 History of 82nd Avenue
(from 82nd Avenue Corridor Study)
Stretching
approximately 6.5 miles on the eastern edge of the city, 82nd Avenue is
Portland’s longest continual commercial strip. Unpaved as late as 1920,
the street developed into east Portland’s major north-south
transportation corridor and runs from the Clackamas County line to
Portland International Airport.
The land in the corridor is relatively flat and the physical
development of the area surrounding the strip is generally uniform and
regular since there were no construction obstacles in building
individual structures. Originally a line of convenience between donation
land claims and early homesteads, the street has been developed in an
urban manor only recently due to its relative remoteness from the city
center. The areas surrounding the street were only incorporated into the
City of Portland from 1906 to 1913 and the street itself was not
improved, nor continuous, until the mid 1920’s. Since it developed late,
the corridor does not lend itself to identification by any one
neighborhood designation or ethnic groupings and retained a rural
character well into the 1930’s.
The overall development of the street into Portland’s pre-eminent
example of the auto-orientated strip is tied directly to this city’s
infatuation with the internal combustion engine. After the Interstate
Bridge opened in 1917, the cars won out over rail (MacColl, 1979).
THE CITY BEAUTIFUL
The first major planning reference to 82nd Avenue was in the Greater
Portland Plan produced by E.H. Bennett in 1912. Portland, like most
American cities at that time, did not have any program to direct future
growth. This study was the first civic attempt to plan for Portland’s
future and was paid for by a public subscription of $20,000. The city’s
population in 1910 was 207,214, having doubled in population in the
previous decade.
Bennett had been a partner with Daniel Burnham in Chicago and was a
champion of the “City Beautiful” movement. Included in Bennett’s
planning philosophy was the tenet that cities should be treated as a
living organism; hence, growth would be organic. A street system would
thus become a circulation system and in order for the city to be
healthy, certain streets would have to be more important than others.
These streets (arterials) should be wider and do more work.
Before Bennett’s work, Portland’s development was based upon a
relatively undifferentiated grid and there was not a major, unified
street plan. As property was developed by individual projects, streets
were developed along the wishes of the developer. Bennett proposed a
network of axial streets to reduce travel time, but 82nd Avenue was not
included within this system even though it was identified as a main
thoroughfare. The street’s remoteness from the center of development in
1912 kept it from being incorporated as part of an improvement plan.
In 1919 a series of planning reports by Charles H. Cheney were
published in another attempt to plan for Portland’s future. These
reports recommended the establishment of a City Planning Commission and
pressed for a zoning code to control land use. Cheney’s plan
concentrated on a housing code and attempted to deal also with a major
street plan.
By this time 82nd Avenue was continuous from Sandy Boulevard to
Foster Road and was identified as an existing traffic street – even
though the street still was not yet paved with either a concrete base or
permanent hard surface. Of note to the road surface is the fact that in
1896 (before the auto) a bicycle map published by the Multnomah Wheelmen
identifies 82nd Avenue (Meridan Road) as “fair” for bicycles.
One general observation in the Cheney report did, how3ever, predict
the future of 82nd Avenue. Cheney stated “as soon as hard surface
pavement is laid on a street of any length, it immediately attracts all
the travel from the surrounding neighborhood, becomes more dangerous for
children, dusty, dirty, and noisy for the houses fronting on it, and
therefore less desirable in many ways as a residential street.”
Cheney’s recommendation that the city adopt a zoning ordinance was
not realized until 1924. Due to overly optimistic projections for
population growth (Cheney predicted an additional 150,000 residents by
1930), nearly all the city was overzoned. All areas which were vacant or
where there was just a smattering of development and nearly all other
residential areas were placed in an apartment zone. In addition, all
street upon which main or through street car lines were located were
zoned business/manufacturing. Such commercial zoning was generally
limited to mid-block depths.
The emergence of the auto, plus restrictive zoning which kept stores
out of residential areas, encouraged the creation of continuous “strips”
of stores along the older trolley routes and some new streets built
especially for autos. The chain store and gas station were new elements
on these strips.
At this stage of development, 82nd Avenue was served by existing
traction lines on Foster, Belmont, and Stark. A retail center was
growing up on Stark between 78th and 82nd Avenues at the terminus of the
Montavilla streetcar line. This shopping district is still evident with
a relatively uniform concentration of one and two story commercial
buildings. Surrounding this center are a number of residential
structures which retain much of the character of early subdivision
housing tracts.
