Snowmageddon 1919 – 1920.

The recent snowstorm didn’t even make it into Portland’s top ten snowfalls.  We believe the pictures below are from the winter of 1919-1920 due to the depth of the snow cut on Capitol Highway, and the sepia toning.  A December 1919 snow storm, the fifth worst in Portland’s recorded history, dumped 17.5 inches on Portland.  It is also possible that the photos are from the 1915-1916 Winter, when a January snowstorm, the second worst in Portland’s recorded history, dumped 27.9 inches on Portland.

We apologize for the poor quality of the images, they were scanned from color photocopies of the original photos.  If you know where the original photos are, we’d love to scan them so we have better quality images for our archive.

 

Capitol Highway Snow, ca. 1920.

Unidentified woman on Capitol Highway, Multnomah, Portland, Oregon. Snow cut can be seen angling down from upper right to center left crossing her at head height.

 

Unidentified woman and two unidentified boys in snow at Multnomah, Oregon, ca. 1920.

Unidentified woman and two unidentified boys in snow at Multnomah, Oregon, ca. 1920.

 

Snow Covered House in Multnomah, Oregon, ca. 1920.

Snow Covered House in Multnomah, Oregon, ca. 1920.

 

Unidentified Street covered in snow in Multnomah Oregon, ca. 1920.

Unidentified Street covered in snow in Multnomah Oregon, ca. 1920.

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1 Response

  1. timlyman says:

    Patti Waitman-Ingebretsen Writes:

    Somewhere in the 1950’s there was quite a lot of snow. The next door neighbor man had a big fancy sled and it would hold 1 Dad sitting with kid in front and the other man could kneel behind. We rode that sled on SW 45th from Multnomah Blvd down to where the sled could go no more and then we would have a long climb back. There were no cars on it but I don’t know if it was officially closed, I was a kid! Anyway, that’s my snow story and that sled went fast with 2 dads and a kid!

    Editor’s Note: Patti may be referring to January of 1950, when the eighth and tenth heaviest snowstorms of Portland’s recorded history struck; 13 inches and 16.1 inches, for a total of 29.1 inches.

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