Nostalgia & History > Streetcar 1/2 Under Water in Portland, OR

This picture is from the Oregon Historical Society's Photograph Collection:

STREETCARS ARE STOPPED IN THEIR TRACKS WITH FLOODWATERS UP TO THEIR WINDOWS, SOUTHERN PACIFIC OFFICE ON L. [Graphic].
Author: Bretherton, W. W., photographer.
Call Number: 003998
Collection Type: Photographs Media type: Photograph
Database: OCLC-MARC Bibliographic (OCLC)


The location hint I'm looking at in the caption is "SOUTHERN PACIFIC OFFICE ON L". There is an L Street in Portland today, but it is way far south and not near the downtown or railroad tracks. The Portland floodplain map shows all the railroad yards in the flood plane except I'm not sure about Brooklyn.

Since there are no overhead wires I assume the streetcar in the picture is a horse car. Thus the picture could show a flood before 1900 about when Portland horse car lines were electrified.

Can anyone dredge up some details?

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/14 19:55 by MartyBernard.

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MartyBernard Wrote:

> The location hint I'm looking at in the caption is
> "SOUTHERN PACIFIC OFFICE ON L".

I suspect they only meant to convey that the SP office is "on the left" in the photo. Call numbers 003999 and 004000 show closer views of the same building in the same flood:

http://librarycatalog.ohs.org/Ohseosi_Linked_Documents/Wang8/003999.jpg
http://librarycatalog.ohs.org/Ohseosi_Linked_Documents/Wang8/004000.jpg

The captions to these aren't much more helpful than the one you found. The collection has a lot of other Portland flood photos dating from June 1894.

Based on the buildings and water level for that era, the only place I can really suggest is SW Jefferson and Front St on the west side of the river, where the SP and OE had depots.

Unless the car had floated away from the tracks....then any overhead would be moot. Since a car can float in less than a foot, a wood-bodied street car would still likely float with 2-3'.

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>> Since there are no overhead wires I assume the
> streetcar in the picture is a horse car. Thus the
> picture could show a flood before 1900 about when
> Portland horse car lines were electrified.

Most likely this is at First and Glisan, in what was then (1894) referred to as "North Portland," today in the area of the Steel Bridge, where Naito Parkway and NW First Street meet. The photo looks south.

By 1894, Portland's streetcar lines had been converted to electricity. The exception being the Portland Street Railway, the cities original streetcar line built by Ben Holladay in 1872. By 1894, it had long been owned by Joseph Holladay, Ben Holladay's miserly who invested very little in the line. It was a horse car line until its abandonment a year later. The line terminated at Glisan street.