dollars more in completion. Many residences and minor business houses of a value of five thousand dollars to eight thousand dollars were also erected. It was during this year that the palatial residences in the northwestern portion of the city began to be erected, converting what was once a dilapidated forest overgrown with brush and wild vines, into one of the most handsome and sightly portions of the city.
The grain fleet entering the river numbered about ninety vessels; this was exclusive of the regular coasters. The steamers registering in the Portland district were sixty, with a total capacity of twenty-seven thousand five hundred and seventy-nine tons. There were thirteen sailing vessels with a total capacity of six thousand one hundred and four tons. The export of wheat reached upward of two million centals, valued at over five million dollars. Shipments of wool reached seven million pounds. The catch of salmon was three hundred and twenty-five thousand cases. The gross valuation of property was thirteen million one hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars. The prospects of growth and business in 1880 were bright, and stimulated not only activity in real estate movements, but in business also. The uncertain and depressing railroad management of Ben Holladay had given away to the more business-like and careful regime of the German Company, and plans for the O. R. & N. Railway and for the speedy completion of the Northern Pacific were taking definite and public form. Sales of real estate were considerable, although uncertainty as to the location of the terminal works of the transcontinental line, now expected to be made in North Portland, now in South Portland, and again in East Portland, gave a strongly speculative character to this line of trade. Improvements extended uniformly in all portions of the city from the river bank to the city limits, and even beyond them. There were erected thirteen brick blocks and stores, thirty frame blocks and stores, six docks, four manufactories, three churches, two hotels, and two hundred and two dwellings at a gross valuation of eight hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars. Those costing ten thousand dollars or upward are named as follows: Family residence of Captain George Ainsworth on the corner of Sixteenth and Yamhill, fifteen thousand dollars; a residence by the same, ten thousand dollars; improvements to the Zeta Psi block, corner front and D, ten thousand dollars; the Chinese theater, on Second street, twelve thousand dollars; the Oregon Steam Bakery, by Lieb & Holburg, on East Park and G, fifteen thousand dollars; the building by Labbe Bros., on the corner of Second and Washington streets, eleven thousand dollars; a brick block on Washington street between First and Second, by Richardson & Mann, ten thousand dollars; the three-story brick block on the corner of Second and Stark streets, thirty-six thousand dollars; the brick building on First street between Main and Yamhill, ten thousand dollars; the threestory building, on Third street, between Yamhill and Taylor, twelve thousand dollars; the Nicolai House, at the corner of Third and D streets, thirteen thousand dollars; an addition of five hundred feet to the Ainsworth dock by the O. R. & N. Co., fifty thousand dollars; an addition to the steamship dock of the same company, twenty-eight thousand dollars; an addition to the Greenwich dock by Capt. Flanders, twenty thousand dollars; the Multnomah block at the corner of Fifth and Morrison, by H. W. Corbett. twenty-eight thousand dollars; the furniture factory ot I. F. Powers, twenty-five thousand dollars; a four-story residence on Sixteenth and B streets, by the Dundee Investment Co., nineteen thousand four hundred dollars; the two-story business block on the corner of Second and E streets, by J. C. Ainsworth, thirteen thousand dollars; the Stark Street ferryboat, by Knott Bros., sixteen thousand dollars.
In 1880, the hotels had increased to twenty-nine. Those on Front street were The American Exchange, the Esmond. St. Charles, Commercial. New York and Zur Rheinpfalz. On First street there were the California House, the Eureka, the Globe, the Norton House, the Clarendon, the Occidental, the Oregon, the St. George, the St. Louis, the Thompson House, the Metropolis,
