February 21, 2004
Rediscovering The Great Light Way, Part II: Piecing Together The Timeline
As learned in our previous report, the Great Light Way of illuminated arches along SW 3rd opened in June 1914. At that time, they rose above each intersection from Yamhill to Burnside.
Also in our previous report, quotes from newspaper accounts of the time indicated that there were plans to extend the Great Light Way as far south as Madison and as far north as Glisan.
Today at another visit to the Oregon Historical Society research library, we found the first indication that the northward expansion, at least, at some point did occur.
In a 1997 report published by the City's Office of Transportation called A History of Street Lighting in Portland, Oregon (and presented to City Council on May 28 of that year), Catherine Sohm wrote:
The arches were a distinctive feature of downtown Portland for many years. The ones north of Burnside were removed for a street widening project. The rest survived until 1937.
After a related disgression which briefly explains the fight over Northwest Electric Company's franchise indicates that at some point in 1936 or 1937, their franchise was not renewed and "the arches were removed as a matter of public safety." It does not elaborate on this point.
However, in the vertical file for "Portland - Lighting" we found a reference to an article in the July 29, 1934, edition of The Oregonian which slightly disputes that 1937 date:
Portland's first brightly illuminated street was feeling the march of time yesterday when employees of the Northwestern Electric company were removing the ornamental lighting arch spanning Southwest Third avenue and Yamhill street in compliance with requests of property owners.
Third avenue was a proud street back in 1914 when the lighting system was set up, perhaps even prouder than was Broadway when the present dazzling illumination was installed a few years ago. The lighting arches originally extended along Third from Yamhill to Glisan. Street widening at the northern end of the street, however, already has eliminated those at Glisan, Flanders, Burnside and Ankeny.
Of course, we already know that, in fact, "originally" they only extended to Burnside, and shortly thereafter (it's unclear just when) were extended to Glisan.
(For whatever it might be worth, the City's Transportation History Timeline lists a "Burnside widening project" for 1931.)
Returning again to our previous item, we now should revisit an item in The Oregonian from August 1940 which further, if unspecifically, refutes the 1937 date mentioned in the Office of Transportation report:
Removal of the last evidences of the 1914 ornamental lighting system on 3rd avenue was ordered by the city council Thursday and the Northwestern Electric company was directed to install arc lights in the place of the three steel arches that now remain on the street. The arches are to be removed within 60 days. They were part of the system that undertook to make 3rd avenue a great white way 26 years ago. The rest of the arches were removed several years ago.
So let's try to piece this together as best we can at this point.
In 1914, the arches of the Great Light Way were erected, extending along SW 3rd from Yamhill to Burnside.
At some point early in the period between 1914 and 1934, the Great Light Way was extended northward to Glisan.
But by 1934, the arches north of Burnside were gone, having been removed for a street widening project possibly related to the 1931 project at Burnside.
In 1934 itself, what appears to have been the southernmost arch, at Yamhill, was removed at the behest of property owners.
Around 1937, it seems that more of the arches were removed, possibly because of some sort of public safety concerns.
Finally, in 1940 the "last evidences" of the Great Light Way were removed, although as of yet we don't know just how few of the arches remained at that time.
Meanwhile, we are now in the possession of photocopies of 22 photographs of the Great Light Way, most of which appear to be from the 1920s and 1930s, although more than several are undated. These may or may not find their way into a later post in this series, depending upon the required approval from the Oregon Historical Society for their use.