THE MAKING OF A MONSTER: The Transformation of Portland's East Side Highway
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
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I've lived my whole life on the east side of the Portland area and traveled up and down 82nd Avenue thousands of times. Dubbed the Avenue of Roses many years back this stretch served as the first major highway running north and south on the city's easy side. But even before then it had previously functioned as a thin route mainly used by local farmers to go between their farms and the nearest markets. A lot has changed along the Avenue since then and that is the focus of this video which discusses mainly the structural changes it has faced since its origin. I also discuss and visit some locations that once used to be part of 82nd Avenue/Highway 213. So come join me as I tell this history and recently paid a visit walking up and down the Avenue to capture extensive footage of the route and how it looks today, especially as the city of Portland gears up to do a major overhaul on it over the next couple of years.
My parents owned the plaza at 82nd and Foster. We sold it to Tom Peterson in 1977. We also leased the tiny space on the corner of the plaza to LaRog Jewelers. People don't know that under that plaza is a small underground labyrinth where goods were stored and inventory was locked away from criminals. It was wild back then too.
I remember was Tom Peterson was there. “Knock knock wake up”
And Gloria's too!
@@user-xc5qo6yo6w OMG !!!
People do now! It would be interesting to go down inside and see it. Does is branch off and go anywhere else or is it just a localized area under the property lines of your parents old place?
@@electrichellion5946 It was localized to the plaza. The businesses that were there at the time of my parents were largely craftsmen. Shoe repair, upholstery, etc. They didn't need space for inventory. When more retail businesses started leasing there, storage was needed so they went underground. It spanned the entire parking lot The other reason for putting it underground had to do with avoiding some rules with the bank that issued my parents the loan for the property. At that time it was First Interstate bank which was on the opposite corner of Foster.
We used to jump off the old 82nd Ave. bridge into the Clackamas River before it was closed. It was a right of passage as a teenager in the early 70's. Thanks Steve, for the great content. Having grown up on the East side in the 70's, your videos bring back lots of memories and stories. Keep up the great work!
I remember in the 90's driving on 82nd and it being equally shitty then.
My grandparents use to take the trolly from Happy Valley to Old town China town. I'm not sure how but that may be your next clue looking into the old maps.
I remember one of my grandmothers tales about sleep walking onto the trolly and making it all the way downtown for her secretary job and her boss calling my grandpa to collect her, she was mortified to learn her boss had seen her in her curlers and nightgown. They use to have a farm in Happy Valley. The mountain they once had, they crafted their own forest after loggers leveled it before them. It was a magical beautiful place with several terraces, and a stream flowing in it. They had different crop fields and forest patches and raised rabbits for coats. The wild rabbits out there are massive - those are the long escaped bunnies from decades past. The mountain has since been reformed and turned into McMansions, completely unrecognizable from my memories in the forest.
Wow! I just a visual of a massive angry revenge rabbit 😂
back in the day 82nd was one hell of a cruise in, it was a party
I remember drag racing back then
In the seventies (before I-205), I had a coworker who lived in Molalla and worked on Columbia Boulevard, and he drove the length of 82nd every working day. Brutal.
My thoughts, exactly! I remember it was a great place to cruise in the mid 80’s. Then the police really cracked down.
Sad for the younger generations who didn't/don't get that great experience. Loads of fun back in the 70s cruising 82nd. Great memories.
Yup, on a Saturday night 82nd would be filled with muscle cars that now sell for a fortune. Hotrod magazine had it listed as one of the top 10 cruises in the states. Glad I got to see it before the police kill all the fun.
I remember when a lot of 82nd was open fields. We used to ride our bikes through a large field that is now the Clackamas Town Center. And where the Home Depot and all of the others businesses at 82nd and Johnson Creek are? That was the Batten neighborhood. It was a huge open field with a few houses a few feet off of 82nd.
