King

January 17, 2009.
I let Dick pick the neighborhood this morning and he decided on King. Seemed very appropriate since Monday we will be celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Once predominantly black, the neighborhood has rapidly gentrified since the 1990s and attracted more young residents. Dick, liz, Bonnie and I met Annie at The Reflections Coffee House at 446 NE Killingsworth. Great place to have some coffee and browse the bookstore attached.
Here are Bonnie and Annie. Which way shall we go?


We headed east on Killingsworth and began meandering through streets seeing lots of very old homes and new ones as this area becomes gentrified.



We found our way to King Elementary and loved the map of the US on the playground. Everyone jumped into the state they were born.



From there we headed towards Alberta and found St. Andrew Parish. It was magnificent.





Crossing Alberta and heading back towards where we started we were struck by what an interesting and old neighborhood this was. Unlike other walks so far, not one of us had spent any time walking in this neighborhood before today. Across MLK was a new complex, Vanport Square. Home to Horn of Africa, Old Town Pizza and the Curious Comedy Theater.





I have to say this was my favorite walk so far because everything was so new and different. The King neighborhood definitely has it's own distinct ambience.

Multnomah

On Sunday, January 11, lizzie, Dick and I went to Multnomah in SW Portland. We had all been to the shops in the village many times and decided to concentrate on the neighborhood instead. Multnomah is a neighborhood in the Southwest section of Portland, Oregon, centered around the Multnomah Village business district]. The community developed in the 1910s around a depot of the Oregon Electric Railway of the same name. It was annexed by the city of Portland in the 1950s.
Multnomah lies between SW 45th Ave. in the west, SW Capitol Hill Rd. in the east, SW Vermont St. in the north, and I-5 in the south. Exceptions are the area north of SW Nevada Ct. and east of SW 26th Ave. (part of Hillsdale), an area south of SW Multnomah Blvd. and north of SW Dolph St. where SW 48th Ave. is the western border, and an area south of SW Marigold St. where SW Capitol Highway is the western border. The neighborhood is bordered by Maplewood, Ashcreek, and Crestwood on the west, Hayhurst and Hillsdale to the north, and South Burlingame, Markham, and West Portland Park to the south and east.


lizzie and Dick in front of the Lucky Lab.


One of the wierdest mailboxes I've ever seen!



So many cute homes-old and new. Except in the village, there were no sidewalks to speak of and many of the side roads were unpaved.

Definitely not into upkeep!!!

Incredible staircase that looks like it was built during the WPA projects because walking up it leads to an unpaved road. The stairs to nowhere.


The community garden was picturesque.

Can anyone please tell me what these hanging bags at the garden are for?
Below more pictures of Gabriel Park.





While walking through Gabriel Park, we hooked up for a short time with a monthly walking group from the Southwest Community Health Center. They do monthly walks in the Multnomah area. They provide quality health care to low income residents in SW Portland. As you can suspect there needs are greater than ever as more people become unemployed and lose healthcare benefits. We finished up our walk with hot chocolate at the Starbucks on Multnomah Blvd. It was definitely a great afternoon!

Cully

We started our walk on MLK at Schoolhouse Electric. Why you ask? because this is The Cully Building built by Thomas Cully in 1884. Thomas Cully was born in 1810 in England and was an early pioneer. He settled on donation land claim farm in the Columbia Slough in 1846. Cully made his way to Oregon via Texas where he was a Texas ranger under Sam Houston. In Oregon he became a stone mason and erected a home for F.W. Pettygrove. He had a 640 acre land claim and a block on the east side of Portland. He and his wife Rebecca Jones had 12 children He died at 81 from injuries he received after being thrown from his wagon. He's buried in Lone Fir Cemetery.




Big group today! lizzie, Eric, Sarah, Dick and I. We stared out on the corner of NE 42nd and Prescott at AJ Java for some java to go. Next door we were fascinated by Caribbean Spice. Probably nothng quite like it anywhere in Portland. I snapped a nice picture of the friendly owner. We continued down 42nd and turned east on NE Ainsworth. lizzie was looking for some new homes she had read about in Portland Monthly that were LEED certified. We liked the open feel of the street. Big lots and interesting homes.














































Dick found us a place for the senior years. Oh wait, they're already here! But we're not quite ready for this!









The boys needed a bathroom stop and ducked into Su Casa Taqueria. We had delicious Mexican food. Refueled we finished up on Killingsworth walking past Rigler School. I especially was interested in the Rigler Peace Community Garden. Though we only walked a small portion of it, I can now say I know where the Cully neighborhood is. It extends all the way to the Columbia Slough and as far east as 82nd!

Brooklyn

One thing I've learned about myself is I'm a better walker than blogger. I'm two neighborhoods behind, soon to be three. So I best be blogging!

On December 30, lizzie, her sister Suzanne, and I headed off to the Brooklyn neighborhood. 

The westside is bordered by the Willamette. Powell is on the north. Parts go as far east as 26th and beyond Holgate south.

Gideon Tibbet settled in the area in 1851, building a home a grist mill. He named the area "Brookland" because of the river, creeks and lakes on his property.Brooklyn was founded as a neighborhood in the late 1860's when he subdivided the property into smaller lots and allowed the Oregon Central Railroad to cross the property. There was a town square at the corner of Powell and ilwaukie. The late 19th centurn saw an influx of Roman Catholic German Americans.

  We began at Brooklyn Park on Milwaukie Blvd.

The park has a playground and baseball diamond and a nice little hill. I know this because Dick went sledding there with our neighbors jus a few days earlier!

Walking south on SE 10th we saw a variety of housing from the 1890's to the 1960's. Some of the homes had plaques that said Historic Brooklyn Neighborhood and the year the  home was built. We cut up to SE 9th and headed north to Powell. We found the old church from Corbett Ave. that had been moved to behind Classics Pianos. Check out how great it looks with renovation! We also walked by The Original Hotcake House. Brings back memories of very late nights in the early 70's!

We crossed to Milwaukie and went east eventually ending up the old Brooklyn school, now Winterhaven, an environmental middle school. 

We continued back to the car passing Sacred Heart parish. I've included a picture of a beautiful tree with red twigs and yes, we found more cactus!!!