Portland

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Portland borders South Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth and Casco Bay. The city is located at 43.66713 N, 70.20717 W. Portland zip codes range from 04101 to 04124.

In 1675 the city was completely destroyed by Indians during King Philips War. The city was rebuilt, to be destroyed by the same Indians again several years later. In 1775 the city was destroyed yet again, this time by bombardment by the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War.

Following the war, Falmouth developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center. In 1786 the citizens of Falmouth changed the name to Portland. Portland's economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (prohibition of trade with the British) and the War of 1812. In 1820 Maine became a state and Portland was selected as its capital. By this time both the Embargo Act and the war had ended, and Portland's economy began to recover. In 1832 the capital was moved to Augusta.

On July 4th, 1866 a fire was ignited during the 4th of July celebration which destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes. More than 10,000 people were left homeless. After this fire, Portland was rebuilt with brick and took on a Victorian appearance. Citizens began building huge Victorian mansions along Portland's (now famous) western promenade.

The high quality of architecture in Portland is in large part due to the succession of talented architects which worked here. Charles A. Alexander (1822-1882) provided many of the designs for Portland's Victorian mansions. Henry Rowe (1810-1870) specialized in Gothic cottages. George M. Harding (1827-1910) designed many of the commercial buildings in Portland's Old Port as well as many of Portland's ornate residential buildings. Around the turn of the century Frederick A. Tompson (1857-1906) designed many of Portland's residential buildings.

But by far the most influential and prolific architects of the Western Promenade area were Francis Fassett (1823-1906) and John Calvin Stevens (1855-1940). In the 1870s Fassett was the undisputed leader in his profession. He was commissioned to build the Maine General Building (now a wing of the Maine Medical Center) and the Williston West Church as well as several schools and his own home. From the early 1880s to the 1930s Stevens worked in a wide range of styles from the Queen Anne and Romanesque popular at the beginning of his career, to the Mission style of the 1920s, but the architect is best known for his pioneering efforts in the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, examples of which abound in this area.

After being destroyed four times, Portland stands as one of the most beautiful cities in New England. The Victorian style architecture, which was popular during Portland's rebuilding, has been preserved very well by the city's strong emphasis on preservation. Most cities have only small traces of architecture from this era. Portland's unique history and determination to survive have made it one of the best places to live and visit in the country. In 1982 the area was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. In modern lifestyle surveys, it is often cited as one of the best small cities to live in in America.

There are 29,714 households out of which 21.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.1% are married couples living together, 10.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 54.4% are non-families. 40.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 11.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.08 and the average family size is 2.89.

In the city the population is spread out with 18.8% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 36.1% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $35,650, and the median income for a family is $48,763. Males have a median income of $31,828 versus $27,173 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,698. 14.1% of the population and 9.7% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 20.0% are under the age of 18 and 11.9% are 65 or older.

• Cyrus Curtis, publisher and philanthropist
• Stephen King, writer
• Linda Lavin, actress
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
• Thomas Brackett Reed, US Representative

Airports

• Portland International Jetport

Landmarks

• Children's Museum of Maine
• Casco Bay Islands, including the Casco Bay Ferry
• Downtown Arts District
  • Portland Museum of Art
  • Portland Performing Arts Center
  • Portland Symphony Orchestra
• East End Beach
• Hadlock Field, home field of the Portland Sea Dogs
• Historical Parks
  • Baxter Boulevard (Back Cove)
  • Deering Oaks
  • Eastern Promenade
  • Lincoln Park
  • Western Promenade
• Maine Medical Center
• Maine Narrow Gauge Railroard
• Over 100 miles of nature trails
• 95 Playgrounds
• Portland Headlight Lighthouse
• Portland Museum
• Portland Observatory
• Prince of Fundy Cruises
• 11 Professional golf courses
• 124 Tennis courts
• University of Southern Maine
• Victorian Mansion (Morse-Libby House)

External Links

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Other nicknames include:

Bored with clearing trees and building roads, Overton sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove. Pettygrove and Lovejoy held a coin toss to determine who got the 19th century equivalent of naming rights. Pettygrove won, and named the new town after his hometown in Maine; had Lovejoy won, he intended to name it after his hometown.

Portland was the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s when direct railroad access between the deep water harbor in Seattle and points east by way of Stampede Pass were built. Goods could then be transported from the northwest coast to inland cities without needing to navigate the dangerous bar at the mouth of the Columbia.

As a result of a great renumbering in the 1930s, Portland is divided into five sections. The Willamette River bisects the city into an eastern and western section, and Burnside Street bisects it into a northern and southern section. These sections are abbreviated NW, SW, NE, and SE. The river curves to the NW north of Burnside, so the section of North Portland that is actually north of the river is the N section. The city proper is slightly asymmetrical, because the west side is cut off by the West Hills, while the east side stretches on for more than 150 blocks, until it meets Gresham. Locals refer to these areas by the abbreviated names "Northwest", "Southwest", "Northeast" and "Southeast"; however for "North Portland" the full name is always used.