At 82nd and Powell, where Winco Foods is, was another huge open field, at least 10 acres. Sunnyside was all farmland east of 82nd. It's all changed so much, and I feel fortunate to have seen what it used to be.
I lived on Harmony for awhile had a Great Uncle Ted who owned a big plot of land in Happy Valley out past where the Hospital is (E. Side of mountain there...Scott?) he had an enormous planted area.
There were tall radio towers in a swampy area before the built clackamas town center.
That who area is almost unrecognizable now, so much has changed. Or maybe I'm just gettin old. 😆
My dad lived on a farm off of 82nd pre-world war 2. He was riding his horse on 82nd and was hit by a car, it knocked him out and he lost his front teeth and his horse had to be put down, this was in 1947 I believe.
Loved this video Steve! If you ever want to do a follow up, I was a teen in the 70’s who cruised 82nd a lot! I then went to work for a land planner, who created the 82nd Avenue Business Association, where I became the coordinator. We had many businesses join the association where we would take issues to the city & created a great group to advocate for 82nd Ave. (including the cruisers like I was!)
What a time to be alive. You could walk down a street such as this and not worry about the filth and the needles. The prostitution, crime and poverty were a fraction of what they are today. There was dignity, pride and a sense of freedom.
First off. Fabulous video as always! The history of 82nd Ave goes way back to when people fished for salmon at the falls. This route was a key path to Multnomah Village on the Columbia River. The Clackamas people also used Johnson Creek to get to the Willamette River. So, the intersection of 82nd and Foster is about as old as human activity in the valley.
Settlers also used 82nd to get to OC pre Barlow Rd.
I remember both Tom Peterson's and the old Fred Meyer's (back when Fred was still alive!) as a kid in the 70's.
Johnson Creek used to end at 82nd Avenue -- there was a motorcycle shop there. Also a drive-in where 7-11 and Stuff and a storage place are now between 82nd and (North) Fuller Rd. on Otty Rd.
I remember the motorcycle shop vaguely. I recall the old Tortilla Flats tavern/ cantina? Much better, however. Right over by the Johnson creek intersection and a bit north I think? The sign was by 82nd so it was easy to see, very memorable. Not fancy at all, words and cacti painted on a board.
At the corner of 82nd and Sunnyside Rd, NW corner was a little family owned convenience store and behide it North on 82nd was BC Choppers.
I do remember that spot though as well. So much has changed!
Fred ✊
Steve - I am so impressed with your homework - your delivery and ethics- Thankyou
I used to live at 76th and Madison until 1976. Then we moved over to Alameda because dad thought 82nd was getting too rough. My grandmother stayed and lived on the south side of the mountain. When we went over there, you could hear blasting music and cruisers up at the park at night.
76th and Madison? I grew up on 76th and Multnomah as a matter of fact I'm laying in the bedroom of my mom's house right now on 76th and Multnomah we're getting ready to sell the house I never knew there was a street called Madison but I did go to Madison High School and I used to walk through Rose City Golf Course to get there
After 82nd crossed the Clackamas River into Oregon City it connected to Washington St. Hwy 213 went up the hill on Washington St to 7th St, and then turned south, following 7th St, and Molalla Ave. to where it meets "the bypass". If you go further south on 213, you'll find a road parallel to 213 called Elderado, which used to be 213. 213 also went into Molalla on their Molalla Ave. As for 99E prior to roughly 1932, "Pacific Highway East" went over the arched bridge, and went to Portland via what's now Hwy 43. In 1932, the big bridge on McLoughlin, as well as McLoughlin Blvd itself, was built as a WPA project, moving Pacific Highway East, aka 99E, to east of the river. After coming into Oregon CIty on the Arch Bridge, Pacific Highway East traveled northeasterly on Main St to 14th, where it crossed over to Washington St, to meet 213, and go up the hill together, continuing on Washington St, probably to 5th, where it cut back to High St, and then went out South End Rd towards the ferry at New Era, before heading into Canby on what's now part of New Era Rd, Haines Rd, and SE 1st Ave. The extension of McLoughlin Blvd along