Pages 1 to 14
Second Section
VOL. XLVI.
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PORTLAND, OREGOX, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1908.
By Georsn M. Hjtand.
HAKBSPBARE says, "There is no
art to find the mind's construction
In the face, but the dwelling a
man builds reveals his personality, and
thru its halls and porticos runs the story
of his life."
What, then, can be said of the per
sonality of those men and women who,
in addition to revealing their inmost na
tures in their dwellings, have chosen the
environment of a beautiful city as the
proper setting for a disclosure so impor
tant? Not elsewhere, perhaps, in all
creation has the bountiful hand of Na
ture been so lavish with embellishments
for the "home-ideal" as here near the
Junction of the Columbia and Willa
mette Rivers. While commerce may Here
claim every climatic comfort and scenic
grandeur as an' asset of her own, the
home-builder and home-lover have recog
nized in the mighty forests, mountains
and rivers of this rare locality the en
vironment essential to real happiness and
tranquility. So. during the last half
century, a city ot homes has been builded
in the midst of the natural wealth and
scenic beauty of the great Oregon coun
try, that rivals in picturesque splendor
the romancer's most vivid imagination.
Yes, a city of homes; for homes there
are here of infinite variety and design,
but in the main, the Portland home that
so reveals the life and character of its
builder is- of the substantial, honest,- yet
withal artistic type that proclaims its
owner a brother of the forest, mountains
and rivers that form Its setting. In de
sign we find that bigness of character
suggestive of intimate relationship with
Hood, Helens, Jefferson and the other
sentinel peaks of dignity and beauty, af
wIWi : SI the forests of fir and the
mighty waters of the 'Columbia and
Willamette Rivers. Wide casements,
broad verandas and floral profusion greet
the observer everywhere, and the wonder
is . not that so many opportunities ror
further adornment have been neglected,
but that in the few years of Portland's
growth so much has been done toward
delineating the "home beautiful."
It was rugged pioneer wisdom that hero
planned a city with greater air space
surrounding each block or square than
the area it enclosed, and gave to each
resident-to-be the guarantee that when the city became a metropolis he might still enjoy- the air-freedom of a rural resident
despite the location of his homesite or the density of the population. For In Portland every home occupies either a corner lot
or the lot adjoining a corner. It is further evidence of the civic wisdom and virtue of the pioneer builders, that the "city
beautiful" should be planned without those great stagnant open sewers, commonly called alleys, whose accumulations of filth
are rarely disturbed save in plague-time, times of epidemics, or. at best, long intervals.
Then, aside from the asthetic, physical and sanitary advantages of this feature of the Portland Homesite, it is a great
moral factor in that it teaches the open-life by the front-door system an attribute most essential to nobility of character
and tranquility of mind. So the noisome alley with its disease-breeding accumulations is no part of the Portland home, and
to this fact we attribute much that has made for the cleanliness, health and happiness of our fair town, and contributed
to the high order of its citizenship. The "Queen Anne" front-yard with its "Mary Ann" back-yard so common to the musty
cities of the effete East are neither known nor desired among the homes of the Rose City.
The beauty and grandeur of the scenery immediately surrounding Portland is unsurpassed by any city of the United States,.
From the hills back of Portland, where many of Portland's business men have built their homes, a marvelous panorama of
rivers, railroads, busy city streets, quiet country roads, well-cultivated farms, wooded hills and distant snow-clad mountains,
lies spread out to view. Far away on the lordly Columbia may be seen steamers bound for. San Francisco and the Orient,
sailing vessels arriving from the ports of the Old World or starting away on the long voyage around Cape Horn to Europe.
Portland is young, comparatively speaking, and too many of her citizens have been mainly occupied with business to pay
much attention to the asthetic side of life, but Nature has wrought here in this mild climate of the Pacific Coast the mar
velous background for the most beautiful city In the world. Time and a little better understanding of the duties that accu
mulation of wealth imposes upon the successful man, will result in creating a civic pride in the heart of every resident and
the work of man in architecture. In landscape gardening, in making use of the noble rivers as commercial highways, will be
everywhere on artistic lines, and the children of other countries will be taught In the schools that Portland, perhaps not
then the largest, is unquestionably the most beautiful city of the world.
What a field for recreation, too, lies within easy reach of the wearied business man! River or ocean, valley or mountain,
field or forest, all are at hald. . Take your choice. 'Tis a matter of a few hours only to reach your favorite haunts. Will
you fish or hunt? No better sport is to be found of either kind than is afforded almost at our doors.
If there were not already reasons enough why Portland is the best place to live, it needs no prophetic vision to foresee the
commercial greatness of a city located upon a river, second only in the United States to the Mississippi and the Missouri and
in many respects greater than either. More than a hundred miles Inland come the deep sea ships, the fresh water cleaning
the hulls of barnacles as effectually as If they had been docked and cleaned. Here river and rail compete in transporting the
products of a great inland empire, the cultivated area of which Is doubling every few years; everything combines to make
this one of the largest commercial cities of the world. With abundant room for growth. Portland will never become a city of
tenements, but will always be noted for its beautiful homes, surrounded by extensive grounds. As the modern facilities for
rapid transit are adopted, little country estates will join in an unbroken line eastward and southward far up into the foothills
of the great Cascades. ,
One cannot refrain from paraphrasing Judge Story's tribute to America, an oration familiar to every schoolboy:
"Oregonlans, you have a country vast in extent, embracing all the variety of the most salubrious climes. Held not by
charters wrested from unwilling kings, but by the bountiful gift of the Author of Nature."
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