Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/330



Taking a stroll through Portland on May day, 1850, there was not found any good opportunity for a promenade. The sidewalks of rough planks were of the most primitive and make-shift order; and reaching the outskirts of the town in any direction—and the visitor did not have far to go to do so—he found it fenced in with the immense crop of fallen timber lying criss-cross in every possible shape. This resulted from no lack of desire on the part of the town's people to have the outlook better, but from inability to master the frowning obstructions of an inpenetrable forest. The automobilists who skip out to Mt. Hood in a couple of hours over a nice smooth road now-a-days, think they have seen the grand old forests of Oregon. But they have not. What they can see now along the road to Mt. Hood is nothing compared with what existed on Portland townsite sixty years ago.

It was a serious undertaking to build a city, in such surroundings. The erection of dwellings and business houses went on so slowly that progress was scarcely perceptible. People built a house from dire necessity, and then only the smallest and cheapest house that would serve their wants. There were but two houses in the town in 1850 that were finished on the inside with plaster. The first hotel was called the California house, and stood on Front street above Alder. Dennis Harty kept a boarding house on Jefferson street. Harty made some money at the business and went up to Polk county and took up a land claim, and when the Narrow Gauge Railroad was built up the Yamhill valley in 1878, Harty 's widow boarded the construction forces on her donation claim. The first hotel of any pretensions was erected by General Coffin in 1851, at the northeast comer of Front and Washington streets. It was subsequently enlarged by additions and called the "American Exchange;" and was finally sold to Van de Lashmutt, who moved it up to the corner of Front and Jefferson streets where it stands to-day. Wooden buildings continued to be the rule until 1853, when W. S. Ladd erected a small brick building for store purposes on Front street. It is still standing and doing business, being now occupied by sheet-iron workers, manufacturing all sorts of pipe.

The following list of brick buildings erected from 1853 to 1860 was prepared by the late Edward Failing in his life time, and is reliable: