In the early hours of August 2, 1873, fire bells rang summoning the Portland volunteer firefighters to a fire that raged, according to newspaper accounts, …

Oregon History Project

The Portland Paramount Theatre once dominated the city’s Great White Way, a series of brightly lit cinemas that dazzled downtowners along Southwest Broadway Street. The …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Portland Seamen's Friend Society was organized in 1877 by Reverend R.S. Stubbs and prominent Portland merchants, including Henry Corbett, William S. Ladd, Simeon …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Situated on 116 acres in southeast Portland, Reed College enrolls nearly 1,400 undergraduates each year from all over the world. Considered one of the …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Merchants, craftsmen, and other members of the middle class described churches as the center of social life. By the late 1850s, mainstream Protestant denominations—Methodists, Baptists, …

Oregon History Project

Dick Bogle was a multi-talented Oregonian and humanitarian who dedicated his adult life to service in the Portland area. The great-grandson of Northwest pioneers, Bogle …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The ambitions and aspirations of Portland’s business community were expansive, and its publications alluded to “unoccupied” districts, “untapped” wealth, and the benefits of “opening up” …

Oregon History Project

In September and October 1880, Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) became the first sitting United States president to visit Oregon. Four years earlier, Hayes had accepted …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Santiam Wagon Road was a vital commercial link connecting the Willamette Valley with central Oregon. Built between 1861 and 1868, the road, which closely …

Oregon Encyclopedia

This engraving is one of the illustrations included in Charles M. Scammon’s The Marine Mammals of the North-Western Coast of America, published in 1874. …

Oregon History Project