The History of Portland's Cast Iron Buildings

[Music] this is old town Portland it consists of mainly three sections Chinatown the Skidmore historical district in the Yamhill historical district buildings still standing around here date back to the 1850s Portland's first decade of existence it is also remarkably the second largest representation of a certain type of architectural structure in all of America following only the Soho neighborhood of New York Portland's old town boasts the largest number of cast-iron buildings using a process of melting iron alloy into a liquid with the use of a massive blast furnace and then remelting that liquid into casts allowing for iron based structures of great detail variety and beauty thus is how cast-iron architecture came to be and if one visits certain parts of old town you'll find yourself overwhelmed with architectural beauty all around you at each and every turn the concept in existence of cast-iron existed not only long before Portland's establishment but long before America was established it dates back as a substance as far back as the 9th century in certain parts of Asia structurally however the oldest building to be produced using a cast-iron frame was the dithering 10 facts mill building in England built in 1796 it still stands today several decades later the concept of cast-iron structures would come into vogue in America pioneered by new york-based architect James Bogardus he was one of the first to promote this style of building creation in the 1850s cast-iron not only suggested endless possibilities in terms of intricate beauty but it was also cheap to build with something that had to be attractive to a newly developing city like Portland like most Oregon towns Portland first developed when settlers relocated there after traveling along the Oregon Trail while Lewis and Clark passed through there decades earlier and the territory had been densely inhabited by indigenous members of the Chinook people settlers started arriving in the 1830s Portland was finally incorporated as a city in 1851 with an approximate population of 800 people like many early American cities the preponderance of its buildings businesses and homes were modestly constructed wooden structures and while wood would continue to be a prominent tool in building construction in Portland over the years the city would quickly follow the ways of a town to the south called San Francisco which was taking full advantage of his newfound craze called cast-iron architecture as a port town much of Portland's early development was along the Willamette river's waterfront where cast-iron buildings went up all over the place and overnight a small rugged rural town became a mecca of architectural sophistication especially along Front Avenue within two years of its inception Portland had its own cast iron foundries being established to churn out as much steel as possible some foundries would stay open all night just to keep up with the demand the 1860s would represent the peak of the development of these foundries most of which were along the city's waterfront along with pretty much everything else because of this and due to the major changes that have happened along Portland's waterfront over the years there's no remains of these old Portland based boundaries however one only has to travel a little south to the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego the one-time site of the Oregon iron & steel company today it's known as George Rogers Park but if you visit this space and go down by the river you will see a towering structure standing there quite seemingly out of place this structure was the Oregon iron and steel companies blast furnace dating back to the 1860s this is the oldest iron blasting furnace still standing west of the Rocky Mountains lake oswego most definitely had major plans of becoming a cast iron smelting mainstay in America not just in Oregon but this was a dream that never quite came to be however you can still find all sorts of remains of that past including a small workers cabin that stands not too far from the park and even a piece of iron used to support a plaque near a house just down the street from that cabin by the early 1900's this site finally began shifting away from the production of cast iron and began shifting primarily into realms of hydroelectricity in fact if one seeks adventure and wanders down by oswego Creek in the trees and the sticks downstream from that old iron and steel site you can find a relic of that electrical transition these early years in Portland were only the beginning however as cast-iron architecture would remain a fixture in the city until the end of the 1890s making it the structural style of choice in Portland for its first 40 years of existence many of the structures we can still see today are wondrous relics of that era my personal favorites include the new market block built in the heart of the commerce of Portland in 1872 it was built as a theater complex and marketplace the blocks whole north wing has been demolished but fortunately the cast-iron arches that lined the front of that wing were left on site as a beautiful reminder of what once was in the Chinatown neighborhood stands two glorious structures back-to-back pushed north and towards a somewhat less frequented part of the city's waterfront bloggin block and Bickel block are two gems that are easy to miss bloggin block built in 1888 was originally an office and warehouse for a luggage company it has also been dubbed the largest cast-iron building still standing on the west coast the bikal block was also originally a warehouse type building constructed in 1883 a fire in 1972 damaged the building and it fell into a drastic state of disrepair before massive renovations in recent years have restored it to an eye-catching beauty also in the chinatown area stands the merchant hotel originally built in 1880 one of the oldest hotels still standing in the downtown Portland area it's a massive structure bolstered by the fact that it was added on to only a couple years after its initial completion another building that also fell into disrepair the merchant