the river in Oregon City, under the UP tracks, and then running through Canemah, and along the bottom of the bluff is also a WPA project. The portion south of New Era didn't come until the '50s. But 99E and 213 did at one time meet in Oregon City. As for Portland Ave in Gladstone, yes, the trolley ran there, crossing the river into Oregon City, and then running down Main St. to east of 5th St. Going north, the trolley veered off Portland at Abernathy (near Gladstone High, and you can basically follow the "Trolley Trail" to Sellwood. (Old downtown Oak Grove is a particularly interesting place along this route.) But that wasn't the old 99E, as I mentioned earlier, Pacific Highway East was west or the Willamette back then. River Rd, and Oatfield Rd were more prominent through routes, and Gladstone's Portland Rd's northern end's history is somewhat lost. Once McLoughlin Blvd was built, all focus shifted off of any of the north-south routes in the area, but you can still find short stretches of streets that were likely connected to Portland Ave, such as Harold Ave. It probably connected to Oatfield Rd somewhere around Oak Grove, and the Oatfield Rd south of there, which veers of towards the east edge of Gladstone was probably built mostly in the '40s. But one can't understate how McLoughlin Blvd transformed everything along its path, and that none of it existed before the WPA, and then suddenly it was part of a major highway from Mexico to Canada almost overnight.
The Old Arch Bridhe must be the old back way into Oregon City I remember.
Out past the old giant covered wagon, wasn't it like a fair grounds?
@@dananorth895 until I-205 was built in the '60s the Arch Bridge was the only way across the Willamette at Oregon City, and prior to McLoughlin Blvd being built as a WPA project in the '30s, the Arch Bridge carried Pacific Highway East. So I wouldn't call that the "back way".
Out past the cover wagon was a landfill. A garbage dump. The Home Depot there now has all kinds of special methane venting features because it's built on top of that.
The covered wagon itself is on Abernathy Glen, which is the end of the Oregon Trail, and at that time was basically a refuge camp where people from back east hung out until they figured out where in the Oregon Territory they would go to settle. Unfortunately it's low-land, and would flood often, so once the big rush to populate the West was over, it was basically abandoned until the mid-20th Century. I suppose it might have been used for exhibitions during the dry parts of the year.
Thank you for explaining this!! Definitely food for thought if Steve continues to make videos connecting these areas.
Looking at how it was in the 30's compared to now the major takeaway for me is that in the 30's it looks like a place people could breathe, a place you could wander thru, a place where you didn't feel constrained by everything around you, a place at peace with itself. Now it looks like a place that has a grip on you, making it hard to breathe, hard to move, hard to enjoy. Hardly unique to this place, so many places today are like that... in old photos there is a spaciousness even when there is "civilization", you can SEE the distance, try that in any modern city today. That all gives way to "progress" where every square foot is too valuable to leave it undeveloped, something must occupy every corner and when the ground runs out build up up up. There is nothing even remotely natural for kids to explore. So parks are built to replace the nature that was lost and those parks are almost always so sanitized, so manicured, so design-integrated that they are nothing like nature. When I was a kind I could explore alleys, old houses no longer occupied, dirt streets, small gas stations where there weren't signs saying their insurance company precluded entry, free air for my bike tires, water fountains out where kids could get to them, and perhaps trash out behind the building that we could explore. If you could find a place like that today it would be too dangerous for kids (or adults with any sense) to go there. The technology "golden age" is unfolding for modern people but the true "golden age" for human spirt peaked over the last 100 years and won't be back. The future holds only regimentation, surveillance, and control even for people who think they have freedom... they will have none unless they are part of the top 0.05%.
We were so lucky to be alive during that era ❤I pray for our descendants.