• Northwest includes the Pearl District, a fairly recent name for what originally was an old warehouse area. Since the late 1980s, many of the existing warehouses have been converted into lofts, and new multi-story condominiums have also been developed. The increasing density has attracted an urban mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries, though in some cases pioneering tenants have been priced out of the area. The galleries sponsor receptions for their artists on the first Thursday of every month. Further west is the toney NW 23rd neighborhood and shopping area.
• Southwest includes Pioneer Courthouse Square (downtown's "living room"), various suburban neighborhoods including the expensive West Hills (mentioned in a 1997 Everclear song), the campuses of Portland State University, OHSU, and Lewis and Clark College, and the south riverfront along Macadam Boulevard and the Willamette.
• Northeast is largely working-class neighborhoods which are more diverse racially than Portland as a whole. Inner northeast includes several shopping districts such as the Lloyd and Hollywood Districts. The Rose Garden is located here.
• North Portland, another working-class area, contains the St. John's neighborhood which has an old-fashioned and slightly run-down feeling, right next to the beautiful St. John's Bridge. During World War II it was the site of Vanport, a planned development that grew to be the second largest city in Oregon until it was wiped out by a disastrous flood in 1948. The area includes a new light-rail line, along Interstate Avenue, due to be completed in Spring of 2004. It is also home to the University of Portland.
• Southeast stretches from the warehouses by the river, through the expensive Ladd's Addition, to hippie/gen X Hawthorne and Belmont districts, to poorer neighborhoods beyond 82nd Avenue. Farther south, the Sellwood neighborhood and wealthy areas near Reed College are close to the Willamette, with Clackamas Town Center acting as a hub for business further east, where I-205 splits the region.

Transportation

• six city street bridges across the Willamette, all but one dating to the early 20th century: Broadway, Steel, Burnside, Morrison, Hawthorne, and Ross Island;
• two interstate highway bridges over the Willamette, Fremont (dating to 1973) and Marquam (1966);
• two old bridges cross the Willamette just north (St. John's) and south (Sellwood) of city center;
• the Oregon City, is south of Sellwood and crosses the Willamette near downtown Oregon City;
• I-205 crosses the Willamette near Oregon City (the Abernethy) and the Columbia (Glenn Jackson) over Government Island;
• I-5 crosses the Columbia (the Interstate) into Washington.

A bus mall dominates 5th and 6th Avenues downtown. Almost all TriMet buses route through the mall, with bus stops grouped geographically by destination. This approach give riders who miss a bus to have additional options for reaching their destination. Since the mall acts as a metro-area-wide hub, it also means riders can often get downtown without changing buses and reach most other destinations with only one change.

The light rail, or MAX consists of two lines, with a third opening in 2004:

• The main line is 33 miles long, and goes from Hillsboro, a western suburb, through Beaverton and downtown, across the Willamette River to the eastern-most suburban city of Gresham.
• A five-mile north-south extension connects the main line with the airport.
• The newest route, almost six miles long and under construction until 2004, is a more central north-south one, connecting North Portland's Expo Center with downtown.

A more unusual form of public transportation, an aerial tramway, is planned to connect the South riverfront area with Marquam Hill (also known as "Pill Hill"), the location of Oregon Health and Science University. This plan encountered significant opposition from the citizens living underneath its planned route, though resulting changes in design have addressed the most serious concerns.

Today, the city has more craft brewers than any other city in North America, at least on a per-capita basis if not in number. The McMenamin brothers alone have over thirty brewpubs scattered throughout the metropolitan area, many in renovated theaters and other old buildings otherwise destined for demolition. In 1999, Michael Jackson (the beer hunter, not the musician) called it a candidate for the beer capital of the world because the city had more breweries than Cologne, Germany.

Portland hosts a number of festivals throughout the year in celebration of beer. One of them, the Oregon Brewers Festival, is the largest gathering of independent craft brewers in North America.

• Portland Trail Blazers, NBA
• Portland Beavers, Minor league baseball
• Portland Winterhawks, Junior league hockey
• Portland Timbers, A League Soccer

Tourist attractions

Colleges and universities

• Concordia University
• Lewis and Clark College
• Multnomah Bible College
• National College of Naturopathic Medicine
• Oregon Health and Science University (formerly Oregon Health Sciences University)
• Pacific Northwest College of Art
• Portland State University
• Reed College
• University of Portland
• Warner Pacific College

Notable Portlanders

Demographics

There are 223,737 households out of which 24.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.1% are married couples living together, 10.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 47.1% are non-families. 34.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.3 and the average family size is 3.

In the city the population is spread out with 21.1% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 34.7% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 95.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $40,146, and the median income for a family is $50,271. Males have a median income of $35,279 versus $29,344 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,643. 13.1% of the population and 8.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 15.7% are under the age of 18 and 10.4% are 65 or older.

• Body of Evidence
• Drugstore Cowboy
• Elephant
• Five Easy Pieces
• Mr. Holland's Opus
• The Hunted
• Men of Honor

Sister cities

• Sapporo, Japan, since 1959
• Guadalajara, Mexico, since 1983
• Corinto, Nicaragua, since 1985
• Ashkelon, Israel, since 1987
• Ulsan, South Korea, since 1987
• Suzhou, China, since 1988
• Khabarovsk, Russia, since 1988
• Kaohsiung, Taiwan, since 1988
• Mutare, Zimbabwe, since 1991
• Bologna, Italy, since 2003

See also

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics