This week we’ve been reflecting on some of the interesting stories from the early history of the Vernon neighborhood, first platted in 1903. AH reader Stephen Peifer asked about the Alberta Street flood of the 1920s, and sure enough echoes of that event can be found in both The Oregonian (our morning paper) and the Oregon Journal (our afternoon paper). Sigh, can you imagine having two major daily newspapers?
Here’s a photograph from The Oregonian, looking east on Alberta at NE 28th, taken on July 24, 1920. A story about the flood, from the Oregon Journal, follows.
This flood story bears a striking resemblance to a similar water main break on March 16, 2019, which we wrote about here on the blog, when a cracked pipe produced a gravel bar near NE 24th and Skidmore (the 30-inch water main runs east west under Skidmore, careful where you step).
NE 24th and Skidmore gravel bar, March 16, 2019.
Alameda Old House History 
Thanks, Doug. We have one of those old 30-inch water mains in front of our house. Got to see it recently when the city exposed it during sewer work. The 1920 event shows how vulnerable we are to a big rupture like that one.
Doug, for some reason I can no longer post comments directly to your blog, but I found the entry on Alberta Park particularly interesting. Can you dig up more on the Chinese businessman that used to own it? I had never heard of him, and he sounds very interesting. I noticed also three African-American children in the flood photo. I believe that before WWII, there wasn’t a “Black Neighborhood” and this is evidence of that. Tony