The last 20 years have been witness to great growth in Portland. But back during the Great Depression, things in Portland looked like a different world altogether. While much of downtown was standing, the surrounding areas were anything but the same. Farmland made up a great deal of the landscape, and shanty towns sprung up all around to house many desperate people who called Portland home.

1. Here a typical garden bed is shown, fenced in among a field.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
2. Without plumbing, the river was as good as place as any to set up a bathroom to carry away waste.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
3. Small makeshift houses began to fill the landscape. Called Hooverville, after the then current president Herbert Hoover, these communities housed buildings made of scrap wood, car parts and even cardboard.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
4. The population at Ross Island City became the largest camp of this kind in the city.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
5. So big that they even elected their own mayor to oversee the community.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu

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6. Instead of condos, parks and office buildings, the banks of the Willamette were lined with more and more squatter's houses.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
7. The skyline of the city was undoubtedly different during this period.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
8. The shacks filled in any open spaces, much like buildings and apartments do now.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
9. The Sea Wall Public Market stood between SW Salmon and Morrison Streets on Front Avenue. Built in 1933, the building was demolished in 1969 to make way for what would become Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
Arthur Rothstein / Yale.edu
10. Many of the cities nicest neighborhoods were already built. Here, a cord of wood is stacked in front of a home for sale, a common sight at this time. During the depression though, a cord went for $5.50, an unimaginably low sum in today's market.
Dorothea Lange / Yale.edu

Did you hear any stories from relatives about what life was like during the Great Depression? Feel free to share below.

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