Portland Then/Now: Southwest Broadway and Taylor Street

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Byron Beck, GoLocalPDX Features Editor

SW Broadway

SW Broadway at Taylor Street. December, 1964. Photographer Dewey S. Weiss.

SW Broadway

SW Broadway at Taylor Street. Jan. 2014. Photo by Byron Beck.

Portland Then/Now: Southwest Broadway and Taylor Street has always been at the intersection of hustle and bustle.

THEN: In 1964, the year the first photo was taken, Southwest Broadway was the entertainment strip of downtown Portland.

This was not only the place where teens and college kids would cruise the street every weekend, but it was also the place to catch the latest film from Hollywood.

The corner of Southwest Broadway and Taylor Street was the site of the aqua-marine-ish Fox Theater, with it's looping logo and art deco details that was built in 1911 and demolished in the late 1990's.

Nearby was the Music Box Theater and down the street was the Orpheum Theater.

A wee bit to the south at Southwest Broadway and Salmon Street, next to the Heathman Hotel, was the Paramount Theater that showed films as well as live productions and was the site for many touring concerts.

NOW: The Fox Tower, a 27-story office skyscraper, replaced the Fox Theater in 2000.

The tower was completed at a cost of $64 million, and is still the site for a movie theater (located on Southwest Taylor and Park Avenue) but also other tenants including restaurants such as Elephant's Deli and Ringside Fish House as well as retailers including Mario's and Banana Republic.

The Paramount is now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and many other retailers including Columbia Sportswear circle the tower.