Pearl District
Thirty years ago it was railyards and cold warehouses. Today it's Powell's Books, galleries, and $2,000 lofts. The Pearl is what happens when a city bets on itself.
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The Pearl was Portland's working industrial core through most of the 20th century — railyards, warehouses, cold storage, and light manufacturing crammed into the blocks north of Burnside and west of the Park Blocks. When industry decentralized in the 1970s, the buildings emptied. Rents dropped to almost nothing.
Artists moved in first. In 1978, Ted Savinar rented 3,000 square feet for $100 a month. By the mid-1980s a gallery scene had taken root in the old warehouse buildings. The name "Pearl District" is generally credited to gallery owner Thomas Augustine, who described finding gems — artworks — in the gritty shells of the buildings, like pearls.
The city's urban renewal machinery caught up in the 1990s. The Brewery Blocks — the former Blitz-Weinhard brewery — were redeveloped into mixed-use retail and residential. New apartment towers went up. The streetcar was extended through the neighborhood. By 2005, the Pearl was a nationally cited example of downtown urban reinvestment.
The transformation displaced the artists who started it — a story Portland has repeated in several neighborhoods since.
Food & Drink
Elephants Delicatessen has been feeding Portland since 1979 and remains the Pearl's most beloved institution — a full deli, bakery, and prepared foods counter in the old NW 22nd location that somehow still feels like a neighborhood shop. Jake's Famous Crawfish, a Portland institution since 1892, is a short walk away. The Pearl has every price point covered, from food cart pods to white tablecloths.
What to See
Powell's City of Books occupies an entire city block on W Burnside — used, new, and rare books across multiple color-coded rooms on multiple floors. It is genuinely one of the greatest bookstores on earth and requires a budget of at least two hours and a firm resolve not to leave with 11 books. The maps room alone is dangerous.
Tanner Springs Park, designed by landscape architect Herbert Dreiseitl, is a constructed wetland in the heart of the Pearl that references the natural springs that once ran through the area before the city paved them over. The art wall along its edge is made of reclaimed steel rails from the old railyards.
The First Thursday gallery walk (held the first Thursday of each month) originated in the Pearl and remains one of the better ways to see what Portland's fine art scene is doing.
Curious Facts
- →The Pearl sits on top of Tanner Creek, a stream that ran through the neighborhood until it was buried underground in the early 20th century. It still flows beneath the streets.
- →The Portland Streetcar, which runs through the Pearl, was the first new streetcar system built in the United States in 50 years when it opened in 2001. The Pearl District was the primary reason it was built.
- →Powell's has an estimated 1.5 million books on the shelves at any given time. Employees give tours. The store has its own coffee shop. There is no excuse not to go.