Transcript The Immigrant experience: Immigrant families in NW Portland OREGON 1890 - 1930 UNIT QUESTION: Immigrants coming to Portland Oregon often first settled in the northwest sector and.

The Immigrant
experience:
Immigrant families in
NW Portland
OREGON
1890 - 1930
UNIT QUESTION:
Immigrants coming to Portland Oregon often first
settled in the northwest sector and worked in
specific occupations, eventually resettling in other
parts of the city.
What were the settlement patterns of immigrants and
the industrial life of NW Portland from 1890
through 1930?
Overview
• This unit will explore the settlement of NW Portland
by specific immigrant groups:
Scandinavians (Norwegian)
African Americans
Greeks
Jews
Irish
Chinese
• This unit will focus on analyzing where these
immigrant groups initially settled and what
occupations they worked in.
PORTLAND OREGON SECTIONS
Using MAPS and Photos of Immigration in
NW Portland
1890 - 1930
Students to visualize
patterns, trends
and relationships
of immigrant
groups
1930 Sanborn
Maps
(Location)
1930 US Census
Tables
(Data)
Historic
Photos
(Context)
Oregon Immigrant Groups
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Cultural Groups of
Color
Indo- European
Recent Immigrants
Native Americans
Mexicans 1940’s
Chinese 1800’s
Japanese 1920’s
African Americans
1800-1940
• Irish 1860
• German 1800’s
• European Jews
mid-1800’s
• Poles 1800’s
• Italians 1880’s
• Greeks 1900’s
• Gypsies 1950’s
• Southeast Asians
1970–1980
• Former USSR & Eastern
Europe 1990’s
• Middle-Eastern,
Persian & Iranian
1960–1970’s
WELCOME TO AMERICA
Source: http://www.icsd.k12.ny.us/acs/library/ushistory/laborwebquest/index.html
Portland Waterfront (1919)
Portland’s
Connection to the
Country
(by river and land)
Union Station 1913 (Portland, OR)
Northwest
Portland Trolley
Line
Date: Unknown
Source: Unknown
ArcReader Project: TAH NW PDX.pmf
Immigrant Groups
OF NW Portland 1890 – 1920
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Scandinavian (Norwegian)
African American
Greek
Jews (from Turkey)
Irish
Chinese
The U.S. Census
Hints at life in early portland
Norwegian Immigrant:
Ole Banchekson
• Age 58
• Single Male
• Born in Norway
• Works as a Logger
• Arrived U.S. 1901
• Naturalized Citizen
• Speaks English
MAP AND FLAG
OF NORWAY
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO LIVE IN A SingleRoom Occupancy Hotel?
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Lobbies on first or second floor.
Small hallways with rug runners.
Rooms had 10’ ceilings, transom window over door.
Furnished with bed (sheets included), sink, medicine cabinet with
mirror, chest of drawers, chair, and small closet or wardrobe.
Room was wall-papered and had pull string light switch to turn on
light bulb in middle of room.
Large commercial bathrooms were down the hall with toilets, sinks
and urinals.
Showers and baths were in a separate room.
Residents: Vast majority were single men.
Not uncommon for residents to use sink as urinal in middle of night.
Common to use sink to wash clothing items.
Who Did Ole Live With?
• Ole lived with 27 other people in a small boarding house at 305 N
Burnside Street.
• All were single males – usually between 40-50 years old.
• Eclectic mix of nationalities including Italians, Irish, Scottish, Greek,
Swedes, Danes, Welsh, French Canadians, Albanians, Serbs and a mix
of U.S. nationals.
• Most were unskilled laborers in industries such as logging.
Former Single Room Occupancy Hotel, NW 2nd & Couch
Lobby on second floor (current picture)
Source: Streckert Collection
Estate Hotel, NW 2nd and Couch (current picture)
Source: Streckert Collection
Hallway, Estate Hotel, NW 2nd and Couch, Portland, OR
Source: Streckert Collection
Logging on
the Columbia
River
Date: ca. 1902
Source: OR Historical
Society
North Pacific Lumber, early 1900s
Source: St. Patrick’s Centennary Celebration
U. Cockran
African American of Jamaican Descent
• Age 55
• African American
born in California
• Parents born in
Jamaica
• Married
• Small Business
Owner (cleaning
business)
• Residence is where
business is located
MAP OF THE
CARIBBEAN WITH
JAMAICAN FLAG
Dining Car Cooks on the
Southern Pacific (1919)
Albert Morton, Head Waiter
Portland Hotel
Source: Oregon Historical Society
African American man
in cigar store doorway
Portland, OR
1915
The Golden West
Hotel
Portland, Oregon, ca. 1905
African American
Portland,
child in residential
OR, 1915
neighborhood
Portland, Oregon
1915
Greek Immigrant:
Gus Angelos
• Age 42
• Single Male
• Born in Greece
• Works as a Laborer
on the Railroad
• Arrived U.S. 1909
• Speaks English
MAP AND FLAG
OF GREECE
Who Did Gus Live With?