Thanks for the great video, especially those very old photos. It was cool to get a glimpse of a school (Vestal) that I attended briefly back in '61 62. That area is so different now. I remember playing on the swings and gazing at the residential houses directly across the street from the school. I also attended John Marshall HS for a short spell. I haven't lived in Portland since the early '80s, so now it seems like a different world around there.
My dad George Jones went to Vestal back then then he went to Benson to go to high school he played trumpet with Doc Severinsen
Great video Steve, I love these historical journeys you take us on from Portland past and present
Having lived in off an on in Portland for the past 20 years, this is great history that I didn't know about. It is very revealing.
As a native Portlander who has moved away, I really enjoy your videos. You speak very well, and your passion for the topics you choose shines through. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi. I grew up on 74th and Woodward. Really enjoyed this video since I grew up in the area going up and down 82nd.. Thank you.
High Rocks on the Clackamas River was a notorious drinking place for teens back in the day. There was a whirlpool under the bridge pier that took a number of young lives.
That and fools that couldn't swim jumping off the bridges, thinking one of us was going to save her. I didn't even know she'd jumped.
@@jackshaftoe1715She doesn’t remember much from that day anyway. Possibly her last thoughts were “Where are they?” “Didn’t someone see me jump?” “I hope they hurry……”
The trick was statting under 205 in shallows on south side of bridge going with your feet out in front of ya like in a go kart so you could bounce off corner rock and stay on edge of the big swirl but yea it could be scary but did it 100s of time. No safety people just a guy in a speedo blasting rock lobster ,he watched out for dummies sometimes
@@rctopfueler2841😂
Oh the organ grinders are still there silly! They walk 82nd night and day, haha. But truly, as a long time resident of PDX, I really did enjoy this video. I had rental on 85th and Bybee for years in the 70's. Double lot, 1920's built home with leaded glass, built in hutches and features that were so beautiful. Paid $90 mo from 1975 till 1982. A couple blocks away from 82nd. I really thought that by now that street would be different, better, but it has only gotten worse. I still live in SE PDX, but further out in the "numbers". I have almost always been able to find enclaves in these areas where people own and care for their homes, and places that are safe, connected and kept up by those of us who do want a good neighborhood. I did want to say thanks for the obvious work put into this interesting and valuable piece of video.
The driving range was a city dump back in the 60’s and early 70’s. Plus 205 ended at foster for a long time in the 70’s and early 80’s
Lavelle landfill. Hauled a lot of excavation spoils there.
The driving range was a dump you're right and it was also called Rose City sand and gravel for a while too I used to play in there with my friends when I was in grade school at Glenhaven down at the bottom of the hill from Madison what a cool video I love it
When 205 and the bridge were first finished you could darn near drive the whole thing and only see a dozen other cars on the freeway....that didn't last long!
You've done a fantastic job with this video. I really enjoy your work! thank you!
Well done. Your videos get better and better Steve.
Steve, I love your content. Another well done episode.
Valuable work, important for future generations. Even the comments are informative.
I’m 71 & grew up on 92nd at the base of Rocky Butte which is shown several times in the video. During my youth 82nd wasn’t all that different so yes it’s pretty much been an eyesore for more than 60 years. We spent many evenings driving 82nd to & from our destinations. And as others mentioned we did cruise it on the weekends, however there were never any places of interest even that long ago. We can’t forget High Rocks at the end of 82nd It was only for the brave of heart to jump into the Clackamas River I went to Madison High School (now it’s some other name) & we did hang at the bowling alley across the street from there. Your video was a blast from the past but nothing new for 82nd sadly. You hit the nail on the head.
Thanks for sharing. Do your remember parkrose and pre 205 too I'm guessing. I love old Portland history.
