Category: All (-ish)

Last week I walked up (aka north on) Vancouver, this week, Williams.  Williams is the one-way north arterial.  While Vancouver has more houses, Williams has more businesses.  I suspect it was the main drag back before poorly planned urban renewal destroyed the neighborhood.

But before we get to Williams, let us pause and mourn these abandoned Christmas Trees.  Poor things.

It’s around this time of year that dandelions start to look delicious to me.  I wouldn’t mind harvesting some of these and frying them up with some bacon.

Here’s a really nice infill that fits well with the neighborhood.  It’s a little older than what you are about to see.

I like the lines on this high-density housing of long ago.  Four units, people!  And even some yard.

There are still empty lots on Williams, but they are becoming extinct.

This is called Blue House Greenhouse Farm  I hope someday to have such a pretty spread.  And I see from their blog that they have work parties now and again.  Perhaps I shall go and make my acquaintance.

The amount of things happening in this photo is crazy stimulating.  New Seasons is in the distance.  I read in the paper that they leased all of the retail space in the building being built.  They have no plans for that retail space, but they needed all the parking spaces. 

An indication of why one of the bars had a sign posted for a few months that said, “We are open during all this f*@ing chaos”

House being eaten by a building/boa constrictor.  This house now houses businesses, including Betty Jean Couture which designs clothing for full-figured women.

This is a bar/restaurant I’m intrigued by, but I haven’t successfully visited because I can’t tell what their name is.  Googling and guessing a few months ago led me to a different bar down the street.  POA?  DOA?  Let’s see what results I can pull up.  Ah.  It seems to be Poa Cafe.  And not a bar.  Alas.

One of those rare empty/overgrown lots.

Old school business.  Back in the day when they had a lot more added security.

The building’s occupant has a similarly old school sign on their door.

Going up!  The empty lot on the left is the back half of the block with the building on Vancouver I took a picture of last week.

Old school Vancouver building.  I’m guessing, from the graffiti on the front, that it’s unoccupied.

Notice how the taller building steps down to a more respectable house-sized level.

I’ve always though this was a good example of a “remuddling”

Old school houses, including one that has been converted into a church.

This building had a very nice refurbishing. It was pretty decrepit.

Uniform in their modernity.  I wish I had taken a picture of the houses across the street, just for contrast.

Old school building with mural.  Probably not long for this world.  There was once another mural on the front that has pictures of edible weeds.

The building on the left was once a church.  It was for sale for a long time.  I wanted to buy it because I’ve always wanted to live in a converted church.  You can’t see it in this picture, but I think they have a catio on the other side of the house.  I can’t remember what the building on the right used to be, whether we are looking at a renovation, or new construction.

Twins!  Fraternal, not identical.

Someone is going to make a pretty penny off of this lot.  Hidden under the tarp are the items that are periodically for sale.

There was a time in my life when I rode my bike on Williams on a regular basis.  I watched this lot transform from the side lot of a grand house into this row of three houses.

Here you can see the grand house.

Speaking of grand houses, this was initially a family residence, then a women’s hospital and maternity ward.  After that it was the first African American funeral home in Portland and now the East Multnomah Soil and Water Council District owns it.  Though EMSWCD interviewed me twice for a position and never called to tell me I didn’t get the job, all is forgiven because I love what they’ve done with this building.

This is a grand example of a well-kept house.  I love the colors and the mystical creatures guarding the property.

On Killingsworth now, I noticed a detail on the Scanner Newspaper building.

Those aren’t awnings, they are solar panels!

So ended my walk.

My Wednesday swim has been usurped by freezing cold shower water.  The swimming water is a good temperature, but the shower before and after is more “alpine lake” than I would want.  So I’m putting off swimming until warmer weather arrives.  In the meantime, I’m taking long walks before my Wednesday volunteer stint.  Here’s my walk up (a.k.a. north on) Vancouver Ave.

Before we even get to Vancouver, here is a building on Russell St.

I love it because it has bits from all different decades.

Possibly original doors, but the plywood covering are much more recent.  Then there’s the wood that trims the bottom.  Most likely not original.

Looking above the front door, we’ve got wavy sheet metal, original ceiling and a busted out light. I also really love the way peeling paint looks.

Original roof detail, asphalt shingles and more plywood.

Really great side detail with original siding peeking through asphalt shingles.

Also, this building is much larger than it looks from the street.  And it’s not abandoned.  On the other side is a garage door (which completely doesn’t fit) so I think this building is used for storage.

The Vancouver/Williams Corridor has exploded in the last few years.  When I first moved here there were many empty lots and even empty blocks thanks to really bad urban development in the mid-20th Century.  Supposedly Legacy Emmanuel Hospital was going to hugely expand, so they moved out the largely black business owners and tenants, razed the buildings and then didn’t do anything.  Things are being done now, decades later.  But it’s not the hospital that is doing things.

Vancouver Ave is the street that runs one way south (towards downtown).  Williams is the street that runs one way north.  I used to get them confused until someone told me that she always found it odd that Vancouver’s traffic pattern took cars in the direction away from the city of Vancouver.

I was happy to see this bank of houses somehow managed to escape the devastation.  Perhaps because they front the lovely Dawson Park.

Just one block north of those houses this is what it looks like.  And that is the Vancouver today.  Houses that still survive, empty lots that are being gobbled up and the building of high rises like crazy.

It wasn’t until I was walking by that I noticed this billboard is the shortest billboard I’ve ever seen.

A good set of compare/contrast houses.

I’m slightly worried for this pretty building because its on an otherwise empty lot and is surrounded by fencing.

Closeup of the mural.

On Killingsworth, I love this huge edifice.

It’s got extend-a-porch.