St. Johns Heritage Association

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Portland, OR
St. Johns Heritage Association

The mission of the St. Johns Heritage Association is to both preserve and celebrate the history of our great community.

Meetings at the Peninsula Odd Fellows
Community Classroom
4830 N Lombard St
3rd Tuesday of every month @ 11am

09/02/2026

The Portland Woolen Mills operated in St Johns from 1904 to 1960. This photograph was taken in 1935.

Vintage Portland / City of Portland Archives.

08/30/2026

Article dated June 7, 1928. At the time it was thought there were more than 16,000 residents in the immediate St Johns area. A larger area of Peninsula district residents, mainly to the south, were thought to number 44,000.

By 1928 the location of this new bridge, referred to in this article as the Peninsula bridge, had been narrowed down to three options, Tyler street (now avenue), Philadelphia street (now avenue) and Fessenden street.

Those in the immediate St Johns area preferred a location as far north as possible, so favored Fessenden. Those outside of the St Johns area to the south were in favor of the bridge being located closest to them, namely on Tyler.

The article didn't identify any group that had singled out Philadelphia as their first choice, but there were those who opposed it. While it didn't win the popularity contest the Philadelphia site was eventually chosen because its location minimized construction costs.

08/26/2026

New to these parts stranger? If you like mud you've come to the right place. What landmarks can we identify in this 1894 photograph? On our right is the imposing Central - Williams School. To your left that steeple you see was attached to the United Evangelical Church.

To your far left you can somewhat make out the two story Bickner Department Store and Hall. Coming forward from that we can see the steam trolley engine house and water tank for the steam dummies.

This photograph was probably taken at the top of the St Johns Water Works water tower. The road you see near the bottom of the photograph, going horizontally, was most likely what we call now call Richmond Ave.

08/23/2026

Undated photograph taken at Ivanhoe and Philadelphia of the decorative water fountain which has frozen over. The fountain was removed during the construction of the St Johns Bridge as it was believed would become a traffic hazard if it remained.

08/19/2026

The Fireman's Pool as it looked in 1934 and a colorized version of same. For some unknown reason the truck going over the bridge in the colorized photo has turned into a blue automobile. The Fireman's Pool was located on the front lawn of the St Johns City Hall building.

B&W photo credit to the Oregon Historical Society.

08/16/2026

We wanted to give a shout out to Vintage Portland for featuring the St Johns Bridge in their new logo / website header. Vintage Portland is a good source for old photos and related historical information. Sometimes you can learn a lot just by going through the comment section attached to each topic.

In this case we have learned that the ship going under our bridge is the USS Portland, named not for Portland, Oregon but for Portland, Maine. The photograph was taken October 26, 1933 and became Cross & Dimmitt's postcard #303. Cross & Dimmitt postcards were quite popular during this time. Currently there is an original copy of Cross & Dimmitt's #303 for sale on eBay.

The newspaper clipping is from the October 27, 1933 issue of Oregonian.

08/12/2026

In 1973 the St Johns Review wrote a short article about what the paper was like in 1925. Robert (Bob) Irish would purchase the paper the following year and operate it, along with his family, for nearly 33 years.

08/09/2026

Many will recognize this photo of Willie Nelson taken at the Wishing Well. Thanks to Robin Smith we can now see the image in color. Willie Nelson was a country music DJ on KVAN for about a year during 1956 - 1957. Using the KVAN facilities he recorded two songs in 1957. The A side was No Place For Me, which he wrote himself, and on the B side a number called Lumberjack which was written by Leon Payne. Willie had Starday Records initially press 500 copies of his debut single, but would go on to sell about 3000. He sold this record through the radio station. Willie would not release another record until 1959. When KVAN switched their format from country to rock and roll in 1957 Willie was out of a job.

You can hear that first Willie Nelson 45 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5xpCqWjPtc

08/05/2026

Riverside Hotel 116 S Decatur, would be 8503 N Decatur if it still existed, was located between Burlington and Leavitt. The hotel operated from 1906-1922. Advertisement from March 12, 1920.

Photograph found in one of Gil Parton's many collections. It is unknown where Gil acquired the photo.

08/02/2026

Two photos, original and colorized, credited to Robin Smith. The B&W circa 1956 photo was used by Don Nelson in his book A Pictorial History of St. Johns.

Address

4834 N. Lombard Street
Portland, OR
97203

Website

http://www.stjohnsheritage.org/

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