Absolutely. Parkrose, even though it’s just a mile or so from 82nd was considered the “sticks”😂 pre 205 82nd was the long drive out of town. Also, the jail built from the huge bricks that Rocky Butte tunnel & observatory still have was quite the imposing place. The jail was torn down when I205 was built. Rocky Butte has paths throughout its entire area and caves on its east side above I205 and with a back way to the Grotto. My house had a terraced backyard that led into the “woods”. We spent many many days roaming the entire area. Great place to build tree forts There was a military academy on Rocky Butte as well. It’s now a college I believe. There were no houses built there at the time. Just a few at the top of Academy Avenue. 92nd ended in front of my house @3104 NE Academy Avenue & continued up to the Military Academy) Thanks for reminding me of my fun filled youth 🙏 TBH Rocky Butte could be another video all its own
I grew up in the Mt Tabor and Kelley Butte neighborhoods - 80th & Taylor.
It was great to see the original plot maps of that neighborhood.
In the late 70s I-205 dumped into 82nd drive, it hwy 212. Finally in the 80s it opened into East Portland and eventually across the Columbia.
Great video!
I turned 18 in 1981 and it was around that time when I went to a trade school in jantzen Beach., I lived in Milwaukee for those few months. 82nd avenue was a party every weekend I had a lot of fun and a lot of fun memories on 82nd avenue.
Thanks. I have always thought about the history of this highway. As a Kid from Vancouver's 82nd Ave we had to drive west to I-5 then east to 82nd to enjoy the Oregan Grinder Pizza. Back in 1973 that was almost an hour's drive before I-205 and the Glenn Jackson bridge. Glisan and 82nd was designated dangerous even then, marked with a strobe light.
Great video my friend! I wish they would decide to either unsign it as highway 213 or give into it being a highway and have thru points (although I do realize this would break Portland's illustrious grid). 82nd has always felt weird to call it a highway or even as one back in the day, because it doesn't really resemble one, especially in today's modern era, it's just a really cluttered blvd.with a choked speed limit of 30-35, which is totally not a highway speed, and 45 finally once you're in Clackamas county.
But I guess their decision to add more crossings and add more trees and shrubbery to make you feel like it's less safe to drive fast, is pretty much making the decision to turn it from a "highway" and into a regular road.
This mans a good mans lol ty for talking about us working girls respectfully it is very wholesome and warms my tiny cold heart
Old 82nd ends now at Gladstone, but if you walk up where the water treatment plant is you will see a road that dead ends and you will see the old 82nd road continues to downtown Oregon City.. At 54:21 you point in the right direction of the water plant.. In the old days that was the route you used to connect to highway 99 south from 82nd where the bridge piling are not being used there was a road that connected to Highway 215 witch is now 213
Good job describing 82nd. A lot of Portland is an eyesore.
Thanks for the history of 82nd Ave. Great video 📹 👍🏾.
Actually Portland still has dirt streets near Woodstock neighborhood
57 th 54 th flavel to ogden still dirt
And in sellwood
Do you mean full dirt roads or the alley ways between blocks in the felony flats area?
@@Infinitespace04 a bit of both but yes a lot of alleyways
"Give me your camera or I will shoot"??? That had to be extremely scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😮☹
Now it's your car they want.
How do you keep your freedom, and protect yourself?
Take a guess!
Steve, you're probably correct about why there are so many houses still along 82nd Ave. The families probably couldn't afford or didn't want to give up their houses, even with eminent domain reimbursement.
I remember going to the organ grinder when I was really young back in the 70s, loved the pizza and the monkey.
I loved seeing the Signal Gas, the restored (pizza place) building in St Johns is one of my favorite buildings in Portland.
Reall enjoying these videos. I remember the beginning of construction on the I 205 segment from about Mall 205 to Oregon City. We used to visit my grandparents near Oregon City and we would take 82. That part of 205 didn't exist. It's all a blur now but I remember when we actually started taking 205 to visit the granparents.
When I was very little (from about 4 till 8), my family lived on 82nd from about 70-74, in a trailer on the property where the Happy Valley Winco is (under the back building with Kumi Buffet); it was one of the trailer lots (not Bonanza by the Causey corner).
