Category: Structures

Morning surprises: Kittens! Mural!

Oh my gosh, two of them, sitting in front of a fence on the way to the Max train.  They froze when they saw me and bolted through the hedge into the cat wonderland that is the former City of Roses Motel.  (Chain link fence all around, flat ground, depressions with copious amounts of weeds growing.) There was one already waiting for them, so there were three!  Three kittens!
Sadly, I suspect they are feral. 

And, blooming on the side of a building, is the beginning of a mural.  That would be the grey thing on the left.  The exposed brick is the historic painted sign for the first indoor car dealership in Oregon.  The building was required to preserve it when they did the renovation.

Fort Leavenworth

My visit commences!  After a smooth flight, a trip through the Kansas City airport, (which I hadn’t seen since 1995), Heather (who I haven’t seen in the flesh since 1997) picked me up and we picked up some barbecue for a taste-off.  Not surprisingly, the place with the sauce in the prepackaged pouches did not win.  Also not surprisingly, the sauce without so much vinegar was my favorite.  Although that place didn’t have pulled pork.  Anyway, yum!
We went for a walk.  Here’s where Heather and her family live on Fort Leavenworth.  They have one half of the building.  It was pretty awesome, that house.

Most of the older houses have informative signs telling you how long they’ve been around.

Nice detail here.

There was a lot of brick, which I was a fan of.  And a lot of good detail, like on this porch.

And a lot of zoom things like this bird’s nest, which can be seen in the above photo at the top of the right-hand column.

The original wall of the fort, with rifle slot for defense.

It curved, that original wall.

We saw a fox!

My zoom was a little shaky, but there he is.

There are a lot of historical markers.  I also like this photo, because both Heather (on the right) and myself (in shadow) are in it.

Patrick and E.

The mighty Missouri.

Back side of the chapel, which I liked because there are three kinds of building material used on this end: stone, cinder block and wood.

More good detail.

And this.

There were a lot of flags, not just US flags, but from all over.

Big houses.

This is the commander’s house.  Faaaannnncccy!

These cannons have never been fired.

Nice clock tower with this building.

For some reason, the thickness of this drainage grate fascinated me.

This is the “beehive”. More on that in a later post.

Good window detail.

This is Heather’s porch.

Flag and tree.

Just tree.
Digital cameras are a good way to entertain a youngster.  I would take the picture and the show her the image.

What’s happening on and around Belmont Street.

I had cause to take a walk up Belmont Street and took a few pictures. 
Check out the date on this sign. It has been hanging in this window since before we moved into our house!

I want them to solve this crime.  This poor guy, (friendly to all as far as anyone can tell) was walking along a bike path in Ashland when he was decapitated.  Yipes!

These two signs together are great:
A School for Self & Energy Awareness
Absolutely You Salon.

I love the retro sign for this convalescent center.

Can you spot the update to this house?

I’m guessing this happened in approximately 1968.  I kind of like it, though.

Fancy house.

Really great church building.

Next to the really great Presbyterian Church that now also holds TaborSpace.

Ivy growing like mad over this building.

Ah. It’s a former Lodge building.

Look at that ivy go!

Around the side of the building we see one tenant.  I did some other checking and I think the rest of the space has been converted to residential.

Once I saw this, I wanted to make one of my own.

They also had painted bricks to look like books.

Here’s a fun house for when I have untold millions.

And here are the new houses next door.  I wonder if the above house had a massive lot they subdivided to a not-so-massive lot.

Poetry post.

With very interesting stapled metal top.

Still apartments! (After the condo conversion mania of the 2000s, that’s something.)

House for if I don’t ever hit the “untold millions” stage.

There’s some water sports and some biking going in with this car.

Yet another walk to work, this one focused on apartments and houses.

Not only does this have a stone lion out front (cue Sara and a Borah cheer) it also has a shiny address plate.

On the minus side, it’s hard to read the address.  On the plus side, super cool!

I spy a tall bike.

The house next door has a fancy name plate too.

Here’s what I refer to as the Brigadoon house.  It was for sale and I wanted desperately to buy it, as it meets all of my requirements (small house, large lot, maker space out back).  Alas, I did not have a few spare hundred thousand dollars.  Then, for months I couldn’t find it again, despite swearing it was on this street.  At one point, I thought it had been torn down.  Was this a house that only appeared every 100 years?  (Which would make it difficult to sell, I guess.)  I finally figured out that when I cross Lombard, I’m faced with turning right or left to pick up a connecting street, as they don’t match up exactly.  This house can be found by going right, I went left all those months, when I should have been turning right.  I’m happy to say that the new owner also seems to love the house and it may survive for me to someday purchase it.

