, sidewalks, ten miles; cross-walks, one and a half; macadamized, two and three-quarters; ' bridging, one-half; grading, four and three-quarters; sewers, three; bituminous rock pavement, two hundred feet.
These figures represent a large expenditure, and show an attempt to fulfill the requirements of the city. In the main, the streets look well and are kept , tolerably clean. The greatest need is a proper crematory, or incinerary, to consume the refuse and garbage.
Street Car Lines
Portland is well supplied with this necessity of rapid transit from one point to the other. The first track was laid in 1872, on First street, from the Clarendon Hotel-then new-and the railroad station at the foot of F street to the vicinity of Jefferson street on the south. This has been subsequently extended to South Portland. Some years later the Third street double track was laid, now extending from the Marquam gulch on the south to G street on the north, and up that street to Twenty-first on the west, with a branch to North Portland. The Washington street line-double track-then followed, with branches to south and north respectively on Eleventh and Fifteenth streets. This leads into B street and out to the Exposition building and the City Park. A line beginning on Morrison street leads into Ninth street and on to B, with a return on Yamhill to Front. A cable road extends from Front by Alder to Fifth, reaching Jefferson, and proceeds thence to the Heights. An electric road makes a continuous line from G street to Fulton Park, three miles, on Second street. Entering by the Morrison street bridge there is the East Portland system, extending to all of East Portland and to Mt. Tabor by motor line. By way of the Stark street ferry, the motor line to Vancouver enters the city. By way of the Jefferson street ferry the Hawthorne avenue motor line is accessible. By the Steel bridge the electric motor cars have exit to McMillan's and Holladay's addition to East Portland, to Albina and St. John's.
The following from the report of the street commissioner for 1888 gives more exact details:
"Street car tracks have been extended over quite a number of streets during the last year, increasing the total length of all street car tracks in the city from 12.7 miles in December, 1887, to 17.45 miles at the date of this report, an increase of 4.75 miles. The increase is divided between the Transcontinental Street Railway Company, which have laid three miles in extending their tracks down Yamhill and Morrison streets to Front, and there connecting them; in doubling their track on G street from North Thirteenth street to North Twenty-first street, on North Thirteenth between G and S streets and on S street between North Thirteenth and North Sixteenth streets, and laying a double track on S street from North Sixteenth street to North Twenty-third street, where said company has erected large brick stables; the Multnomah Street Railway Company, which has laid 1.2 miles in making the Washington and B streets line a double track road from Second street to the old city boundary, near the City Park, in the western part of the city, and the Willamette Bridge Railway Company, which has laid 0.55 miles of track, from Front street across the bridge to the city boundary, in the center of the Willamette river.
"The Traction Street Car Company has a franchise for laying tracks from the northwestern part of the city through E, Second, Sheridan, Front, Porter and Corbett streets, a distance of nearly four miles. The Transcontinental Company has also been granted the right to extend their Yamhill and Taylor street tracks to Fourteenth street and thence along North Eighteenth street to their double track on G street, and this extension will undoubtedly be completed and in operation before the approaching summer shall have passed. Appearances indicate that more street car tracks will be laid in Portland during the coming season than in any previous year."
Sewers
The surface of the city is
very favorable to good drainage, sloping
well toward the river. It gains thereby a
strong wash, and throws the refuse far into
the stream. There are, however, two great
difficulties to contend with; one is
natural, and the other results from the
carelessness of the first who laid the
sewers; or, perhaps, more strictly to the
inertia of those who are allowing a system
that worked very well for a village to still
serve for the city. The natural difficulty
is the backing up of the river by the
Columbia in the summer and the other the
mistake of laying the sewers down the
streets east and west, to discharge in the
river in front of the city, instead of
northward, to cast their outflow below the
city.
As to the pollution of the river front by
sewage, F. E. Vaughn, then superintendent of
streets, said in 1885: "These mains all
extend to the Willamette river, and
discharge their contents into that stream
immediately in front of the city, a
disagreeable fact, which will eventually
demand more serious consideration than is
now accorded it. * * * I would respectfully
ask that you consider the practicability of
adopting a system whereby all river mains
that are hereafter laid in the northwestern
portion of the city shall extend north and
south. By this means their outlet will be
below the city front as now defined."
In 1886 he called attention again to the
same fact, and in 1887 recommended that to
correct the evil a sewer be built in Front
street, " from Sheridan street to a point
entirely beyond the occupied portions of our
city, large enough to take up the sewers
entering therein, as all the present sewers
extend into the Willamette river and
discharge their contents into said stream
along the city front," state of affairs
detrimental to the healthy condition of the
city. The bad condition thus recognized and
described must very soon be rectified.
As early as 1883, Major A. F. Sears thus
strongly described the situation:
In the month of June, when the floods of the
Columbia river back up the Willamette, the
mouth of every sewer is closed by the high
water.
In the winter, during the rainy season, all
this filth is carried safely away from the
town, because in those months there is a
strong outward current ; the river water
then is of excellent quality. Already the
drainage of more than twenty streets, with
the wastes of three hundred blocks, or five
hundred acres, finds its way to our river.