That summer we moved out past Canby to the SE, then to Molalla, and then to Oregon City by Labor Day, and into Gladstone in March, where we stayed several years till moving to West Linn. But we still would always visit 82nd over the years, and I eventually moved up into outer Northeast in the Hazelwood area, living here from 1995 and in my current apartment since 2000. I frequently travel down 205 to Happy Valley and Sunnyside, but most of the time drive back north on 82nd because of the freeway traffic.
The original Portland airport was on Swan Island, but PDX began operations in 1936. I have always believed the extension of 82nd diving down under Lombard was to connect 82nd to the airport, although I have never confirmed that was true; your research seems it’s very likely. 82nd went all the way up to where Airport Way is now and turned left to head to the airport buildings and parking lots (none of that landscaping was present that I recall).
I have not been able to confirm when Oregon 213 was designated, but as it went from Salem to PDX, I also have long believed it was an official route from the beginning to connect both the state’s largest city and the Capitol to the airport.
The 205 bridge at Oregon City wasn’t connected to 213 for a bit after it opened in 1970; I remember my dad having to follow some ramps to 213 because there were no lanes continuing the freeway.
For a bit into the mid-70s, Arlington Street in Gladstone extended down a hill past the location of the Safeway to a stoplight-controlled intersection with SE 82nd Drive. I remember hating when that route was blocked off when 205 was extended up the 213 travel paths.
Outstanding video Steve! Thank you very much. Hope to see more from you!
Good one Steve… one of the top 5 of yours I have enjoyed. Keep up the good work! (Top 5 imo for context)
They only showed me this part of Portland when I was a child to put more academic pressure on me and to reach outside of Oregon
Great video and history lesson, Steve. I grew up in unincorporated Multnomah county, off SE 111th and Holgate and cruised 82nd in the late 70's and early 80's.
The snobby west siders have always looked down on southeast.
Be very wary on what PBOT plans for 82nd. They are planning on screwing it up as bad as they did SE Division street and SE 162nd and SE Foster rd.
Very interesting! I have some very old Portland road maps. I think I’ll get them out and look at this area.
I remember as a kid, my family went to the dump once a year. It was on the east side of 82nd across from Madison high school and a bit north.
We used to spend a lot of time in the area in the 60’s. My uncle had two car lots on the street.
@46:27 "High Rocks was the summer hot spot in the 1970-80's. Super cool. Thank you very much we enjoyed this very much.
Nice local documentary. Reminds me of the opening to the film Soylent Green, except stretched-out for an hour.
The last nice thing I remembered about 82nd was The Grateful Burger hangout, near the southern end of 82nd, before it went away.
I love your videos and I live no where near Portland.
Great video - saw a lot of different landmarks/storefronts that I recognized from my 8-9 years I lived in the area (82nd was my preferred commute home from Milwaukie b/c 205 was way too congested in the afternoons.) My mother grew up SW Washington, but spent a lot of time in the Portland area as a kid in the late 50's/early 60's. To hear her tell it, the main downfall of 82nd was when 205 became the preferred way to the airport, and that killed a lot of the traffic you used to see on the road. Not sure how 205 connected to the airport before the 90's (when I believe Airport Way was constructed), but I know you can still drive 82nd almost all the way up to the airport (I think it passes by the Post Office up there, then links up with Airport Way.)
I-205 connected to the airport as a direct off-ramp, pretty much. I think i remember this correctly. Much like any other rural off-ramp, with maybe a gas station there being one of the first ‘Airport Way” businesses. I was in college in the early 90’s, graduating high school in east multnomah county in 89. We took Marine Drive via Sandy Blvd to get to the airport, I think.