still stands almost a hundred and forty years old and it looks better than ever the Smith block built in 1872 and one of my deep personal favorites is a remarkably beautiful n significant structure along what was once a front Avenue lined with cast-iron buildings that dwarfed Smith block the Smith is the only one along this stretch of cast-iron make that is still standing it too got a hearty facelift several years back and looks pretty stunning for being a hundred and forty six years old only a block south of Smith there was another rare vestige to the city's early style built in 1883 the feck himer and white building stands as a landmark and to shift in the later years style of cast-iron structures that occurred in Portland shying away from massive block sized structures for a more thin and tall motif this can be seen in other structures of that time like the failing building the super building the love building the Harker building the Phoenix building and the Gleason building all built between 1878 and 1889 but for all of this constructive beauty that put its stamp on the early years of Portland it was almost all lost in the flicker of a flame by 1872 Portland was 21 years old and boasting a population of around 10,000 people despite a building reputation as a ruff in rugged port town the city was still booming and moving forward this all was thrown into disarray only three days before Christmas in the early morning hours when a fire broke out at a waterfront Chinese laundromat a late response to the fire led to it expanding ultimately torching more than two blocks along Front Avenue between Morrison and alder streets citizens panicked scrambling through the streets and throwing possessions out into the street in an effort to keep them from burning things escalated to such levels of chaos that local militias were brought in to maintain order while Chinese immigrants were forced at gunpoint to help fight the fires by the early afternoon rains came to town which helped quash the flames saving the city from a catastrophic disaster the greatest tragedy potentially of this event was the fact that Chinese immigrants in town were harassed and assaulted mercilessly in the aftermath of a fire that was blamed on a Chinese laundromat worker who presumably allowed a fire to start behind his building today however it's more believed that this fire was started by an anti Chinese entity looking to damage their reputation in the city months later in the summer of 1873 letters started showing up at businesses who hired Chinese immigrants suggesting connections to the Ku Klux Klan and demanding they cease hiring Chinese workers or in a couple of weeks arrangements would be made to show the dangers of hiring Chinese workers a few weeks later another fire broke out along First Avenue near the metropolis hotel another early morning fire brought another delayed response while the heat and winds of summer helped spread the fire quickly within an hour over seven blocks had been completely destroyed in this case the fire burned and burned until it literally ran out of material to keep it burning a major asset to this was the fact that the 1872 fire had left an open barren space that served as a fire block for the flames that were spreading north still when the dust had settled 22 city blocks had been reduced to unrecognizable rubble the only building on site to survive the fire unscathed is a Northrop blossom and Fitch building this building still stands today the second oldest commercial structure in the city dating back to 1858 Portland's oldest commercial structure the Halleck a McMillan building built in 1857 is also the city's oldest cast-iron structure still standing however tragically the building was drastically altered many years back and looks nothing like it originally did plans have been in place for the past couple of years to restore this old building back to its old 1850s cast-iron glory so hopefully not too far down the road it will loom beautifully along the Willamette once again the fire of 1873 drastically altered the feature of Portland in terms of Commerce geography and also in terms of the fate of its cast-iron structures the fire had destroyed almost all of the city's cast-iron buildings at the time but the city was resilient and after the effects of the panic of 1873 leading to a national recession by 1878 the city was at work replacing all that was lost along these 22 blocks by this time cast-iron architecture was still the in thing and many of the buildings constructed over the rubble of this fire still stand today in particular in the Yamhill historical district this is the Yamhill historical district the southern fringe of Old Town Portland this is where the upper half of the 1873 fire had torched the city it's astonishing to see this area today and to think once this was a barren fired out wasteland the area is still lined with cast iron structures today one of the few buildings to survive the fire was the Wakefield Glen building next to it the Piron and Poppleton buildings constructed in the 1860s had been torched interestingly enough today one of the only buildings demolished in this area is the Wakefield Glen building meanwhile the parent and Poppleton buildings were rebuilt using the original cast iron of those original 1860 structures today they stand as beautiful reminders of their architectural style and the perseverance of a city on another smaller note a small piece of the Wakefield Glen building does still remain lining the north side of the pier and building across the M Hill Street sits a string of three cast-iron structures all going up in 1878 the thin and lengthy Van Rensselaer block is another great reminder of that more compact style of cast-iron construction that grew in popularity in the 1870s and 1880s across from first Street stands the mikado block built in 1880 which stands almost a loan against the city's more contemporary structures along Yamhill between first and second avenues stands too easy to miss Fran's building also constructed in 1880 and across Yamhill street from the friends stands the Willamette and Strowbridge blocks back to back while