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.