17:37 The brick building on our left looks like Vestal Elementary School, about one block south of Glisan
Thanks for another amazing video ❤️
I've worked security in all the bad areas of Portland for 14 years and working on 82nd and Powell at the plaza where the WinCo is was definitely the worst and greatly contributed to my PTSD. I had to risk my job by carrying bear mace and a knife with me. The drug dealers/pimps and their homeless customers they control attempted to kidnap and crimp me into sex trafficking
i remember parts of it were 2 lanes where it runs into clackamas town center
Speaking as having grown up around there, even in the late 80s and early 90s, the stretch of 82nd Ave from Halsey Street to Holgate Street were still bordered by safe, working-class neighborhoods. It wasn’t until you got south of Foster Road (Felony Flats) or north of Sandy Boulevard that things got sketchy.
During 70s 82nd at sunnyside went south under 224 like it still does at 1 point 205 was powell to oregon city where you rejoined 82nd drive that turned into washington st where the dump used to be ..the 205 bridge didnt have white lines for a long time because the build crew snorted them all ! Cant blame em it was rough job
Grew up and lived all over Portland, just finding all the old schools I went to is a task. Grandparents owned a house on Harmony Rd. across from the old Harmony school (went there too.). Back before Clacamas Town Center or the Hospital was built. Happy vally was all rural farm area.
82nd Ave continued south but I think it changed to drive right about Harmony where the old Toys are us was in the 80's. What is the 224 area was the original big G.I. Joe's army surplus store, later changed to a "forgotten nme" Sporting Goods, I don't know whats there now it's been awhile.
There used to be parking areas on E. side of clackamas rive by that bridge both north and south of it right above the banks of river. Their probably all closed due to parties, drownings and illegal camping etc.
I remember a back road into Oregon City that passed by the old Giant Covered Wagon out there. You had to cross another old bridge into OR. City. Used to get my welding supplies out there. Went to CCC for welding cert. In late 70's. 👍
I really like history and live in Portland. Watching all the vids! I really enjoyed the old vs now intersection pictures you had in this
Yeah I’m getting more and more into the then and now vibes as time goes on, even being my specifically then and now videos.
Love your channel! Grow up here in Hillsboro.
Thats the driving range I was talking about right there and it used to be Rose City sand and gravel and it also used to be a landfill😊
I remember going out to go berry picking in the late 1950's. i
It was all farms past 82nd.
I grew up in OC, I wouldn't be surprised if "old bumpy road" (that leads from high rocks to Clackamas park) was originally the very end of the first iteration of 82nd ave. probably Anderson Street back then though, huh?
Wow excellent video steve.
As a kid, we would drive down to Salem to visit an aunt and uncle and cousin. We'd go down 82nd to Oregon City and I remember driving across that bridge you wondered about.
One of the old photos showed a sign for Hill Military Academy. I'd never heard of it and had to look it up. There is a nice Wikipedia listing for it. Interesting architecture and definitely a piece of lost Portland history.
The old driving range across from the High School was a city dump in the 1960's. I believe if memory serves me correct, this is why no one has developed the land, as it was determined to have a toxic element to it, and the land has been vacant since that was discovered, and it forced the closure of the driving range...
82nd has some of the best Asian food in Portland. Would love to meet up with you for lunch and sushi one day! Big fan of your videos.
My father could remember when 82nd was a gravel road.
The driving range only dates from 1980 or so. It was the dump in the late '60's and all of the '70's.
Man my neighborhood I've lived in the same house on and off my mom's house for selling it right now she just passed away but we bought the house 63 years ago on 76th and Multnomah I want to Madison High Glenhaven grade school I played Little League at montavilla and know every inch of 82ave I really dig the old historic pictures though super cool really good video thank you
I thoroughly enjoyed the history.
It’s not a highway. It used to be, but 205 (a highway) was built many years ago. 82nd is a north/south avenue.
It used to be quite an area, I’m talking before the 70’s and going back to the 30’s.
Back in the days of the CCC when Timberline and Bonneville Dam was built they used to bus workers down to 82nd Ave to have a day off and dance.
