Do you have a memory or photo from Dekum Court or know someone who does? I’d like to hear from you.

For a time during the early 1940s, the Concordia neighborhood was home to one of the first wartime housing projects in Portland: the Dekum Court Project, an 85-unit complex of housing for non-commissioned officers and their families stationed at the Portland Air Base.

A newspaper photo of living quarters at Dekum Court from The Oregonian, November 8, 1942.

From 1942-1945, 300 military family members of all ages lived in 53 buildings which covered a 15-acre site located between NE 24th and NE 27th avenues, from Dekum and Lombard.

Here’s a map and a site plan to help you visualize:

Courtesy City of Portland Archives, A2001-025

It’s a fascinating and rich story: development of the site for wartime housing; subsequent repurposing as public housing managed by the Housing Authority of Portland; and later partial redevelopment as a ranch-house-subdivision. The original wartime housing quarters are now gone. But there must be stories and memories that remain.

I’m in the research phase of learning more about Dekum Court and would like to hear from anyone who has memories or photos to share. Please drop me a note (doug@alamedahistory.org).

Stay tuned, we’ll come back to Dekum Court in the months ahead with the full story of its development and early life.