1850

In the 1850s sea captain John Couch laid out his land claim in the 200 x 200 foot blocks that became the southern and eastern part of our Northwest Portland neighborhood. Danford Balch settled north and west of the Couch donation claim farming his land. Danford however became famous for publicly murdering his unwanted son-in-law at the Stark Street Ferry and was the first person hung for his crime in Portland in 1859. By the 1870s, the eastern half of the Balch donation claim was subdivided and completed the Northwest neighborhood that we know now.

1870

In the late 1870s and early 1880s Portland was growing fast, and development was moving from downtown to the northwest. During this time, it varied, part industrial suburb, part middle-class community, and in some areas a neighborhood for the elite.

1875

In October of 1875, Good Samaritan Hospital opened at 21st and L streets. In 1880 and 1881, a dairy operated at 20th and O Streets and the Burkhardt’s began a nursery and flower business at 23rd and G streets in 1883.

1878

In 1878 three large homes were built on 19th Street the first of what would become fashionable 19th Street as all the wealthy merchants left downtown and move to the “suburbs”. The Couch, Flanders, Glisan, Wilson and many other families moved to the neighborhood and when the alphabet streets were given names many of the names came from the early settlers.

1880

The 1880 census showed less than 18,000 people lived in Portland but by 1910 Portland had grown to a nearly a quarter million. The 1903 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition ushered in a surge of growth, particularly to Northwest. The Exposition was located north of St Helens Rd around Guilds Lake. Guilds Lake was later filled in an became the NW Industrial area.

1883

1883 brought the first streetcar line to 23rd and Burnside. By 1903, with the Lewis and Clark Exposition running, several lines served the neighborhood.

1900

The automobile’s rise in the early 1900s, allowed families, middle and upper-class, to move to new houses in new neighborhoods so that by the 1924, the neighborhood began transitioning from predominantly single-family housing to a mix of apartments, institutions, commerce and industry. Many apartment buildings still stand today from this early 1900s building boom.

1930

By the mid-1930s the socio-economic status of Northwest had changed. The census of 1940 confirmed this and sociologist Harlan P. Douglass in 1946 classified Northwest Portland below the West Hills as below average in “social quality”, equivalent to Inner Southeast and St Johns and one cut above the poorest neighborhoods in Albina and South Portland.

1950

The Portland shipbuilding industry during World War II created a housing shortage. Private home owners took in roomers and subdivided many large old houses in the neighborhood into small apartments and single rented rooms. After World War II the population in Northwest declined and continued to do so through the 1950s and 1960s.

1960

Many attempts were made to revive the neighborhood. A proposal in 1952 would have removed 500 residential buildings north of Savier between 18th and 27th Avenues to make it available to light industry. In 1967 the City determined Northwest Portland was a depressed area and all except Willamette Heights as blighted. In 1969 the Portland Development Commission began plans to acquire and clear multiple blocks of land for the expansion of Good Samaritan Hospital. It was from this effort the Northwest District Association (NWDA) was born.

1975

NWDA convinced the City to fund a neighborhood planning effort. It took five years for the initial work and in 1975, the City Council approved the Northwest District Policy Plan.

1980

The 1970s were a decade of social revitalization, the 1980 brought economic change. NW 23rd Ave changed from a neighborhood retail street to a trendy boutique street and many older homes were converted back to single family houses. The mid-1980s brought the upper-middle class back to the neighborhood with the construction of row houses. To build this new housing, developers were beginning to tear down older houses, particularly those that had remained subdivided into apartments and single rented rooms. This spawned the next neighborhood fight to “Save the Good Old Houses”.

1990

 In the 1990s to preserve the historic character of the alphabet district, the neighborhood began the process to make part of the neighborhood into a National Historic District. In October 2000 the Alphabet Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.