Ghosts of Portland past: Olympic bids, elaborate lights

 

A few weeks ago I got to know another Portland blogger, Dan Hanekow of Cafe Unknown, when we were both interviewed for a TV show, "Outlook Portland" on NW32, about local architecture.

Dan has two fascinating recent posts on Cafe Unknown about past Portland city-building efforts that really caught my attention: a bid in 1962 to host the 1968 Olympic Games, and a series of arced street lights stretching over Third Avenue downtown in the early 1900s.

First the Olympic bid. The effort was lead by the Portland Olympic Council, which included Portland Mayor Terry D. Schrunk and Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield.

“The decision to invite the XIX Olympiad built upon the existing ambitious initiatives during the Terry Schrunk administration that included a new zoo, the recently constructed Memorial Coliseum, a rapidly expanding freeway system, the dawn of Portland's urban renewal program and a proposed forty-eight million dollar stadium at Delta Park,” Hanekow writes.

In an editorial in the Oregon Journal, business leader Fred Meyer (of the stores bearing his name) wrote this piece advocating the Olympic bid:

"If Portland wants to be the great metropolis of the Northwest, serving the distributing, banking, cultural and entertainment needs of a vast four state area, it should act like one. And the best way to act like a metropolis, in a class with San Francisco and Los Angeles, is to provide a big league stadium for baseball, football and other outdoor spectaculars which will attract thousands of visitors on a year-round basis."

The Oregonian also entered the fray with this editorializing: "Portland is Oregon's largest city with a population of approximately 372,000 and a metropolitan area of more than 800,000. As a major port reaching out to Alaska, Hawaii, South America and the Far East, the City is inevitably cosmopolitan in its makeup. Indeed, more than one person out of every five is either foreign born or fluent in his mother tongue. There are of course many Canadians who have settled in this area. A great portion of those of foreign extraction are from the Nordic countries of Europe and the United Kingdom, from Russia, China and Japan."

The proposed site was anchored in Delta Park, where a new stadium was to be built that would have seating for 60,000 with 20,000 more temporary seats and standing from for 10,000 for a total capacity of 90,000. Can you imagine how different Portland might have been if we'd built this stadium? Even if the Olympics never came in '68, I'll bet we would have long since had an NFL team by now.

Memorial Coliseum was to be the other anchor where numerous Olympic events would be held. And the proposal also called for a new 3,000 seat convention hall.

But, as Hanekow writes, “It was over as fast as it began. On October 16, 1962 Detroit Michigan was selected as the American contender for the 1968 games.” The bid ultimately went to Mexico City.

Meanwhile, Café Unknown also recently featured the campaign to “bathe Third Street in light by building a line of illuminated arches stretching from Yamhill to Burnside (later extended on both ends to Madison and Glisan) to be known as The Great Light Way." To supporters, the arches would cap a protracted campaign establish the thoroughfare as the center of Portland night-life and attract more business to the area.

“At eight in the evening on June 6, 1915 a switch was flicked in the Northwestern Electric central powerhouse,” Hanekow writes. Suddenly Third Street was ablaze in light, much to the joy of the assembled thousands celebrating up and down its length.”

The arched fixtures rested on four concrete encased Doric columns to straddle each intersection. Both linked arches had ninety-six 40 watt "lamps" with more clustered at the column's capitals.

The Third Avenue arches north of Burnside were removed during a 1920s street widening projects. The rest remained lit until 1937, when, due to the Depression and electric company franchise changes, the power was cut and the arches removed. Three survived until August 1940, when they were ordered down by the City Council. In 1958, the City Council abolished all ornamental lighting districts, folding them into the existent city lighting program.

Comments

[Jeff]

This was a time when Portland had higher civic goals and ambitions.

Pete Rozelle, the NFL Commissioner during that time period was from California and fond of Portland. He worked with Harry Glickman to stage NFL exhibition games at Civic Stadium to help gauge fan interest. The City and State did have interest and plans for the Delta Dome failed by only a few thousand votes.

Today we have trouble trying to find a suitable site for a minor league stadium, almost demolished Memorial Coliseum and there is minimal effort to attract other major league franchises or events. Even the Pape Jam has met it's demise just a few years after 20,000 fans packed the Rose Garden to watch Oregon play Kansas in basketball.

While the new MLS franchise is a step in the right direction, I believe that Portland needs to establish higher short and long-term goals with respect to the professional sports landscape.

[ka]

what a great find.

[Greg]

The lighting concept was interesting. It reminded me a little of the Gaslamp District in San Diego, and it is a little odd that the city would ban ornamental lighting districts.

[Tom Rousculp]

I came across the Archway lights a few years ago and included them in a class project I did at PSU.
You can view the power point, Ankeny Street pedestrian way, by following the link below. It would be great to see the lights again, with LED's of course.

http://tinyurl.com/nx4ega

[Jesi]

The lighting project seems to be a copy of the 1907 light arches in san francisco's fillmore neighborhood, more info here: http://www.pbs.org/kqed/fillmore/learning/people/flamm.html