Comments for Alameda Old House History

Comment on Grant Park Grocery & Market by Doug

Doug — Tue, 07 May 2013 05:27:40 +0000

Outstanding memories Greg. Makes me want a ride in the time machine…

Comment on Grant Park Grocery & Market by Greg

Greg — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:51:33 +0000

I remember the store well. My dad worked part time there at one time in the early 50′s. The owners name was Spencer Lightfoot, a native of Oklahoma but everyone called him Spence. We had a charge account at the store so I used to ride my bike to the store often to get things for my mother. The big event of the year would be when Spence would drive back to Oklahoma each year and bring back a truckload of watermelons. The building was originally separated into three sections. Facing the building from 33rd. there were three entrances. The south entrance was to the butcher shop, the middle entrance was the grocery store and the north angled entrance was the drug store. By the time I can remember from the mid 50″s on the south entrance had been closed and the area had been taken by the grocery store and the butcher section had been moved to the rear of the store on the north side of the rear entrance door. The drugstore was a separate business only accessible by the angled door. It was a drugstore out of the movies, about 2\3rds of the south wall was taken up by the old fashioned soda fountain with it’s mirrored back wall. We ordered cokes, cherry cokes, green rivers, root beer floats and any other fountain delight you cannot even dream of getting nowadays.The west wall was taken up by the pharmacy counter which was the domain of an old pharmacist who was at least 90 years old. The north wall and the space between and he fountain were taken up by shelving which had all the usual items carried in a drug store. To the left of the door was the magazine rack which had plenty of comic books which all the kids would hang out. In the early 60′s the old pharmacist died and the pharmacy was sold and remodeled. My dad said they found a bunch of pharmaceuticals that dated all the way back to Civil War times which were donated as artifacts to what is now OHSU. Unfortunately when the pharmacy was remodeled the soda fountain was taken out and a doorway was opened up between the pharmacy and the store near the east end of the produce case which was on the north wall of the store. I still used to stop in the store when I was going to Grant High School as it was on my way home. A couple of years after graduation(1969) I moved out from home and I can’t remember ever going back to the store. I spent a lot of time there when I was kid and have fond memories of the pace, the kind of place I feel we need nowadays can never be again. The place where all the people working there knew you, your name, your parents, where you lived and most of all cared about you.

Hi Emily, I remember you and your sister Molly well. Your older brother whose name escapes me used to drive the old Ford. You lived in the biggest house on the block, right smack in the middle of the block on the double lot surrounded by that 6 ft tall laurel hedge. I am the kid who lived on the corner of 31st & Siskyou.

I hope I have not bored anyone.

Greg

Comment on Northeast Portland’s Aircraft Factory by C Charnquist

C Charnquist — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:54:18 +0000

In the mid 1930′s my father worked as a printer for Gullickson’s Printing which was a block or so east of Scarpelli’s. He came home one evening with a horrific story of a worker being caught in the pasta machinery. I was four or five at the time and was morbidly fascinated by such a fate and leary of even walking by the building.

Comment on History Walk | A Spin Around the Farm by Heritage Tree #285 Pearson Farm Ponderosa Pine | Portland Tree Tour

Heritage Tree #285 Pearson Farm Ponderosa Pine | Portland Tree Tour — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:33:25 +0000

[...] a bit more information about this tree and its original 20-acre farm site on the Alameda History blog and a little bit more from Portland Parks and [...]

Comment on Maryon Lewis Kinsey by AL

AL — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 01:01:17 +0000

Doug, my name is AL. My girlfriend and I live near 27th and Skidmore and we came across a drawer full of old photographs and items that belong to Lloyd and Maryon Kinsey from 2122 NE Alameda. Is there any way to you can get ahold of some of the Kinseys so that we can return it?

Comment on Northeast Portland’s Aircraft Factory by SGoodman

SGoodman — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 05:43:43 +0000

I remember the Porter Scarpelli building next to Tarlow’s Furniture. It was a well known brand of pasta on all the stores’ shelves. We’d drive by it in our station wagon when I was 3 or 4 years old, and my dad (a grocer) would say to me, “Do you know why that building is so long and skinny?” Then he’d answer, “Because they make spaghetti in there.” I remember picturing long conveyor belts inside moving all that spaghetti thru the building. I was sad when they razed it. But I still get to think about my dad having fun with me.

Comment on Earliest Alameda Views by Tia

Tia — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:59:00 +0000

Wonderful images as always…! Just guessing… would that be Deadman’s Hill (Stuart Dr) in the upper right portion of the “soon-to-be-Regents” pic?

Comment on Saying Goodbye by Tia

Tia — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 08:55:58 +0000

Oh, no… :’( … I’m a former, fairly recent tenant of 4017 NE 28th Ave, the big white colonial on the corner of Bryce. I walked by this pretty Mediterranean house frequently with my niece and my chowchow, saddened that it had gone into foreclosure and sat unoccupied, as gorgeous as it was. I never imagined it would actually get torn down… I’m shocked that such an architectural beauty with so much historic and neighborhood value could suffer such a fate, regardless of a spendy restoration… As an Alameda resident since birth, coming to the website to check out the latest and seeing… this… is pretty heartbreaking, I have to say. *sniff*

Comment on Saying Goodbye by Neighborhood Person

Neighborhood Person — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:58:15 +0000

I have no problem with infill housing per se… it can be done well, even when accounting for contemporary tastes. However, when a perfectly good, historically significant house is torn down simply to maximize the profit available from two building lots — and when what will be built will be simply bad faux versions of historic styles — this is simply the destructive characteristic of greed. It should not be permitted under any normal circumstances. The person responsible for this should be ashamed of himself.

Comment on Change Comes to Alameda by Neighborhood Person

Neighborhood Person — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:19:12 +0000

How is the process well-vetted? How does this decision have to do with anything other than greed? If one gets this house for $400,000 (as they did), and they were to put two, three or even four hundred thousand dollars into restoring it, they could still sell it for well-over one million. That’s a healthy profit for any reasonable developer or person. Two houses of course will net them more like a million or so. I guess that’s an equation that is a no-brainer for people more concerned with profits more than with architecture.

Call it what it is, a tragedy that is both completely unnecessary and unforgivable.