September 10, 2009
By Claire Sykes
You can’t miss it in Portland—those giant block letters on top of the building, spelling out its name. Yesterday, I managed to get to the roof of that historic, nine-story structure known as the Montgomery Park Building, thanks to Bill Barendrick, CEO of the Bill Naito Company, which owns and manages it.
Me taking the final flight of steps to the top. (Photo by Richard Engeman)
It all started with Paul Dorpat. He asked Richard Engeman, Portland historian/archivist/author and formerly public historian with the Oregon Historical Society, and me to take pictures of the same view of the city that appears in a 1905 photo of the Lewis and Clark Exposition, the first world’s fair held in a western-US city. One of our photos will be featured in Paul’s Seattle Times article (sometime in October) comparing the region’s two world fairs a century ago, the other being Seattle’s Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYP), in 1909. Next month, you can see that article and dozens more related photos on Paul’s blog.
Doug Thompson, Bill Naito's assistant facility director, points the way toward the northwest corner of the building. (Photo by Claire Sykes)
Doug and Richard compare the historical photo with the view in front of them. (Photo by Claire Sykes)
Lewis and Clark Exposition, 1905 (Courtesy Paul Dorpat)
The view now, Guild's Lake filled in with 20th-century commerce and industry (Photo by Claire Sykes)
Doug and Richard with a view to the south, Portland's Northwest neighborhood bordering on Forest Park. (Photo by Claire Sykes)
Our fair city, looking east to downtown. (Photo by Claire Sykes)
I suppose it's possible that someone, somewhere saw us way up there by the big block letters. (Photo by Richard Engeman)
(Photo by Claire Sykes)
© Claire Sykes. All rights reserved.
