4162It's Friday, and another bit of Old Portland goes away.
At 816 SE 122nd Avenue there has been a old-school Portland dive bar called the Magic Inn. I don't know how long it was open ... but has to have been decades. Probably set up by Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery for all I know. It seemed to be old-school-kicking it up to the last.
For a short time it was owned by the same group that owns Boss Hogg's (home of the Hawgarita, for those who were worried about homelessness for tackily-redubbed house signature beverages, don't worry, at least we have that covered) over on NE 102nd. They'd even painted it up with an exterior mural ... which went away before I quite dithering about taking a picture of it. Sic transit gloria.
Today, when nearly home from coming in from work, SE 122nd and Stark, which is a bear of an intersection during that time of the commuted on the best of days, was backed up to 127th, and narrowing to a curb lane only.
I wasn't really in the mood for it, but I went with the flow. So many times on Stark I was turned aside before I could see what the issue was in other traffic problems. I wanted to see what the deal was, this time.
At 122nd, Officer Friendly was diverting all traffic on to 122nd northbound. Couldn't go any farther west without detouring, but I could see that the building, just about 400 or 500 feet south of Stark at that point, was truly immolating. Three great streams of water were pouring from fire equipment onto the site, and smoke billowed up like as a volcanic eruption.
Getting back to the Bank of America's parking lot was a bit of a task; I must admit that I think I missed the most spectacular part. But what I saw when I finally could get there was pretty extraordinary.
The building is a total loss. Nothing to do but level the thing and sell it to a developer now, which may have been the thing all along, who knows. Some months ago, some small apartments on the same lot, toward the back, also burst into flames. Suffice it to say, Portland Fire Bureau investigators probably are looking at a job of work.
There was a lot of equipment there, to be sure. Three ladder trucks, two engines, and at least one maxillary support vehicle. 122nd and Stark rush-hour traffic were using all the back streets to get around it; northbound traffic SE 122nd passing Market were diverted to 130th, which was stacked from Stark all the way back past the David Douglast HS campus, which is a shade more than a half mile.
Here's a wider angle which gives an idea of how much equipment was on the scene
The Mr. Peeps Adult Superstore, which wss probably set up by a skeevy member of the Lewis & Clark party, was unscathed, as well as the former auto parts show just on the corner of 122nd and Morrison.
