As the railroad property (which will this year, 1910, be assessed by the state board), assessed at a total valuation last year of $17,000,000; it is estimated that it will this year, in accordance with the raise in other values, reach at least $20,000,000. This, then, will make the total assessed valuations for the county reach $296,167,225. Last year the total was $251,391,887.
The highest values placed on individual lots, not including improvements, were recorded against those at the southwest corner of Washington and Third, the southwest corner of Washington and Fifth, and the southwest corner of Washington and Sixth streets. Each of these lots are 50x100 feet, and were valued by the assessor, for purposes of taxation at $205,000. A year ago each of these lots was assessed at $190,000.
The total transfers of real estate in the city in 1908 amounted to $20,043,075; and in 1909, to $26,510,870. And these transfers show that the increase of values of real estate was much beyond the assessor's valuation for taxes. As for example, in a selection of twenty pieces of real estate, including both business and residence tracts, the advance in value within fourteen years amounted to five hundred per cent.
F. W. Pettygrove, who opened the first store in pioneer Portland in a log hut at Front and Washington streets in 1845, traded the whole townsite of 640 acres to Daniel H. Lownsdale for $5,000 worth of leather not then tanned. That land is now worth two hundred million dollars.
As a matter of historical interest, we copy from the first assessment roll of Multnomah County the names of the principal taxpayers in the year 1859, when the total amount of taxable property in the county was $2,831,221. The total taxable property in the county this year is $297,000,000.
The principal taxpayers were then assessed as follows :
James Abraham . $12,750
J. C. Ainsworth 1 1,000
A. P. Ankeny 1 5,000
Allen & Lewis 38,000
C. H. Lewis 11 ,000
Colburn Barrell 10,000
S. Blumauer 9,000
James Burk 12,000
Thomas Carter 41 ,725
H. Cohn & Co 15,000
W. L. Chittendon 10,870
H. W. Corbett 47,025
Finice Caruthers 24,000
Couch & Flanders 25,125
Collins & Co 9,000
Stephen Coffin 19,700
Oregon Steam Navigation Co 27,000
Thomas J. Dryer 8, 1 50
Failing & Co 31,150
Henry Failing 4,000
Josiah Failing 33,ooo
Fitch & Co 14,400
John R. Foster 8,000
Goldstone & 'Meyer 12,000
William Gray 8,000
Thomas Harkness 8,200
T. J. Holmes 20,500
A. Harker 17,500
Holman & Harker 8,000
