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Black History
The North Williams Avenue That Was – 1956
gentrification there on the impact of city
policies on small businesses.
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
Originally published Aug. 9, 2011
A Fateful Era
D
octors’ offices, bike shops, gro-
ceries, churches and an ice cream
store. Manufacturing, greenspace,
boutiques, salons and plenty of affordable
housing.
If ever the City of Portland wanted a
model for a 20-minute urban neighborhood,
Albina in 1956 was it.
Until city leaders opted to bulldoze it for
“urban renewal.”
The current debate about North Williams
Avenue – once the heart of Albi-
na’s business district — is only the
latest chapter in a long story of
development and redevelopment.
The Skanner News this week
unveils our special tribute to the
families who lost their homes and
businesses over the past 60 years
with this interactive Google map
feature listing every business along North
Williams Avenue in 1956 – including Dr.
DeNorval Unthank’s medical office —
paired with a street view of what is on North
Williams now (Go to “Portland, Or., Gentri-
fication Map: The North Williams Avenue
That Was – 1956”)
We left out private homes, of which there
were many, to link our historical account of
For Albina, the district which included the
city’s traditionally African American neigh-
borhoods, 1956 represents the height of
home ownership, business success and
tightly-bound family connections.
It was a watershed year for other reasons
as well: Terry Doyle Schrunk won election
to mayor on an urban renewal platform,
firmly laying the track for creation of the
Portland Development Commission two
By 1962, the PDC’s
“Central
Albina
Study” earmarked the
area as “beyond reha-
bilitation.” The city
document “History of
Portland’s African
American Communi-
ty
(1805-to
the
Present) quotes the
study:
“Clearly,
urban
renewal,
largely
clearance, appears to
be the only solution
to, not only
blight
that
presently exists in central Albina,
but also to avoid the spread of that
blight to other surrounding areas.”
The Polk’s Guide for that year
shows scores of vacant properties
along North Williams.
When it came time for local offi-
cials to win grant funds from the federal
government to expand Emanuel Hospital,
the 1966 grant application read, in part:
“There is little doubt that the greatest con-
centration of Portland’s urban blight can be
found in the Albina area encompassing the
Emanuel Hospital. This area contains the
highest concentration of low-income fami-
lies and experiences the highest incidence
rate of crime in the City of Portland.
Approximately 75 percent to 80 percent of
Portland’s Negro population live within the
area. The area contains a high percentage of
substandard housing and a high rate of
Contrary to popular belief, ghetto
neighborhoods are not a chance
occurrence
For more about your
neighborhood go online to
www.TheSkanner.com
years later – the arm of city government
which carried out wide-scale demolition of
neighborhoods for decades to come.
It was the year voters approved construc-
tion of Memorial Coliseum in the Eliot
neighborhood, ensuring the tear-down of
more than 450 homes and businesses.
It was also the year federal officials
approved highway construction funds that
would pave Interstates 5 and 99 right
through hundreds of homes and storefronts,
destroying more than 1,100 housing units in
South Albina.
Celebrating Black History
P
arren J. Mitchell was the first black
elected to Congress from Maryland
Parren Mitchell was born in Maryland on April 29, 1922. After
serving in WWII and earning a Purple Heart, Mitchell graduated
from Morgan College, later named Morgan State University. He
went on to gain a master’s degree in sociology from the University of
Maryland.
In 1970, as the first black elected to Congress from
Maryland, Rep. Mitchell became an outspoken
member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In 1976, he introduced legislation that
required all federal grants going to state,
county and city municipal government to set
aside 10 percent for minority firms working
as contractors and subcontractors. In 1982,
he helped amend the Surface Transportation
Assistance Act, which also required a 10
percent set-aside for disadvantaged
businesses.
Parren Mitchell chaired several House
of Representatives’ committees,
including: the Subcommittee on
Domestic Monetary Policy, the
Small Business committee, the
Task Force on Minority
Enterprise and the
Congressional Black Caucus
Minority Enterprise and
Economic Development
Committee.
sponsored by
www.hoffmancorp.com
Page 12 The Portland and Seattle Skanner v BLACK HISTORY EDITION v February 22, 2012
North Williams
unemployment.”
Portland won the grant, and demolition of
buildings began in the late 1960s. Within a
few years the federal money ran out for
Emanuel Hospital expansion – after the
demolition was complete.
Cause and Effect
Contrary to popular belief, ghetto neigh-
borhoods are not a chance occurrence, nor
are they the natural evolution of “old hous-
ing stock” that hasn’t been properly
maintained by its owners.
In her ground-breaking study, “Bleeding
Albina: A History of Community Disinvest-
ment, 1940-2000,” Portland State Urban
Studies Adjunct Professor Karen J. Gibson
detailed how municipal development poli-
cies, coupled with racism in the real estate
See WILLIAMS on page 13