While cold and blustery weather lingers, I'm dreaming and knowing this too will come, No. 4

I took this photo at 7:13 p.m. on May 10, 2012, as part of the Architectural Heritage Center's Skidmore Old Town Walking Tour. Those tours most often happen after work. Sunny early evenings do happen in Portland, and when they do, these walking tours are the best of the best.

Cast Iron Colonnade in Skidmore/Old Town

The Saturday that I rode the MAX to shop at the Dress Barn, I took this photo from the window. As I looked at it closely, deciding if/where to crop it, I noticed that gaggle of guys to the left beside the lamp post. Immediately I wondered, "Just what are the three of them looking at the one on his knees doing?" Then I noticed the women looking over their right shoulders towards the guys. Surely those two women are wondering, "Just what are they doing over there?"

The canopies which you see between the arches are a small bit of the western most part of the Saturday/Sunday Market. And that's an even tinier bit of the crowd out on a sunny day!


I love that guy's black and gray checkerboard shirt and pants! Now that I look at the photo again, I'm wondering, "Is the man in navy blue angry, or did I catch him at the moment of pushing his glasses up on his nose which made him look angry?" So I've cropped it closer. What do you think? Is he on one of those hands' free phones?

I found this information, and lots more about the area here, to share with you: In 1984 a colonnade consisting of cast-iron components salvaged from the North Wing of the New Market Theater by the Portland Friends of Cast Iron Architecture was erected on the site of the original building.

Cast iron remnants, left alone. Why?

A while ago Marsha told me she had noticed some cast iron stored beneath the east end of the exit ramp of the Hawthorne Bridge. I decided to take some photos of them on the day that I went to the rally for our Portland Trail Blazers--that's the only time I've caught the bus at the base of the exit ramp. Both of us are curious about them and why they are there.








Maybe we can find out on Saturday when we go to a lecture on Portland's cast iron architecture at the Architectural Heritage Center. From their Web site: Portland’s Cast-Iron Building Heritage: Skidmore - Old Town. Skidmore - Old Town is where the city of Portland began. Designated a National Landmark Historic District by the National Parks Service in 1977 (the highest level of national heritage recognition) it is the only designated NHL district in the city. Come learn from architect, author and cast-iron expert Bill Hawkins in this special Members-Only lecture.