THE CITY EFFICIENT
During the 20’s and 30’s, Portland’s central area reached its
greatest concentration and the metropolitan area remained tied to this
one major center, surrounded essentially by apartment districts. The
streetcar system supported this sub center pattern, but the auto, which
all but eliminated the streetcar by 1950, tended to stretch these sub
districts into long linear strips and encouraged a greater spread that
was possible with public transportation.
To city officials at this time, efficiency and highway building went
hand in hand. The city published a Major Traffic Street Report in 1927
and this document directly addressed the future of 82nd Avenue. By 1927,
the street had been paved by Multnomah County and the State of Oregon
had designated it as part of the state highway system – Route 213. The
existing right-of-way at that time ranged for 40’ to 80’ with a roadway
width of 18’. This report recommended that in anticipation of increased
traffic and the need for future widenings, the right-of-way should be
developed to 120’ by 1977. This report also recommended that required
building setback lines be established immediately to facilitate future
widenings.
The Bartholomew Plan in 1931 addressed the future development of
Portland in the same manner as the Bennett Plan but with much more
realistic projections as to the future shape of the city. This report’s
diagnosis for the probable future use of land along 82nd would be
exclusively residential with a few commercial areas serving local needs.
These residential areas were augmented by an industrial district
paralleling the rail line in Sullivan’s Gulch, where the Banfield
Freeway is today. Bartholomew recommended a 100’ right-of-way for 82nd
Avenue and observed that setbacks were still not established. Early
photos of the street at this time illustrate that utility lines and
poles had already been located within portions of the right-of-way. A
major flaw in the Bartholomew Plan was its failure to foresee the
increasing infatuation with the automobile. Portland’s transit system
was currently efficient, but declining in the number of total passengers
carried.
There were many highway projects in the 1930’s. McLoughlin Boulevard
received a grand total of $1.45 million, SE 82nd Avenue (a designated
state highway) received over $401,000. So rapidly did SE 82nd develop as
a major north-south arterial that city council voted in August of 1937
to rezone the entire avenue for commercial & industrial purposes, thus
dooming the future of Montavilla as a residential neighborhood (MacColl)
In 1943, the Portland Improvement Plan was presented to the city by
Robert Moses. This report identified public improvements that the city
should undertake in anticipation of the end of World War II. The major
emphasis of this report was transportation improvements but in reality
such projects served as a vehicle for unemployed post war construction
workers. As in previous plans, this plan did not directly address 82nd
Avenue in recommended public improvements; but an outer scenic drive was
proposed linking Oregon City and the Columbia River Highway. This drive
was proposed for the approximate location of the I-205 corridor. In the
next three decades the availability of cheap land and an increasingly
efficient street system encouraged development further from the city
center.
THE REGIONAL STRIP
Beginning in the 40’s new auto-oriented strips began to replace older
streetcar shopping districts along streets built specifically for the
automobile. New buildings constructed in these strips tended to be
larger than stores in older areas. Display windows were disappearing in
favor of completely enclosed buildings. Set back behind large parking
lots, display windows ceased their intended function and were replaced
by signs as means of communication. Styles were accommodating to the
auto as auto-related buildings, such as the new “drive-in,” became shiny
and machinelike. Nearly all structures were becoming introverted as
porches, awnings, and front gardens took a backseat to the free-standing
sign on the street. 82nd Avenue as we know it is a prime example of this
phenomenon.
Prior to the 50’s, Union Avenue (Martin Luther King, Jr.) in
Northeast Portland had been the city’s primary auto row with numerous
auto-oriented businesses, including new car sales, tire dealers,
gasoline stations, and other related services. Union Avenue’s position
began to fade during World War II when new car sales declined and nearly
all car sales operations began to sell used cars. The rise of a parallel
street, Interstate, as the main north-south route has been attributed to
be primarily responsible for the decline of Union since most of Union’s
traffic was channeled to that street.
