Albina Neighborhood
Union Avenue in the early 1900s
The oldest Volga German settlement in Oregon is in the Northeastern part of Portland in what is known as the Albina neighborhood. The settlement dates to 1882 when Volga Germans, after having worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, were either brought to or terminated their employment in San Francisco. From San Francisco they were transported to Portland by ship. In the 1930's this settlement numbered about 500 families.
The Volga German neighborhood was concentrated in an area generally bounded by NE Alberta on the North, NE 15th on the East, NE Russell on the South, and NE Mississippi and NE Albina on the West. This area was known as "Rooshian Town" or "Little Russia" by the locals and appears to have been the general area of residence for most families until well into the 1930's. Many of the families, churches, and businesses in this neighborhood were Volga Germans.
Williams Avenue was once the fashionable street of Albina and the equivalent of today's "shopping mall" for the Volga Germans. At that time it was planked from Russell to Alberta. Later a sandstone brick was put down when the ferry landing was put in at Alberta. They used to zigzag the horses back and forth across the steep hills near the Willamette River.
Photograph of a Volga German family living in Albina during its early days. Contributed by Stacy Hahn.
Union Avenue (now Martin Luther King Boulevard) later became the heart of the Albina business district and was home to many German-Russian businesses and was a primary commercial center for the community. Before the large chain stores moved into the neighborhood, families patronized local businesses such as Repp Brothers, Hildermann's, Krumbein's, Bihn's, Hergert's, Grenfell's grocery and meat markets, Geist Shoe and Department Store, Trupp Shoe Repair, and Weimer's Hardware and Furniture Store. Other stores were sprinkled throughout the neighborhood such as Danewolf's on NE 13th and Failing and Lehl and Popp on NE 10th and Failing who supplied groceries to the local residents. Representatives contacted housewives at their homes or orders were phoned for delivery. Pad and pencil recorded each item and clerks retrieved the articles for the customer. After cows and chickens were no longer allowed within the city limits, milk trucks delivered milk to doorsteps. In the early days, children delivered milk in gallon buckets and quart jars to relatives and neighbors.
Lower Albina, along Russell Street, was a rough area. Some thirty saloons spread out from the top of the ferry slip to the corner of Russell and Union Avenue. (As late as 1929, Albina was connected to Portland via ferry service.)
Many remember riding the street cars down Union Avenue to Jantzen Beach where you could take swimming lessons, visit the haunted house and ride the roller coaster and bumper cars.
Albina History
Painting by Portland artist J. O. Foster of a house near the Albina Ferry landing in 1896. According to the Portland Art Museum, Foster was an early Oregon artist who specialized in cityscapes. He exhibited in the Oregon Industrial Fairs of 1893 and 1895 and with the Portland Sketch Club.
Albina was laid out in 1872 with a plat for the new town filed in April 1873 by Edwin Russell, William Page, and George Williams. Albina was named after Mrs. Albina Page, the wife of William Page. Settlement began in 1874 and the "City of Albina" was formally incorporated in 1887. The original dimensions of Albina were modest: from Halsey Street north to Morris Street, and from the Willamette River to Union (then Margareta) Avenue. In 1889, Albina annexed the land north to Killingsworth Street and east to 24th. In 1891, Albina annexed everything north to Columbia Boulevard and west to the Portsmouth area. Most of the "City of Albina" was unplatted farmland. The "City of Albina" was an independent city until 1891, with "Portland" being entirely confined to the west bank of the Willamette River. In July 1891, Portland, East Portland, and Albina were consolidated into one city, "Portland," with an area of about 25 square miles and a population of at least 63,000. The vote in the three cities for consolidation was 10,126 and 1,714 against.
According to Roy E. Roos, author of the book The History of Albina, "the town was originally was formed down by railroad tracks in lower North Portland along
Russell street, the first subdivision was platted in 1873 and extended out in
residential portion to just east of the current MLK Blvd. and north past NE Morris
street. The first arrivals were mainly Irish and Germans, separated of course. Then by early 1880s, Scandanavians came who preferred upper
subdivisions north of Eliot neighborhood such as along N. Mississippi
up to about N. Prescott street. New plats stretch further out were filed like mad by 1891, even out towards St. Johns past the University of Portland and east of MLK up to Killingsworth, as the Albina city limits expanded. From
my findings, most of Russian Germans settled in the area north of Fremont and
east of N. Williams avenue out in the Lincoln Park subdivision (south
of NE Prescott street). This area was more sparcely settled early and it is
likely the reason they preferred it. The lots were cheaper too. That is
why the early photos in the area are rare."
The streets in Albina were laid out in the "Philadelphia pattern" with numbered street paralleling the Willamette River and named streets running east-to-west. Many street names were changed in 1891 because of duplication in the three consolidated cities. Another major street plan change was made in 1931 which created the system now used in Portland. This system established 100 numbers to the block and five geographic regions (N, NE, SE, NW, and SW). Portland's address style that places the geographic designation between the house number and street name (rather than following the street name as in Seattle) was also established at this time.
In Albina's early decades most of the residents were first and second generation Germans from Russia, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. Churches in Albina often advertised "Services in German" in the local newspapers and City Directories.
According to the February 15, 1890 Albina Weekly Courier, the city grew rapidly and haphazardly:
"One of the great blemishes of our great city is her short, jagged streets, many of which begin nowhere and end nowhere. The owners of the various additions [to Albina] have laid out their streets regardless of neighboring additions. There are now 25 additions to the original Albina townsite."
After 1883, when it became possible to reach Portland by rail from the East, immigration increased dramatically and doubled the population of Portland by 1891. This rail connection to the East provided the direct transportation route that many Volga Germans followed to Portland.
The construction of the Union Pacific Railway and the terminal yards caused both the population and the property values in Albina to soar. From 1887 until 1891, Albina city ordinances primarily addressed the economic interests of the railroad and other large investors, making it essentially a company town. Just days before Albina’s planned incorporation into the city of Portland was finalized, Albina’s city council hurriedly passed ordinances and signed contracts for such expenditures as paved roads, city parks and lighting, which benefited property owners but created a financial burden for the taxpayers of the newly combined city.
Prior to the opening of the Morrison Bridge in 1887, parts of Albina were uninhabited wetland. However, as transportation from the central district became easier, population in Albina continued to rise, as did land prices, quadrupling in the first decade of the 20th century. By 1910, a year after this picture was taken, the population on the eastside reached 120,000.
To acknowledge the frequent and integral connections between activities on both sides of the Willamette, in 1891 voters in Albina, East Portland, and Portland overwhelmingly voted to consolidate into one city, and Portland’s land area increased to twenty-six square miles. The Oregonian was especially impressed both by the large voter turnout, and by the importance that downtown businessmen placed in the measure. In the same year the state expedited the modernization of Portland’s economy but added another layer to its government by creating the Port of Portland Commission to improve ship passage along the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
When it joined with Portland in 1891, Albina’s land area covered thirteen and a half square miles including St. Johns, more than Portland and East Portland combined.