Laurelhurst As It Was A Century Ago
A Laurelhurst neighbor kindly shared with us these scans of the sales brochure for the Laurelhurst neighborhood, circa 1916. There are a lot of scans here - thirty-six, to be exact - and rather than squeeze them into one mammoth post, we'll publish them over the next week or so.
It's worth taking our time with these. Brew a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy your visit to our neighborhood as it was one hundred years ago. As you walk, you'll notice how well Laurelhurst's look, feel, and character has been preserved and protected over the past century. We truly live in a beautiful, historic neighborhood.
Cover page: Our stroll starts in Laurelhurst Park. The H. Russell Albee house is visible through the trees. Today this house is the Portland Mayors Mansion, a bed and breakfast inn, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Pages 1 and 2. These pages were advertisements for lending banks, lumber and paint suppliers, and other services thought useful to a family preparing to build its house in Laurelhurst. We've omitted these pages for brevity's sake, but if you want to see them, let us know.
Page 3. The photograph shows the corner of Royal Ct and Flanders St. At this point in time, Laurelhurst had about 500 homes, and the young street trees had just started growing into the broad urban canopy that we cherish today.
Pages 4 and 5. With its mature trees, winding paths, and the newly constructed "Laurelhurst Park Lake", the park looks familiar even today. Are any of todays' ducks descendants of the original waterfowl from 1916?
Page 6. For a time, the Laurelhurst Club stood alone on its part of SE Ankeny St. The clay tennis courts are gone, but the club remains a vital part of the neighborhood, hosting weddings, dances, parties, classes and other events. The Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association holds its board meetings at the club, and these meetings are always open to neighborhood residents.
In the next post, we'll start strolling the streets of our neighborhood, enjoying the beautiful houses that had been built by 1916. Many will look familiar, as the same houses that you may appreciate on your walk tonight, a century later.