Portland revised its zoning code in the early 50’s and finally
adopted a new zoning code in 1959. By this time 82nd Avenue was a series
of spot commercial zones from one end to the other. The area surrounding
82nd Avenue was reduced from apartment zoning to reflect usage – single
family houses. The strip itself remained primarily
business/manufacturing. Originally, all of 82nd Avenue was zoned
multi-family residential purposes in 1924. However, it was designated a
state highway and was the only continuous north-south arterial from
Union Avenue to 122nd Avenue. It was attracting more and more traffic
and more and more zone changes were granted. In fact, it was so spotted
with business zones by the time the 1959 code was enacted that the
entire length was placed in M3 (light manufacturing) except north of
Burnside Street where it was zoned A2.5 (duplex). Otherwise, 82nd Avenue
was left wide open for strip development. It lived up to its
expectation.
As the history of the period from 1915 – 1950 has revealed, the
automotive revolution caught Portland and most American cities unaware.
Portland was platted and developed as a small town. It matured under the
economy of the nineteenth century. By 1950, the city had become wholly
unsuited to the efficient use of the motor car and truck. As a
consequence, Portland began to experience distress, losing population
and suffering a decrease in property values within the older districts.
Concurrent with this development was the gradual decline of one of the
nation’s most complete mass transit systems to the point that by 1950,
the last electric streetcar faded into history (MacColl).
The most noticeable physical change to 82nd Avenue since the late
50’s has been the loss of single-family houses along the strip and their
replacement by commercial structures. This is also reflected in the loss
of other single-family residences adjacent to the strip and their
replacement with multi-family structures. These changes have occurred in
the absence of strong policies to direct growth. The sole action
directed toward the physical appearance of the strip was the
introduction of a required setback in 1959, cited to provide for a
cleaner and safer environment for all those using 82nd Avenue. Due to
relaxant enforcement, signs, fences and other objects have encroached
into the setback area almost since its inception.
Within the last two decades, commercial activity along the street,
and major intersecting streets, has changed. The commercial uses that
existed prior to 1960 generally catered to a local trade but the opening
of Eastport Plaza in 1960 and a Fred Meyer shopping center in 1964 at
Foster road drastically changed shopping habits in the corridor and
indirectly forced the closure of some neighborhood stores. The later
construction of Bazars (now K-Mart), Mall 205, and Gateway Plaza
reinforced these shopping trends. As shopping habits changed, traffic on
the street increased. Average daily traffic has increased and commercial
structures were auto-oriented uses. The opening of I-5 in 1964, and
racial disturbances along Union Avenue, created a declining economic
climate along Union Avenue. As a result, many auto-related businesses
moved to 82nd Avenue, strengthening the concentration of auto-oriented
businesses along that street.
82nd Avenue typifies a contemporary trend toward the growth of major
streets with high volume traffic supporting businesses with large
service areas, particularly shopping centers. Presently, the future of
the street is uncertain. Extensive changes occurred relatively recently
to change its character from rural to urban. Other extensive changes
could occur to radically alter the health of businesses dependent upon
the auto. The opening of I-205 in 1982 will most certainly have a
negative effect on businesses dependent upon drop-in customers. A
drastic reduction in the availability of gasoline would have a serious
effect on the sales of autos, boats, and motor homes. 82nd Avenue will
most certainly be as different 40 years form now as the first 40 years
have been.
The noted developer of Columbia, Maryland, and Boston’s Quincy
Market, James W. Rouse – in 1957 a governor of the Mortgage Bankers
Association – singled out the crucial issue that American cities faced
22 years ago and still face today. He declared:
“We will never make our cities what they ought to be simply by
clearing slums and eliminated blight. There is a lot more wrong with our
cities than the physical condition of the buildings, the streets and the
alleys. A gigantic and fully effective physical cleanup program would
simply restore the physical condition of our cities to the beginning
point of the deterioration pipeline, but it would have little effect
upon the forces for deterioration which dragged them down in the first
place.
It is not merely the physical condition of our cities which is out of
kilter. Even the well-maintained, unblighted areas of most of our cities
fall far short of the hopes and aspirations of our families and far
short, too, of our knowledge of and technical capacity for better
living.
The fact is that the city is out of scale with the human being. It is
beyond his scope and capacity. It is unmanageable. It is only in an
abstract way that the human individual can feel a part of his city.
We must make the city consist of communities which are human scale –
communities of which the individual can feel a part and for the life of
which he can feel a sense of participation and responsibility.” (MacColl)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
MacColl, E. Kimbark, The Growth of a city: power and politics in
Portland, Oregon, 1915 – 1950, Portland, OR: Georgian Press, 1979.
Portland (OR). Bureau of Planning, 82nd Avenue Corridor Study, Portland,
OR: The Bureau, 1980.
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