History Commons^™

The Origin Of Portland, Oregon's Waterfront Park: A Paradigm Shift In City Planning (1967-1978), Michael Anthony Jenner

Dissertations and Theses

The present thesis chronicles the decision to replace Portland, Oregon's Harbor Drive, a downtown highway located between Front A venue and the Willamette River, with Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a thirty-seven acre linear greenway, in the late 1960s and 1970s. These events provide an example of the battle against the ascendancy of the automobile and the ability of concerned citizen groups to affect city planning decisions.

The Courts And The Making Of A Chinese Immigrant Community In Portland, Oregon, 1850-1910, Sarah Marie Griffith

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis studies the development of the Portland, Oregon Chinese immigrant community between 1850 and 1910. Chinese immigrants first arrived in Portland in the mid-1850s and quickly created businesses as well as social institutions they transplanted from China to the U.S. West. They also established intricate relationships among themselves and with members of the surrounding white community. County and state court records held at the Multnomah County Courthouse and National Archives in Seattle, Washington, reveal much about the Chinese immigrant community in Portland and provide a window into a society that left few written records. Through the analysis of hundreds …

A History Of The Portland Waterfront Between Southwest Clay And Washington Streets, Its Land Use And Legal Problems, Jeffrey G. Carter

Dissertations and Theses

Between 1845 and 1980 the Portland waterfront between southwest Washington and Clay Streets, east of Front Street, metamorphosed from wilderness to trade center, to highway, to inner-city vacant lot. No place in Portland has more graphically illustrated the rapidly changing forces of the modern age in which the city has grown.

For much of its history this stretch of waterfront was mired in law suits. The struggles centered on public versus private ownership. Originally dedicated as public property, but left unimproved by the city, the waterfront was usurped by private investors. Eventually, private owners allowed their property to decay prompting …