Did You Know?
Anecdotes, Factoids & Tidbits About Our Neighborhood
The neighborhood now known as Beaumont-Wilshire has roots stretching back to 1907, when maps for the Beaumont subdivision were drawn up, “just two years after the Lewis & Clark World’s Fair drew thousands to the young city” of Portland, the late Philip Mulkey Hunt wrote in his history of the area.
Before that, the area was primarily farmland, Hunt wrote in “The Beaumont Profiles,” including orchards, berry fields, and a dairy, located along what is now NE 50th Avenue, just north of Fremont.
Concrete sidewalks and curbs were poured in the portion south of Fremont in 1911, Hunt reports. He “easily” located sidewalk marks indicating the 1911 date at NE 40th Avenue and Alameda (northwest corner) and NE 46th Avenue and Fremont, near the southeast corner.
A few homes may have preceded the subdivision’s construction, Hunt noted, notably the Keenan home, occupied until about 1903 by the family that ran the small dairy farm.
Beaumont School, now Beaumont Middle School, “opened its doors — a couple of wooden ‘Portables’ to begin with — in 1914,” Hunt wrote. It expanded over the next 12 years, “until 1926 when the two-story brick building was completed.”
Hunt, a former journalist who died in 2017 at the age of 97, compiled stories and photos from more than 100 sources to create his history.