About Northeast Portland: Past, Present and Future
Presented by Doug Decker
Just over a century ago, orchards, open fields and patches
of forest defined the landscape of Portland’s eastside. But as a young city
sprawled across the river, the rural landscape was replaced by a grid of
neighborhoods, a busy streetcar system and tens of thousands of new residents.
Successive waves of homebuilding and change in the decades that followed shaped
the neighborhoods we know today. New challenges arise in this second century
that are reshaping the look and feel of these Northeast Portland neighborhoods.
Using early maps, documents,
photos and newspaper accounts, and memories he’s collected from past residents,
local historian Doug Decker will explore the early years of Northeast Portland
neighborhoods—Sabin, Alameda, Vernon, Concordia, Beaumont-Wilshire and Cully—to
examine connections between past, present and future.
About the speaker:
Doug writes a history column for
the Concordia News and AlamedaPDX News, and runs a website devoted to old house
and neighborhood history in Northeast Portland: www.alamedahistory.org. He also
conducts architectural and social history studies of buildings and places
through interviews, document and archive research, photo research and other
explorations to create a rich understanding of a property and its impact,
significance and role over time.
