In its short history, from 1942 to 1948, Vanport was the nation’s largest wartime housing development, a site for social innovation, a lightning rod for …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Vanport Extension Center grew from a converted shopping mall and recreation center in the World War II city of Vanport into Portland State University …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Stephen E. Epler, the founder of the Vanport Extension Center—the beginning of today's Portland State University—was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, in 1909, the son of a …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Periodically, newspaper or magazine articles appear proclaiming amazement at how white the population of Oregon and the City of Portland is compared to other parts …

Oregon Encyclopedia

During World War II, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser established three shipyards in the Pacific Northwest, two in Portland and one in Vancouver, Washington. Kaiser’s Northwest …

Oregon Encyclopedia

By the late 1880s, Albina, located across the Willamette River from Portland, was the fastest growing city in Oregon. In July 1891, the city …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Ancer L. Haggerty was the first African American to become a partner in a major Portland law firm and the first to serve as a …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The River For more than ten millennia, the Columbia River has been the most important and intensively used part of Oregon’s natural landscape. The river’s main …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Bill Berry, a leader in the Urban League for nearly thirty years, was the first director of the organization’s Portland chapter, established in 1945. At …

Oregon Encyclopedia

First African Methodist Episcopal Zion is Portland's oldest African American church. Founded in 1862 as the People’s Church, the congregation first met in Mary …

Oregon Encyclopedia