built four years apart the buildings complement each other perfectly these were the many remarkable structures that were plotted out to revive the fire torched city's waterfront and they live on to tell the tale of renewed life however with the on scent of this next generation of cast iron structures they faced a rather dark future as with this land looming dormant for most of the mid 1870s the focus of the city's Commerce had to shift elsewhere moving the city's main economic hub further inland and away from the river this left a much weaker economic situation and the blocks down by the Willamette where much of the city's cast iron buildings stood this would over the next several decades lead to vacancies neglect and decay in many of these buildings a process of degradation that peaked during the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression the riverfront had become blighted with most of these buildings being used for storage or sometimes as makeshift flop houses in one of the city's earliest adventures to relieve urban blight starting in the early 1940s the city began demolishing many of these run-down cast-iron structures some of which were almost a hundred years old this would be an ongoing process all the way into the 1970s with whole areas completely changing no area was this more prominent than on Front Avenue now the Nadeau Parkway which used to be lined on both sides by towering structures but today is rather open with only a few cast iron mainstays by the end of the 1970s fortunately the city began to shift people were developing a better understanding in even appreciation for the historical significance of older buildings in town a love that I still see fairly prominent today decades of mass demolition reverted going into the 1980s to efforts to preserve and restore we have this transition to thank for the fact that we still somehow have so many beautiful cast-iron buildings to see in Portland today nevertheless it's truly unfortunate that so many breathtaking structures had to disappear under the notions of progress now while you've got some Portland's coolest cast-iron remaining structures located along the stretch of First Avenue he got these three laid up against easily got the pier and the Poppleton Strawbridge I think it's this one right here and then the ladder block on the other side of that and then issue turn don't know this things have been drastically alter if you've got the max line going through here Horace's the approximate sites of where Greene's building was he said it was demo blame for happening here they into the Morrison bridge over there for this building in particular I haven't been able to find a specific address unlike the rest of these ones because I heard conflicting information saying that Greene's building was located on first in Columbia but first in Columbia is way back that way so it makes no sense that the more submerges right here so I would presume it was on first which I'm standing along right now more of a train route going that way and it alters you know there's the NATO Parkway up over there that's technically the first Street closest to the river but if you figure this was 1st Avenue the green or Green's building as it was called literally right here that's about the best estimate I could say if it was along first and it was demolished so that literally this right here could come in now walking along Morrison Street downtown heading to the corner of Southwest 3rd and Morrison for the next no longer here piece of cast-iron history so I'm looking towards the southwest corner of this street because this is the site it's now the site of Pioneer place which is a fairly new mall lot of old buildings will probably demoed for this to happen but this is where right at this corner here this is where Cambridge block was that was demoed according to sources I've seen in 1962 and so with huge block right here at third and Morrison you need only walk a couple of blocks to find the location of the council building which is another casanare building that was both a little or demolished a little later than that when it was demolished in the 70s and literally it was located right past this is the dekum building this big brownish one right past it third and that's where the council building was located you so while much of Portland's cast iron the bulk of their cast iron buildings are considered to be more prominent in the old town neighborhoods are old town and Skidmore historical areas which are located down this way I'll be hanging down there and a little bit I'm in the heart of the Yamhill historical district and you'll know there's three beautiful cast iron buildings behind me there's four more over here there's one literally right here this little place right here is a haven you and so while a lot of Portland's early commerce 1800s when all these cast-iron buildings were in their heyday so much of it was along the river which is right you know way over here and then a little bit south of here you know you brought in a lot of products by ships so you know it was convenient to have all your businesses and all your commerce right by the river so you can get all your goods nice and quick and you know railway lines come in a little bit further north so I'm walking south walking away from where the main hub was for cast iron buildings because there were some a little bit further down south while they were it seems they're a little bit more sparse by comparison but there still were a smattering of old cast iron building south of skidmore area Old Town area the Yap Hill area which I literally just now leaving you'll notice it's a lot more contemporary this area around me but anyway trying to get over towards I believe first in Maine where there used to be another cast iron structure no this is a very modern stretch they demoed a lot of stuff on the more southern edges of Portland back in the fifties and sixties at the intersection of First Avenue and looking at what is the southwest corner buildings all first of Maine and though this building looks fairly new this was the site of the Smith and washin building which is one of the last