Ray Bottenberg

Vanishing Portland Ray Bottenberg

Portland at the end of World War II was an international port and a powerhouse of the timber and shipbuilding industries. Oregon's largest city grew and changed in the decades that followed, adding new industries and population. It also endured reductions in shipbuilding capacity, a devastating flood, a declining timber industry, urban renewal, freeway construction, and social change. By the 1990s, a wave of globalization and big-box retail marketing swelled shipping at the city's port and swept away a surprising number of Portland's businesses, which remain in the fond memories of Portlanders. A few of these memorable icons include the stores Meier and Frank, J. K. Gill, Payless Drug, and Sprouse-Reitz; the restaurants Henry Theile, Jolly Joan, Tik Tok, Yaw's Top Notch, and Waddle's; the Jantzen Beach Amusement Park; the Portland Hotel; the Broadway, Fox, and Orpheum theaters; Henry Weinhard's brewery; the Ramblin' Rod television show; and Portland Wrestling.