[geography] The Address Nerd Recommends A Book To You

Dig, if you will, the picture to the right. This is a good book to have around if you enjoy Portland history, addresses, little-known facts, or just generally interesting books.

Here's the info on it:
Title:Portland Names And Neighborhoods: Their Historic Origins
Author: Eugene E. Snyder
Softcover: ISBN 0-8323-0347, 256pp
Publisher: Binford & Mort, Portland, Or, 1979

I have a copy of the first edition of this book. Not that it'll garner me any extra money in the eBay department-this copy is mine, all mine, darn you, and you can have it when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Snyder did an admirable and complete job. Turning to old city directories and historical records, and no doubt with a city map index (pre-1980) in hand, he found out a lot of interesting facts and made some damn good educated guesses. It's a good read, from one end to the other. For instance, did you know that the geometric lay of Ladd's Addition was inspired, at least in part, by the geometric layout of Washington DC? Or that the nucleus of todays city of Portland was actually three cities-Portland, East Portland, and Albina, which merged in 1891?

That's in there, as well as a thumbnail of how Portland coalesced and grew. It also explains the main "why" behind the development of our orderly street name and address layout.

In the early days of Portland development, the three original cities minded thier own names. Moreover, they didn't take any control over how developers named streets in thier new subdivisions. When the original cities combined, then, there was a multiplicity of duplicated street names in the new unified city (which for a short time was the largest city on the US West Coast).

A temporary solution evolved over time (which is complex in itself and deserves a separate entry of its own). After decades (literally) of sporadic debate as the city grew, a solution was finally settled upon...announced by The Oregonian in September 1931 and completely implemented (with no small help from the Depression-unemployed) by June 1933.

Snyder's style is conversational and friendly while still being informative. He's sort of a E. Kimbark McColl for the rest of us (no disrespect meant toward McColl, who's excellent (and I own three of his works). He's the author of a few other small books on Portland history, one, Early Portland: Stump-town Triumphant, I've perused and found worthy. I recommend all his books as an accessable entry-point to Portland history, and I do believe they are available at (where else) Powell's.