Built in 1912 at the north end of Portland’s central east side, the Alco Apartments opened at a time when east Portland was rapidly urbanizing, with competing commercial and residential uses vying for available space. Of key importance to these developments was proximity to streetcar lines connecting residential neighborhoods and suburban communities with the east side business district and downtown Portland. As a response to these competing needs, a new type of mixed-use building emerged in Portland in the closing decades of the nineteenth century and during the early twentieth century, combining storefronts at street level with apartments above, meeting the needs of both sectors. As development of new buildings in the central east side progressed during 1912, the Alco Apartments was featured in an ongoing series in The Sunday Oregonian, following their construction and highlighting their modern amenities and fine design. Strategically located on the streetcar line that traveled along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (then Union Avenue), the Alco was completed just before the rapid expansion of the automobile in the city, which would ultimately replace the streetcar as the dominant transportation mode until the late 20th century reintroduction and expansion of mass rail transit. Source: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office., National Register of Historic Places (Listed, 2017), This image is included in Building Oregon: Architecture of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, a digital collection which provides documentation about the architectural heritage of the Pacific Northwest.