cast-iron buildings to be demoed it's regarded as being demoed in the late 1970s and it stood here living a lot longer than most of the cast-iron buildings that got demoed and unfortunately it took till about the 1980s before people started taking note of these awesome historical buildings and starting to do more to preserve them got a venture a little bit further south now trying to get to the corner of Columbia and First Avenue if I can make it through there it's summertime is on the way so of course there's construction all around me [Music] it's now Matt first in Columbia and pretty well out of range from where the bulk uploads cast-iron buildings weren't which is very interesting because right over here the northwest corner of Hearst in Columbia is where one of Portland's most iconic cast-iron structures was this is where Ladd block was named after a famous one of Portland's like most famous early citizens and I can't remember his full name right now one say his name was William s Ladd he was a banker he was involved in politics he had his hand in just about everything that was going on in this town and for what I've been able to gather he was a pretty decent guy you know he obviously was well-to-do but yet he really cared about you know developing and flourishing the city of Portland and this was big old block I think it covered well it was called lad block but it may have covered just about this whole entire city block now it says the information I got that the land block was located the northwest corner well this is north and this is West so this would be the northwest corner now there's a building here and apparently Ladd block was demolished in 1965 to make way for a parking lot and there is a parking lot here on the southwest corner so I tend to want to believe that this was still the location since that's what I've been told that a lot of these cast iron buildings were demolished and just kind of for the time being were just replaced with a parking lot and a lot most parking lots will replace with buildings I just I noticed a parking lot over my shoulder right across the street and thought maybe the information is wrong but history says that it was right here from the sight of lad block right over there I'm headin just a little bit further south to find the BL stone building which was a very ornate very colorful cast iron structure at least it was in its later years I'm looking for first and market and I believe I have I'm already there first get ahead was the intersection where the veal I haven't been able to get a definitive address based on the one or two photographs I wanna predict that at I guess this is where the did not know so using my predictive if that is word skills I'm guessing this is where the BL stone building was located now based on the general look of the building it kind of looks like it's along a main drag like first so I'd almost want to say this side of the building would be where the front of the BL stone building was and then this would be just kind of the side going up my estimation and as I travel northbound heading back towards the heart of old town I'm heck gonna head towards Oak Street now there's actually along 1st 2nd and 3rd and oak there's kind of iconic cast-iron buildings that were demolished along each of those streets so you can tell already that oak was obviously a hub of cast iron in a Mecca look over here this somewhat newer looking Brown structure this was the site of Union blog which took up this whole entire block this building is on the intersection I'm coming up to now is Southwest Stark and second would all the way down to Oak Street a block down and all the way to first a block down that way it filled which I guess this is just these two buildings are together so imagine pretty much the structure of this whole building but in an old cast-iron block and that's what the union block would have been way back when you Union block was demoed in 1955 someone actually captured imagery of them in the midst of demolishing the building so you can see it just crumbling to pieces considerably smaller than what its current replacement structure and here's the view from one block down at oak in second where you can get a better view at a social structure [Music] because right here at this spot this is the southeast corner of oak and second this is where cooks block was so they were lined up like right next to each other it wouldn't even surprise me I'd have to check and I discovered that Union block was demoed in 1955 and then cooks block over here was demoed in 1965 so when I show the picture of Union block during its demolition you'll be able to see cooks block right next to it pretty interesting convenient and sad so while we have Union and cook blocks behind me and this being second and oak I'm now walking up to 3rd and oak not exactly much of a travel to the location of where the Ainsworth block was demolished which is another place where fortunately someone at least took some pictures of its process of demolition and it said the information I saw that it was replaced with a parking lot but still currently a parking lot fills that space so obviously this isn't a parking lot the portland outdoor stores not a parking lot the scientology place is not a parking lot but uh happens to be a parking lot right here so this is where Ainsworth block would have been and one good way to tell because it's not quite as common anymore but back in the day buildings were built right up against other buildings so sometimes you'll see a building demo you'll see this like exterior you know brick wall that's been covered for decades and you'll see this building behind me you can tell you know there's no windows and see just kind of action you tell that this was just butted up against another building looks fairly old probably not as old as a tour block was but this is likely the building that it was butted up against and that's why it looks like you know the initial intent was not to have this be an open wall and hence no windows no life outside the building and then from the sign of beans worth walk I need only go one block this way to get to Pine