(Lesser) Demolished Buildings of PDX.

There used to be an old garage or machine shop at the corner of SE Division & (lower) Grand Avenue. If you were driving by on the viaduct, where Grand & MLK become McLoughlin, you would only see an old rooftop, maybe. I think it was last winter but I was riding home from work and noticed the old building had chainlink fence around it, a minor construction tractor of some sort & a large dumpster standing by. This old building was getting torn down.

When I got home I looked the address up on Portland Maps &, yeah, the shop was old, like 1925 or so. I wanted to take photos but it was already dark (winter = dark by 5:30). I tried to remind myself to just bring my camera to work so I could snap a photo on the way home the next day or two but I kept forgetting. The demolition continued. The building was City property & was being cleared to make way for the eventual re-building of the Grand/MLK/McLoughlin viaduct in 2007. I remember it had a lot of brickwork & thick wooden beams. And let's be honest, it probably rested upon contaminated soil. The front doors of the building faced east, on to the original, pre-viaduct Grand Avenue - the one where the old Bridge Transfer Line trolley tracks still lie. Funny there, the viaduct put the building out of business, & the new viaduct put it out of its misery.

Waxing my way along here, my point is that buildings get demolished everyday, usually to little hooplah or even notice by anyone 'cept bizarros like me. On one of those last weekends of nice weather in September, I walked around parts of central eastside, taking snapshots. Included was this quirky little building at 2008 S.E. 11th.



Yeah, you know the one? Right? The window had a sign painted on about the "Past & Present" shop or some such, & the door said "Psychic" on it. A fortune teller!

Part of my project that day had been to cross-reference the buildings I took pics of w/ Portland Maps - see when they were built, try to get a feel for the lay of the town back when. I swear this little shop-front was built in 1910 or close to it.

Why am swearing it was built in 1910? Because Portland Maps doesn't include the "original built" info for 2008 SE 11th anymore, because it be not there anymore...


Further demolition revealed that the building had a full basement, which, honestly, surprised me a bit. And to be honest, it probably had terminal mold problems.

2008 SE 11th Avenue
c.1910-2006.
We Hardly Knew Ye.
-d.d.