Gus also lived in a boarding house, but much more crowded. 500
residents occupied a small building at 2nd Street and Burnside. Gus
would have heard languages from all parts of the world!
• 15 Fellow Greeks
• 52 West Europeans and 35 East Europeans/Russians
• 28 From the UK (Ireland, Scotland, England)
• 9 Canadians
• 96 Scandinavians (Norway, Sweden, Finland)
• 41 Mexicans
• 3 From South America (Columbia/Argentina)
• 9 Chinese and 4 Japanese
• 27 From the Phillipines
• 3 From India
Louis Vlahakis in his grocery store at NW 6th & Couch (1917)
Source: A Surge to the Sea, the Greeks in Oregon, Thomas Doulis, 1977
Maria S. Ekonomidou, Greek journalist visiting an Oregon Rail Gang
Source: Greeks in America as I saw Them (E. Ellinea Tis Armerikus Opus Toua Eda)
New York, 1916
Spyridon Haralanus in the “Busy Bee” Restaurant at NW 6th & Davis
Portland , OR 1918
Source: A Surge to the Sea, the Greeks in Oregon, Thomas Doulis, 1977
John Raptor in his Confectionary Store at 3rd & Burnside
Portland, OR 1917
Source: A Surge to the Sea, the Greeks in Oregon, Thomas Doulis, 1977
Haralambos
Kambouris and
friends c. 1913
Irene Menashe
Jewish of Turkish Descent
• Age 15
• Born in Oregon
• Parents born in
Turkey
• Student
• Lives with 2 sisters
and her parents at 69
N. 6th Street
• Father in Dry Goods
Business
MAP AND FLAG
OF TURKEY
(part of the
Ottoman Empire)
Jewish Life in Old Portland
Dora Levine with her daughter Esther in front of Levin’s Fish Market on First
Ave, Portland ca. 1910
Source: Oregon Jewish Museum Collection
General Store c. 1890
Some Jewish peddlers succeeded in overcoming the hardships of pioneer days
and eventually became merchants and general store proprietors. Many of the
artifacts that you see in this recreation of a store were used by pioneer Jews as
they moved westward.
Source: Oregon Jewish Museum Display
Peddler's Cart
Many Jewish
immigrants to
Oregon began as
peddlers. Peddling
served as a starting
point–a way to
learn English and
save some money.
Young men traveled
throughout
Oregon hawking
dry goods, secondhand clothing,
cooking tools,
jewelry, notions
and scrap metal.
Oregon Jewish Museum photo
Meier and Frank at NW 14th and Everett Streets
Eighth Grade Class, Arlington (1913)
Source: Oregon Historical Society
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Congregation Beth Israel
(NW Flanders) 1928
Irish Immigrant:
Patrick O’Brien
• Age 75
• Lives at 52.5 N. 5th
Street
• Retired Laborer
• Both parents born
in Irish Free State
• Immigrated to U.S.
in 1880
MAP AND FLAG
OF IRELAND
Catholic Directory Photo
Funeral, St. Patrick’s Church, NW 19th and Savier, Portland, OR
Source: Oregon Historical Society
Business started in 1918, ad placed in the
1929 Catholic Directory
Irish Roots:
Courtesy of
the Duffy
Family
Delia Wong Chin
Chinese Descent
• Age 33
• Born in California
• Parents born in China
• Married with 2
children
• Lives at 68 N. 3rd Family Laundry
Business
MAP AND FLAG
OF CHINA
(Post-1949)
Discrimination and Exclusion
Telegram to Governor Sylvester Pennoyer (1893)
Source: Oregon Historical Society
Chinese Man with
Child (1895 ca.)
Source: Oregon Historical
Society
Portland’s
Chinatown
c. 1890
Source: Oregon
Historical Society
Chinese Vegetable Gardens, Portland (c. 1909)
Source: Oregon Historical Society
Chinese Benevolent Association (NW Portland, 2006)
Northwest Portland Chinatown (2006 Street Scene)
Boundaries of
Oldtown/Chinatown
Today
Larger National Question:
Was the experience of immigrant groups that
arrived in N.W. Portland, Oregon replicated in
other cities throughout the U.S. during the
same time period?
Additional Issues and Questions for future study
and discussion:
1. Union membership of immigrant groups.
2. Political assimilation and voting patterns of immigrant
groups.
3. Cultural and identity issues for the immigrant groups
(Am I Greek or am I American?)
4. Did stopover neighborhoods like NW Portland become
blighted or skidrow-like areas?
5. Are their demographic/geographic/land-use
commonalities between immigrant city neighborhoods
in the U.S.?
6. In succeeding census data, what are the patterns and
trends that can be determined in former stopover
neighborhoods in Portland, OR and the U.S. in
general??