Street which is where I want to go to to see my next building I only have like one or two spots left to stop off at the next one I want to go to is I think it's called comm block maybe cam it's Kamm block and it's located if Miss volkova hotel where JFK and Martin Luther King had been too long sight note but I'm actually turning away from that and walking down pine to the site of calm block I'm just gonna call a column which was located on the north side of pine which is this side and it's said to be between First Avenue and Front which is now the Nadeau Parkway which is now a parking lot and I see a big parking lot right up here here we are a lot of construction going on but we are getting into the heart old town as construction happens in the area which doesn't make me exactly happy but yet here's this big parking lot this is First Avenue where the max rolls through and yeah calm Blanc would have been right here and again it makes all the sense in the world all the buildings on this block here our old cast-iron structure is still remaining from the 1800s so it's there's reason to believe there was probably this parking lot was probably lined with cast-iron buildings right through here you've got quell the backside of kells pub that is the Gleason building that was technically regarded as the last cast iron like predominantly cast iron building made in Portland got the new Newmarket block which is a theater you've got this was an old bank building you got the back side of Smith block over here which only half remained and you've got a front sight of Smith block right there look down here you've got a seaport building you've got the failing right over here and right on the other side of this is where the Halleck and McMillan building is which is the oldest commercial structure still standing and was a cast iron building Oh Jessie construction noise but yeah they say calm block was on Pine Street which is this road and is between fronts which NATO Parkway there and First Avenue which is right here so you think this would have been from the building would have been somewhere in this vicinity and again you've got all cast-iron structures on this block so comp lock if I'm calling it boom bites correct name would have been right here right behind this little stock of trees you've got Smith block right through here one of my most favorite buildings in Portland built in 1872 and you know they're just gateways leading us into the skidmore area which is the last place I want to go to you know this is front Avenue this is you know this this area all through here every inch this was just lined with cast iron buildings there's these pictures of Portland pre-1940 or just all cast-iron buildings and the Smith block located right here which is you know good sized building like was just dwarfed by them their new stuff going up where there's nothing at all it's about as tall as this new struction they were building and then you see Smith block right behind me dwarf by lease all cast-iron just absolutely beautiful now we have to deal with all this new crap it's just no creativity no originality it's just let's make some rounded corners make the windows pretty put some orange on it and whoa 21st century architecture here's this big Portland Fire and Rescue building I know there used to be a lot of old buildings along this stretch too and I'm heading towards the area of Ankeny Plaza which is kind of at the heart of Old Town it's right along where the skidmore fountain is and this is another area kind of right around the corner here that was just lined with cast iron buildings many of which were demoed all at the same time however as a memorial there's lots of really cool little pieces some here [Music] [Applause] see the plaques because this is beat at all I'm not sure what building like there may have been a building here and they just demoed it and left these pieces here but more than likely they were moved on noticing you can see kind of where it looks like they were and here you can feel like because this is only the stuff that was put around the outside of the past iron so you can almost feel like it's almost a slight hollowness to it because there's you know something inside of there so yeah please say 1883 which I can only assume is the I was gonna say erection day but that doesn't sound right the date they were erected and then there's some more right behind me and just what I was thinking I wasn't gonna be able to figure out what this structure was till I got home back here and it says is really hard to read this from the Smith and Watson building northeast corner of 1st Avenue in Main Street demolished 1974 and that being known now that Asda Smith and Watson building of that piece is from I can only assume are from the same building they even have the same coloration of the material that was put over them so I can only assume that both pieces are from that same building that's cool I've never really checked this out I picked perfect time perfect purpose to come do it and I'm at the site of first and Ankeny and it kind of just wraps around and then here's the Skidmore fountain right behind and so before I get to these last places you've got the remains of one of the buildings back there and then you've got the archway that's right next to the new market block through here which was built in 1872 to be a theater still at Ankeny and first Street and I just wanted to show you this cool air oh yeah I knew about this yeah the telephone exchange building in operations in the backroom of the Western Union Building which I can only assume was on or near this site next to Newmarket block so yeah this was just an extension this is another that was demolished salvaged these assessments demolished in 1950 I saved this much of the complex back in the 40s and 50s and 60s into the 70s I mean there was a lot of just knocking the buildings down and getting him out of the way this area was very decrepit kind of almost abandoned in certain aspects but to my surprise actually that kind of explains why this side of the new market complex looks a lot different and more generic than the other three sides because