Saturday, October 16, 2010

Streetcar Sunday - Portland's Morrison Street

Here are two views of Morrison Street in Portland from similar vantage points, but a decade apart. On the first one, you see the post office on the near left side with the Oregon Hotel in the background. On the right-hand side, you see the Marquam Grand Theater, the brick building. It was built in1891 and was also known as the Marquam Grand Opera House. Both Sandra Bernhardt and Mark Twain entertained audiences here. I am sure the MG on the streetcar stands for Marquam Grand.

Notice that in the second card, the theater is no longer there and a new building has taken its place.


Dan Haneckow of Cafe Unknown does such a beautiful job of describing this fascinating transition, that I urge you to check out his blog if you're interested in the details. And here is a link to an earlier Portland Streetcar Sunday post on this blog. And, last but not least, here are the back sides of the cards:

here's the view as it looks today, with the former Meier and Frank department store (now Macy's) on the right.

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3 comments:

  1. What a story! Thanks for the link with the history on the theater's fate. Also, I finally found a streetcar postcard that I will post today. I've had it for years, but had it tucked in with other NYC postcards in a binder that I had forgotten about.

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  2. Thank you for the long postcard ! I'm so grateful that it reach to me safely.
    I love it so much.
    Thank you !!!

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  3. Some of the buildings may have changed, but nice to see the streetcar (light rail in the 2010 shot) presence is consistent. The addition of trees enriches the human scale of the street scape too.

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