Welcome to Montavilla Memories

By PATRICIA SANDERS

Welcome to “Montavilla Memories”, your site for exploring and sharing memories and information about people, places, and events in Montavilla’s past.

I’ll be contributing regular columns to Village Portland based on my research, but you are invited to share your stories about the Montavilla neighborhood of yore. If you have old photos and documents (like old newspaper articles or mementos) that would be great, too. It’s all part of building a bigger picture of where we live.

And that, I believe, helps us develop a sense of place, a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. It connects us to a common past that helped shape what Montavilla is today. We have tangible evidence of this all around us. Just look at the old commercial buildings on Stark Street, some of which go back to the early 20th Century. Or look at the houses in our neighborhoods which span the years from the late 1800s to the present.

Who were those people who worked and lived in those buildings? What was life like in the streetcar days? Who lived here before that and what did they do? How did Montavillans respond to crisis like depressions and wars? What did people do for fun? What did they really care about? These and other questions are ones we’ll explore together through “Montavilla Memories.”

I love digging through old newspapers, scrutinizing old photographs, and talking to neighbors who’ve lived here for many years. I’m relatively new to local history research, but I’ve spent most of my life in other historical pursuits— researching and writing about the work and lives of artists, teaching and lecturing on art histories at San Jose State University and other universities. In recent years, I’ve focused on family history and this interest in my Portland ancestors led me to researching history of the place where I live.

Please join me in this pursuit as a reader or as a contributor. You can send your ideas, memories, photos, scans of memorabilia or questions to me at: pat.montavilla.history@gmail.com.