The New International Encyclopædia/Portland (Oregon)

PORTLAND. The largest city in Oregon and the county seat of Multnomah County, and an important commercial and industrial centre. Situated on both sides of the Willamette River, 12 miles above its confluence with the Columbia River and about 120 miles from the Pacific. Portland is distant 52 miles north-northeast of the State capital, Salem, and 774 miles north by east of San Francisco (Map: Oregon, C 4). It is built on slopes rising gradually from the river banks into wooded hills, with tall mountains in the distance—a site of great natural beauty that is enhanced by the fine trees and lawns of the city. In the vicinity are numerous picturesque waterfalls; and Portland Heights, in the western part of the city, command a superb view of the distant mountains and the valleys of the Columbia and the Willamette.

The city has an area of 40 square miles and is well laid out. About two-thirds of its total street mileage is paved, a great proportion of this distance (122 miles) being laid with macadam and gravel. There are more than 205 acres in the public park system. Among the noteworthy structures in Portland are the city hall, occupying an entire block, the post-office, court-house, Portland library, high school, Chamber of Commerce, Hotel Portland, the Union Railroad Depot, Industrial Exposition building, the office of the Oregonian, the tallest edifice in the city, the Dekum, Worcester, Meier, and Frank buildings, and the Marquam Block. The law and medical departments of the State University are in Portland, and there are several well-known preparatory schools. The Portland Library, which has been recently opened to the public, contains 27,000 volumes. The city has a number of charitable institutions, of which Saint Vincent's and Good Samaritan hospitals are the best known. Other features of interest are two handsome fountains, and the four bridges across the Willamette River, two of which are fine steel structures.

Portland has exceptional advantages for a commercial centre. Situated at the head of ocean navigation, on the waterway formed by the Columbia and Willamette, it possesses a harbor commodious and accessible for the largest ships. Its port is the terminus of several ocean and coastwise steamship lines; and in the large Union Depot four great railroad systems terminate: the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific (the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company), and the Southern Pacific. The tributary region, rich in timber and in agricultural and mineral resources, is one of the most productive in the United States, though but partly developed. In 1901 the foreign commerce of the port was valued at nearly $12,000,000, the exports, principally grain, flour, and lumber, constituting a very large proportion of this total. The trade is carried on chiefly with Great Britain and its possessions. Portland is highly important also as a distributing point, its wholesale and jobbing trade in 1902 amounting to about $155,000,000. Its industrial interests, too, are extensive and varied, representing, according to the census of 1900, an invested capital of $13,332,000. and having a production valued at $23,451,000. The manufactures are favored by the power obtained from the Willamette Falls at Oregon City (q.v.), 12 miles distant. This power, electrically transmitted to Portland, is utilized also for lighting and for the operation of street railways. The leading manufactures include lumber and timber products, flouring and grist-mill products, and the output of slaughtering and meat-packing plants. There are also bag factories, creameries, clothing factories, establishments for the roasting and grinding of coffee and spices, foundries and machine shops, including stove foundries, iron works, manufactories of tin-goods, furniture factories, paint works, saddlery and harness factories, ship and boat building yards, soap and candle works, fruit drying and canning establishments, and breweries. A large dry dock is in course of construction (March, 1903).

The government is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, and a unicameral council, and in administrative officials, the majority of whom are appointed by the mayor, or nominated by him with the consent of the council. The school board, however, is chosen by popular vote. Portland spends annually in maintenance and operation about $960,000; the principal items of expenditure being: for interest on debt, $305,000; for schools, $270,000; for the fire department, $80,000; for the police department, $55,000; for the care of streets, $50,000; for municipal lighting, $50,000. The water-works, which were built in 1857, are owned by the municipality, having been acquired by the city in 1886. The cost of their construction has been over $4,000,000. The net debt of the city in 1902 was $5,637,000; the assessed valuation of property, $43,360,000.

Portland was founded in 1845 by F. W. Pettygrove and A. L. Lovejoy. It was named by the former in honor of Portland, Maine, and was chartered as a city in 1851. It suffered severely from fire in 1872 and 1873, the loss in the latter year having been about $1,350,000. Portland has had an exceedingly rapid growth, as indicated bv the following figures of population: 1850, 821; 1860, 2874; 1870, 8293; 1880, 17,577; 1890, 46,385; 1900, 90,426. The total in 1900 included 25,876 persons of foreign birth, and a colored population of 9812, 775 being of negro descent. Consult a chapter on Portland in Powell's Historic Towns of the Western States (New York, 1901).