We came across this on a recent walk up Deadman’s Hill (Stuart Drive) from its base. It’s well cloaked in moss, but clearly visible, there on the south side of the street, at the base of the hill, just upslope from the stop sign. Take a look:
Right next to Rugby in the curb is our old friend Elwood Wiles, 1910, the ubiquitous curb stamp across much of Portland’s east side, made by the prolific concrete contractor and former Alameda resident.
We’re sensitive to names because they are signposts to history, but Rugby is a new one on us, not encountered on many trips through Polk City Directories, the Federal Censuses, old news articles, legal proceedings and other documents stemming from the Alameda Land Company. Elsewhere on this site, you’ll find a handy reference about other neighborhood street names. But no Rugbys encountered in pursuit of those stories either. Recently we sorted back through the city directories from 1900-1920 looking for any Rugby, but no luck.
And just for the record, Portland did have another Rugby Street–a short section of street located in Willamette Heights–which was renamed NW 34th Avenue during the Great Renumbering of the 1930s.
To be clear: the original plat for Alameda refers to this as Stuart Drive, even though there is no curb stamp that names it so (the original one may have been at the top of the hill on the north side of the street, perhaps obliterated from curb repairs). So Rugby joins Glenn and Laura as mysteries awaiting solution. Any ideas?
Always on the lookout for a little mystery like this. Seen any lately?
Alameda Old House History 
Doug – My guess is: Hugby the name of the concrete worker who was pouring and fininshing the curb that day. He wanted to immortalize himself (cast in concrete), and figured his boss wasn’t around to see it. Maybe had kids named Glenn and Laura ??
P.S. our corner has unofficial imprints – ‘authorized’ by the workers who were pouring the handicap curb ramps a few years ago. Three corners here have them 🙂
Sadly it looks like this may have been removed. The sidewalk upslope from the stop sign has all been replaced and unfortunately it doesn’t look like the city replaced the historic street name imprint