Interesting video on 82nd - history and future.
It took me a while to get to it. It was quite long in the time stamp and I didn't know if I wanted to invest that much time... was it something I had to watch.
I ride the bus, too. It is a big project and I wonder what it will mean in transportation changes and how 82nd will function. I don't see how it will become like the drawings you shared, with trees in the median. :-)
All these small changes over the years of growth add up. It gives you a bigger look at how government works. I wonder what all the people thought about these changes as they happened. Farmland is precious. Water is precious. And it all was someone's livelihood.
Once something is built, it is really hard to change it.
I made a comment to somebody's comment about the driving range I was thinking of a different driving range that was right across the street from Madison and it used to be called Rose City sound and gravel and it was a landfill but I see the driving range back in the 1930s and it's not in the same spot so 82nd must have been pretty popular for driving ranges in landfills back in the day LOL
It reminds me of the El Camino in the 80’s in NorCal.
Steve, could you do a short video on how you gather all your information for these videos? I think it would be neat thanks!
Well the State and the city recently reached an agreement that gives control of the former State highway and the city had to promise to pave the areas needing to be paved and that work starts soon but the city in its effort to drop speed limits down to twenty miles a hour,some places may only drop to twenty five mph, has already dropped speed limit from 35mph to 30mph along SE 82nd Ave.
oh and don pedros that you show in the start of the video has some of the best street tacos!!!!!
Maywood Park is the only successful carve out from the annex monster in Portland city hall. After that laws were passed to stop such shenanigans from happening again.
Sadly the ball park not being built at Eastport Plaza changed the city forever, in those days Portland was a baseball town...
I fucking love this channel. PDX represent!!!!
Your a good narrator..I like listening to stories..if I find one that's a.i narration..I dump it immediately..keep up the nice work
Nice job, Steve.
82nd Avenue looks like it hasn't been improved or maintained since the mid 1970s either, and that seems to include most of the businesses!
Amazing! Thank you
Hwy 213 is 82nd washinton street to 7th to mollala ave up hill to 213 to mulino molalla now you got 213 shortcut park place you got the right idea
The 217/5 interchange used to be horrible (bad design, massive development, etc) and was completely rebuilt so it flowed correctly - who knows what the future holds?
The bridge at high rocks was very narrow if two full sized cars met on it.
Holly crap that was good!
cool video man
I love 82nd
82nd ave.
Has always been the street of broken dreams.
It is the East Side Gutter of PDX!!!
i live on 82nd and love it but i wish it was more walkable and had less cars
Thanks!
Wow thank you so much!
In reference to your comment, I had a somewhat similar experience in terms of moving cause an area was too rough. When I was born in ‘85 we lived on 136th just off Division and by ‘87 my mom pretty much said she’d leave my dad if we didn’t move cause Division was apparently so bad at the time.
I hate living on 92nd and Glisan because of 82,
Ped crossing 82nd suuuuucks and lights are soooo long.... just long dead green lights with no cars but fear to cross for that one car doing 50...
And Glisan to 205 is its own hell, but West of 82nd Glisan is nice... gotta connect 213 to 205 with 5 lanes and people doing 45+ according to the radar sign. Screw the elementary school at the top of the hill, not even a painted crosswalk
Whatever you do. Don't carry. You will make it uncomfortable for criminals that carry.
steve the historian, can appreciate your effort, it’s good product I enjoy. Thanks.
p.s. try to listen to what those older city workers were saying, and not recoil to violence ( “ smack them in the head” ) as it reveals your bias to others experiences.
Historians are purveyors of our shared experiences, some of your facts narrow the majority of human experiences here in portland,or. and the rest of the USA. You found out what diversity (crime, drugs, poverty) means .
The driving range was a dump for food garbage in the 70s
I call them INJURE SECTIONS. Always slow and double look both ways no matter what color your light is.
Jeez, things change.