 |
| Local: (503) 249-3983
Elsewhere: (888) 249-3983
5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.
Portland, OR 97211
Directions
Contact Us |  |  |  | | |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
KENNEDY SCHOOL |
 |
|
|
|
Home > Kennedy School > Calendar > Every last Monday of the month…
Monday, September 28
Every last Monday of the month…
HISTORY PUB MONDAYS
The Other Portland: Ethnic Groups and Workers in
Portland's North End during the 19th and 20th Centuries
7 p.m. | Free; bring canned goods to donate to Oregon Food Bank | All ages welcome
Join us for beer and history, sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society, Holy Names Heritage Center and McMenamins, in which you'll hear lively local or regional history while you enjoy a frosty pint or two of handcrafted ale. Gather in the theater at Kennedy School every last Monday of the month.
In September: "The Other Portland: Ethnic Groups and Workers in Portland's North End during the 19th and 20th Centuries"
"I'm landing at the train station, right? So I'm right here. Come to Portland. I'm right in the Old Town. . . . So my brother picks me up and drives by the Demas Tavern where my father worked . . . and I'm seeing it. Even though it's like a slum, let's say, to me it doesn't look like that. It looks like a good beginning." -- George Pappas
There were always two stories of Portland. One was the story of a proper white- and rain-washed town peopled by enterprising New Englanders like Captain John Couch. The other story is closer to reality. In 1890, one third of Portlanders were foreign-born. Within half of all Portland households at least one parent was speaking a language other than English. Germans were far and away the largest European ethnic group, with the Irish in second place. But Portland's Chinese community was nearly as large as the two combined. In fact, in 1890 and 1900, Portland could boast the second-largest Chinatown in the United States.
Until World War II, Portland's ethnic and working class community clustered near the wharf north of Burnside and around Union Station, dominating what we now call Old Town and the Pearl. It was a little United Nations: German brewers, Irish maids and laborers, French prostitutes, Chinese railroad and restaurant workers, Japanese hotel and laundry keepers, African American barbers, porters and waiters; Scandinavians loggers and fishermen, Jewish wholesale merchants, Greek grocers, Filipino cannery workers and Roma fortune tellers. This month's History Pub tells the story of that "Other Portland."
Enjoy a presentation by Jacqueline Peterson Loomis, Ph.D, a professor of history at Washington State University Vancouver and co-founder of the Old Town History Project, Inc., an organization devoted to collecting and interpreting the multi-ethnic history of Portland's North End, now Old Town and the Pearl, through oral history, street level history, art, and sound installations, walking tours and publications.
|
|
|
|
| | Friday, November 20, 2009 | |  | |  | |  | |
