Once a Famed House Of Ill-Repute, Now Affordable Housing

By John Sepulvado (OPB)
Portland, Oregon July 26, 2015 7:45 p.m.
00:00
 / 

Erickson’s Saloon in Portland once boasted a 680-foot bar, free lunches (as long as alcohol was purchased) and a brothel in the upstairs “cribs” of the building.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:
The Erickson Saloon Card Room

The Erickson Saloon Card Room

Courtesy of Innovative Housing, Inc.

The business in the building became a symbol of what made Portland different in the early 1900s.

On one hand, the Saloon is remembered as a grandiose vision realized of owner Gus Erickson. On the other, prostitutes, laborers and alcoholics toiled in and around the Saloon, branding early Portland with the deep scars of social blight and inequity.

Doug Kenck-Crispin of Kick Ass Oregon History joined Sculptor James Harrison to talk about the history and renovation of the old saloon.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: