Portland’s illicit past is filled with tales of shanghaied sailors, opium dens, and open vice. The city’s underground activities began early in its history.
In the 1800s, Portland was a bustling port town, and the second largest American harbor on the West Coast. Populated by mostly young male migratory workers, it gained an international reputation for violence and lawlessness.
Corruption was rampant: politicians, votes and police were all for sale; prostitutes plied their trade openly; and vagrancy was illegal, forcing many men on the lowest rungs of society into a life of indentured servitude as sailors.
When the city was incorporated in 1851 there were 800 residents, more than 600 of them men. That year the city constructed its first municipal building – a jail.
By 1870 the population had jumped to 8,000. Families were settling in the area, but more than sixty percent of the population was male. Most of those were transient laborers working on ships, mines, and nearby forests. For many, their main source of entertainment was cheap alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. While in Chinatown, crime syndicates ran opium dens and other underworld activities.
Vice was so rampant throughout the waterfront district that the area earned the names “Court of Death” and “White Chapel” after the famous area in London stalked by Jack the Ripper.
Over the years stories about the era have become legendary and treated as historical fact, even with little documentation.
Through expert interviews, first-hand accounts, and hundreds of rarely seen images, Portland Noir uncovers the true story of the early city's illicit history.
Resources
Books
Murder & Mayhem in Portland, Oregon, J.D. Chandler
Portland's Lost Waterfront: Tall Ships, Steam Mills and Sailors' Boardinghouses, Barney Blalock
Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland, Oregon, Marie Rose Wong
Wildmen, Wobblies & Whistle Punks: Stewart Holbrook's Lowbrow Northwest, Brian Booth
The War on the Webfoot Saloon and Other Tales of Feminine Adventure, Malcolm Clark
Shanghaiing Days: The Thrilling Account of 19th Century Hell-Ships, Bucko Mates and Masters, and Dangerous Ports-Of-Call from San Francisco, Richard Dillon
Shanghaied in San Francisco, Bill Pickelhaupt
Portland: People, Politics, and Power, 1851 – 2001, Jewel Lansing
Merchants, Money, and Power: The Portland Establishment, 1843 – 1913, E. Kimbark MacColl
Wicked Portland: The Wild and Lusty Underworld of a Frontier Seaport Town, Finn J.D. John
Websites
Funding Provided By:
Robert D. and Marcia H. Randall Charitable Trust
James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation
Oregon Cultural Trust
Clark Foundation
Roundhouse Foundation
Fran and John von Schlegell