A 1948 flood washed away the WWII housing project Vanport—but its history still informs Portland’s diversity Natasha Geiling February 18, 2015
The mere utterance of Vanport was known to send shivers down the spines of “well-bred” Portlanders. Not because of any ghost story, or any calamitous disaster—that would come later—but because of raw, unabashed racism. Built in 110 days in 1942, Vanport was always meant to be a temporary housing project, a superficial solution to Portland’s wartime housing shortage. At its height, Vanport housed 40,000 residents, making it the second largest city in Oregon, a home to the workers in Portland’s shipyards and their families.
This article appears in its entirety at The Smithsonian website. It can be read here.