So near as I can estimate this sewage
contains the wastes of about twelve thousand
lives.
The movement of this water in passing up
stream under the summer sun is so sluggish,
that if no extraneous filth entered the
river, the organic matter contained in
suspension is subject to purifying influence
that cannot but have a disastrous effect on
the public health.
While the evil thus stated is an
important-may I not say a horrible--one, it
is not the only danger. When the water on
the city front, during the summer, remains
in this quiet condition, certain gross
particles of filth, not dissolved, but held
in suspension, as well as the tainted liquid
itself, assists to poison the earth of the
shore and create an infecting, stinking
sludge, to be thrown open to the seething
influence of the sun when the floods retire,
producing a second source of disease.
But, during these months of flood, when, as
previously stated, no rain is falling and
the ends of the sewers are closed, there is
only the intermitting, ordinary domestic
water supply to keep them clean. I have
lately had occasion to learn the
insignificance of this amount for the
ordinary purposes of cleansing. In the last
month of November, after twenty-four hours
of continuous, though light, rains, the
greatest depth of flow in any sewer has been
less than three inches, and this was
regarded as extraordinary, the truth being
that it was rare to find more than one inch,
and generally only a film of liquid running
along the pipes.
In the summer, therefore, when the sewers
must rely solely on the domestic water
supply, they become elongated cesspools and
throw their poisonous gases on our
atmosphere or into our houses.
The catch-basins, that are filled by the
last rainy season with a rich deposit of
rotting wood, street filth, dead cats and
all unnameable things that reek, are
dispensing the gases of putrefaction along
the sewers for distribution in our houses or
at the street corners.
This is a condition of things existing at
the present time, while the district under
consideration is, as compared with other
cities, sparsely settled.
He spoke of the suggestion of Wm. E. Morris,
in 1872, that an intercepting sewer be built
along Front street to lead to a point below
the city, and that the Warring system be
adopted, by which the waste of water, etc.,
is carried off in separate pipes, which are
kept clean and flushed by steady automatic
injectments of water at the dead end from a
flushing tank furnished with syphons. The
expense of the work, $348,958, was deemed so
great as to render the change impracticable.
Nevertheless, at this day, when the
population is five times that at the time
the report was made by Major Sears, and the
expense would not be above six dollars per
capita, no better system could be devised.
The condition of the sewers in the summer
time is thus spoken of by W. S. Chapman,
present superintendent of streets:
"Something like five miles of street sewers
are submerged from one end to the other by
from ten to eighteen feet of back (dead)
water during the summer freshets." The
sewers thus referred to are in the lower, or
northern, portion of the city. But all the
sewers are stopped tip at the mouth by the
high water. How this great difficulty may be
remedied it is hard to see, unless it be by
concentrating all the mains upon one large
sewer, and carrying that far below the city,
and there, during high water, emptying it by
means of powerful pumps.
In 1885 the total length of sewers
aggregated fifteen and a half miles of terra
cotta pipes, ranging from nine to eighteen
inches in diameter. During 1886, 12,739 feet
(two and one-fourth miles) were added, the
principal work being on Jefferson street.
Work was also begun on the Tanner Creek
sewer. This is of brick, 500 feet in length
of circular, and 3,836 feet egg-shaped,
making upwards of three-fourths of a mile in
all; to which has been added more than a
quarter of a mile within the past year. It
carries a large volume of water, draining a
considerable portion of the range of hills;
$36,067.74 were spent on this in 1887, and
$16,181.25 for pipe sewers. In 1888 special
attention was given to the southern portion
of the city, laying a sewer to carry off the
drainage of the Marquam creek. This is of
brick, built at a cost of $7, 559.25, and,
together with lateral pipes, aggregated some
$25,000; $40,788.97 were spent on pipe
sewers in 1888. The great work for 1889 has
been the beginning of the Johnson creek
sewer, in the northern part of the city, to
be erected at a cost of $60, 000. Pipe
sewers in the northwestern portion are also
being provided with arrangements for a main.
The expense of construction of sewers is
borne by the property adjacent, and averages
about. $20 per lot. This is undoubtedly a
bad plan, as lot owners along the line use
every method to reduce expense, and the
sewers are not built except in the last
extremity. The benefit, moreover, is to the
whole city, since the cleanliness and
healthfulness of each part has a full
influence upon the whole.
The Marquam gulch on the south, the Tanner
creek vale in the center, and the Johnson
creek hollow on the north are the main
depressions in the city, and the work in
them is of a substantial and permanent
character. Portland has not been niggardly
in expenditure for sewers, yet her system is
in a very unsatisfactory condition. The work
to be done at once is introduction of an
entirely new. plan, by which the pipes are
thoroughly flushed and washed out every day
in the year and the contents taken far below
the city, even, if necessary, to the
Columbia river. One million dollars raised
by special tax, if by no other means, would
be a small outlay in comparison with the
health and benefit to be derived.