there was another building right here a while ago under these beautiful cast-iron remains the north wing of the new Market Theatre Ankeny arcade is what it says on that sign over there you'll note it's mostly just this new big fire building out standing here talking about this big fire fire and rescue building there used to be a lot of buildings I know there's a lot of building to that work them all as well this is where that last string of buildings was that I wanted to talk to you about this used to just be lined with cast-iron buildings there was at least four or five of them just right through here and they all got demolished at the same time they just got yeah the Smith & Watson building remains that have been moved all the way over here because this is almost like an outdoor museum for cast iron those remains from the Smithville are Smith and Watson building that I took you to earlier and I had to pull up my nose to see for certain yeah one of the last buildings demoed which is probably why those were salvaged because if that building wasn't demoed to the late 70s and kind of by the 70s and 80s people were kind of starting to realize hey we're just knocking down a lot of our history decrepit is some of it was you know so the city it really turned it around and decided to revive a lot of these buildings and so you know a new market block here has purpose again cast-iron buildings and went by down there at purpose there's a few more big ones over here kind of heading over to Chinatown they've been repurposed in the avenue meeting again oh yes smithing Watson buildings build in 1883 which explains why you know that's part of the solving of the riddle whites at 1883 on the exteriors it was located at the northeast corner of South West first in Maine so yeah several blocks down this way pretty much on the not even really in Old Town kind of past the Yamhill historical district which is kind of the southern end of Old Town there's really nothing that predates the 60s past there yeah man this place is absolutely awesome sigh I mean it's the main mecca of the skidmore fountain but there's so much more to be found out here so that was fun I always loved I'm pretty much anybody who does then and now type things and I figured I'm discussing the history at least cast iron structure in Portland and so many of them were demoed between like 1940 and like late 70s it was definitely worthwhile to come out and visit old town you know parts of old town to show some of these sites where these old cast-iron buildings works while we still have semblances of a lot of them I mean I only showed you a handful there are probably hundreds of cast iron buildings that either burned down over time or were demolished because they were kind of getting rundown you know back in the for you know 30s go into the 40s or maybe just properties were bought and they were torn down there's so many possible reasons for why so many amazing places cast-iron structures were lost forever in this area thank God we still have some of them right by the end of the 1880s the glamour of cast iron was finally fading and while Portland looked to places like New York New Orleans and San Francisco for architectural motivation back in the 1850s with the dawning of the 1890s in the 20th century just around the corner the city was looking to places like Chicago Illinois for their future this led to the dawning of the Richard Sounion Romanesque period that strived into the early 1900s and can still be seen in all its glory all over the city of Portland [Music] [Music] [Music] 1889 is regarded as the ending of the cast-iron craze in Portland with the Gleason building located on 2nd Avenue in the thick of old town considered to be the last of its kind to be built in the city this is not to say that cast-iron all but vanished after this point many buildings in Portland post 1889 included elements of cast iron this included the recently demolished United workmen temple that stood at second and Taylor on the edge of old town built in 1892 this Romanesque style building was predominantly built of brick but it did have two cast iron built columns standing along the main entrance to the building as a demolition process began in the late summer of 2017 I visited this site frequently to capture a visual record of the final days of what was at the time my most favorite building standing in downtown Portland with my reoccurring visits I actually was becoming recognizable to some of the construction workers working on that demolition one of whom walked up to me during my last visit there and handed me a box with something heavy inside so I just stopped off like briefly just let the police precinct about 20-30 minutes ago wanted to do a follow-up video on the what's left of the United workmen temple because if you draw my channel you know that I've been doing that and I haven't done in a couple of weeks so I feel bad about it and I'm about to go to Beaverton and come back to be my girlfriend I pretty sure was the construction worker I talked to before this what's in this I'll tell you in a second so now I'm gonna make dog that's in downtown just to show you what I took away the construction worker again I think it was one that I had spoken to you before but I'm not dead certainty that he just walked into an ox told me yet something for me and I thought it was maybe another breath because it's about my size and he was like nope opened it up you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Steve the Amateur Historian

Views: 873

Rating: 4.875 out of 5

Keywords: cast iron, cast iron structures, cast iron history, downtown Portland, Chinatown, Portland Chinatown, Portland history, PDX history, 1800s, Portland fire of 1873, historic fire, Yamhill Historical District, Skidmore Historical District, Skidmore Fountain, adventures, explore, exploring Portland, exploring downtown, travel, travel vlog, urbex, urbex Portland, old buildings, architecture, architectural history, history documentary, documentary, documentary film, Portland documentary

Id: -MZWiZX0wCA

Length: 60min 7sec (3607 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 14 2018