Rare Spanish-style. In my opinion, they are covering up the best feature by letting that hedge/bush grow in front of the windows on the right.  

Interesting metal object on side of house that I don’t know what it is for.

Hey look!  The “watching a block” apartments are done.  Here they are, taking up a full city block, where once there were houses.  Here are the houses.  Here is a link to all the watching a block posts. The building is called the Prescott and apartments range from a 381 square foot studio to at 1069 sq foot two bedroom.  Apartments.com reports they are leasing from $1195 to $2005.  Count this girl happy she owns a house with an unchanging mortgage payment. $1195 for a studio?  That’s more than half my monthly take-home pay.

This dude is boarded up.  Will he survive to have another tenant in him, or be replaced by a tall house (or tall apartment complex)?  Also,check out the pushy bushes invading the driveway space.

Nice tiny crack between buildings.  

Mossy roof.

I’ve had my eye on this white house for a long time.  It has open lots on both sides.  I have mentally purchased said house and both lots and have a lovely garden platted.  It’s very nice, the things I’ve done in my brain.

Thursday walk to work. sneaky edition.

I love me an alley in the daylight.  Here are some discarded flowers to add to that alley sense.

Blackberries looming.

Blackberries getting their close-up.

There are still a goodly amount of unpaved streets in Portland.  Will that ever get fixed?

Greenery and laundry.

For a long time there were skinny houses being built everywhere.  Now?  Tall apartment complexes.

Across the street from the soon-to-be tall apartment complex, we find the typical mid-century apartment complex.

Squirrel feeder.

Interesting roof.

I wonder if Karen and Simone love each other?  Or maybe Karen or Simone’s significant others were into a sort of one-up thing?

I’ve always wondered what’s up with this business on Interstate. Not enough to do any research, though.

I stared at this for a long time before I figured out that it was broken glass with cardboard blocking the hole. It sort of looked like the mirror surface had peeled off the window.  

Because I’m a child of the 80s, my first thought upon seeing this poster was, “Corey Haim?”

Nice beetle.

I’ve noticed this punk look a lot this summer.  Shaved for a mohawk, brightly colored, not in stand-up mohawk form.

Thursday walk to work Yard/Garden Edition.

I love how squash in a parking strip sprawls all over the place.

These are new builds (probably replacing smaller houses, though I don’t know for sure) that I approve of, just because they don’t look like every other piece of new construction in this city.  The one on the left (the orange one) was featured in the paper once upon a time.  The gentlemen who own the house are both over 6 feet, so everything in the house is sized to them.  Which means I won’t be purchasing that house.

Squash and corn in parking strip.

When lettuce bolts it reminds me of Christmas trees.

Nice setup.

This tiny backyard house has always intrigued me.

Sunflowers in driveway divider.

Beds ready to go.

I love how nasturtiums turn into mounds.

One of the poetry posts. Here is a link to the poem by Jane Hirshfield.

Great address font.

Onions are getting ready to be harvested.

Good mid-century detail with modern flair.  Don’t you just love that bright green door?

Here’s an unusual house. Pink stucco and very square with flat roof. It’s at 1644 N. Emerson and I fear it’s probably not long for this world.  It’s empty, the lawn hasn’t been mowed and the fence is chained shut.  A quick look at Portland Maps tells me the property taxes are paid up though, so it’s not in foreclosure.  Maybe it is just waiting for a new tenant. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to find it torn down.

Rain garden.

Cute Victorian.

Detail of cute Victorian.

Homemade disk golf holes.

I’m headed for the Broadway Bridge, but it will take a lot longer than 12 minutes to get there on foot.

Someday I’m going to go to this.  It’s $3.00! How many dance classes are $3.00?  Not many, I can tell you.

Ainsworth Wine and Gifts is going out of business.

Here’s my mid-walk bathroom stop.

These are new leaning benches.  They came about because regular benches make some sidewalks not ADA accessible and also Trimet wanted to sell more ads.

Good collection of stickers.

Beautiful sky.

Jayda gets some love.

Really good bike seat covers.
And so ends my walk.

Tree down!

One of those things I managed to capture in a non-dramatic way, but whatever.
See where that tree is on the ground?  Usually that’s a side road.

You can see where the road turns to join Interstate, but is crossed by a tree.

There’s a signpost in the midst of the mess too.

Initially I thought someone made a drunk driving turn and ended up on this side of the street and ran into the tree.  However, additional observation caused me to conclude that someone was traveling in this direction on Interstate, lost control of their car (probably drunk) and veered into the median where the tree and sign were, clobbering it.  Then the sped off through the DMV parking lot, leaving skid marks.
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t remember exactly where the tree had been.