Photo of Portland Hotel and Jackson Tower

[MgFrobozz]

I'm kicking myself because I didn't bookmark this photo when I came across it. This was taken on a NE heading, of the Portland Hotel and the Jackson Tower across the street, both on SW Broadway in Portland OR. Jackson Tower was built in 1912, and the hotel was demolished in August 1951, so it was taken during that interval. The bottom of the photo had the word "Copter", and (as I recall) "photo" or "foto".

Despite being taken at a downward angle of about 30 degrees, there was nothing of the "copter" visible, so I'm guessing it might have been a small gyrocopter. And I'm guessing there were few personal helicopters in use in Portland in the early 1950s.

Pearson Airfield (VUO) is just across the river, and the pilot could have flown from there.

 

[Aerofoam]

I'm kicking myself because I didn't bookmark this photo when I came across it. This was taken on a NE heading, of the Portland Hotel and the Jackson Tower across the street, both on SW Broadway in Portland OR. Jackson Tower was built in 1912, and the hotel was demolished in August 1951, so it was taken during that interval. The bottom of the photo had the word "Copter", and (as I recall) "photo" or "foto".

Despite being taken at a downward angle of about 30 degrees, there was nothing of the "copter" visible, so I'm guessing it might have been a small gyrocopter. And I'm guessing there were few personal helicopters in use in Portland in the early 1950s.

Pearson Airfield (VUO) is just across the river, and the pilot could have flown from there.

So, are you going to post the photo?

 

[WaspAir]

No such thing as a small gyrocopter in 1950. Before Bensen, there were big autogyros from Pitcairn and Kellett, but precious few even of those. More likely a Hiller UH12 or Bell 47 helicopter.

Are you asking for help finding the photo?

 

[MgFrobozz]

So, are you going to post the photo?

No such thing as a small gyrocopter in 1950. Before Bensen, there were big autogyros from Pitcairn and Kellett, but precious few even of those. More likely a Hiller UH12 or Bell 47 helicopter.

Are you asking for help finding the photo?

Yes, trying to find it again, or find suggestions on how to find it

 

[Simon]

You can do a search in your browser's history.

 

[Simon]

Is it on this page somewhere?

Old aerial photos track Portland's building boom over the years

With a bird's-eye view, old aerial photos chronicle how Portland has changed from a sleepy river town to a bustling city.

www.oregonlive.com

 

[Aerofoam]

This one?

 

[Roundwing]

My guess is that the photo was taken from a Copter.
No aircraft of any kind in the picture that I can see.
The symbol in the lower left says, "Journal Copter Photo". Probably some kind of copyright.

Rick

 

[MilesW]

Aircraft Photo of NC105B | Bell 47B | The Oregon Journal | AirHistory.net #489110

Aircraft photo of NC105B - Bell 47B - The Oregon Journal, taken by AirHistory.net Photo Archive at Grants Pass (closed) in Oregon, United States on 8 May 1947. Amazingly The Oregon Journal really used this helicopter in 1947, until it crashed at a golf course after a flight from the newspaper's...

www.airhistory.net

 

[MgFrobozz]

You can do a search in your browser's history.

That photo appeared while I was using Google Lens, which doesn't log clicks into the history.

 

[MgFrobozz]

This one?

View attachment 1163193

Yes, indeed! My hat's off to you!

In google search, I had exhausted all permutations of "Portland Hotel", "Jackson Tower", "Broadway", and Copter.

 

[MgFrobozz]

No such thing as a small gyrocopter in 1950. Before Bensen, there were big autogyros from Pitcairn and Kellett, but precious few even of those. More likely a Hiller UH12 or Bell 47 helicopter

As it turned out, the photo was labeled "Journal Copter Photo". The Oregon Journal was a prominent Portland newspaper from 1902 to 1982. I did another search on that, and came up with the article below, discussing the crash of the Journal's Bell 47B helicopter in 1947, and including pictures of Sam Jackson II hovering in the Bell, and of a Bell 47B at the National Air and Space Museum (probably the Udvar-Hazy branch). The picture of the Jackson Tower and the Portland Hotel was apparently taken between 1946 and 1947.

'Helicopters were a brand-new thing in 1946. The first helicopter built for civilian use, the Bell 47B, had just come out, a tiny two-seater that looked rather like a Fiat 500 with a tail and a rotor. They were selling for $25,000 apiece'

Helicopter crash had huge impact on independence of Oregon journalism | Offbeat Oregon History | #ORhistory

PORTLAND, MULTNOMAH COUNTY - It was the first news helicopter in the nation, and it gave the Oregon Journal a huge advantage. But then, one day ... (14 Jan 2018 - By Finn J.D. John) #ofor

offbeatoregon.com

Bell 47B Cockpit | National Air and Space Museum

The two-seat Model 47B was the first commercial evolution of Bell’s pioneering Model 30, also designed by talented engineers Arthur Young and Bartram Kelly. The model 47B was the first helicopter model to be certificated for civil use in the world. This example, the 36th built, served over a...

airandspace.si.edu

 

[Kevin_Richey]

Portland, Oregon had early autogiros flying around in the 1930s.
I found microfilm records from the Oregonian writing about how a pilot, King Baird (of Seattle, WA) flew his Pitcairn autogiro w/ full-span wings, into the Jantzen Beach amusement park, in a sequence of photos.

The article told of a Seattle-area amusement park owner sponsoring his flight to Portland. They had built a wooden runway on the sand for him to arrive/depart on. The photos show the sequence of him landing, but one of his main wheels dropped off the edge of the wood runway, w/ expected results. The photos show the upended gyro w/ damaged rotors. The captions state they planned to rebuild the machine.

Judging from those photos & the location of the bridge in those photos (showing automobiles driving over the Columbia Slough on Hwy. 99, b/4 it became I-5), the wooden runway was where the amusement park swimming pool later was. That is the area between the McDonald's on Jantzen Beach is & I-5.

As a kid, I remember going to that amusement park & swam in that pool b/4 it was demolished & it become the Jantzen Beach mall area.

I photocopied those stories & photos into the PRA Chapter 73 newsletter sometime in the early 1990s. I don't have those newsletters saved anymore. Another story told of King Baird landing in his Pitcairn @ a car dealership promotion @ SE 20th & Belmont. He landed on the street & took off again after his visit. Must have been prior to installation of all the power lines & traffic signals that are present now...

 

[Aerofoam]

Yes, indeed! My hat's off to you!

In google search, I had exhausted all permutations of "Portland Hotel", "Jackson Tower", "Broadway", and Copter.

I just did a duck duck go search (Gargle proxy) with your title copied and pasted, selected images and founf the one that sort of matched your description about 5 rows down form the top...

 

[MgFrobozz]

Portland, Oregon had early autogiros flying around in the 1930s.
I found microfilm records from the Oregonian writing about how a pilot, King Baird (of Seattle, WA) flew his Pitcairn autogiro w/ full-span wings, into the Jantzen Beach amusement park, in a sequence of photos.

The article told of a Seattle-area amusement park owner sponsoring his flight to Portland. They had built a wooden runway on the sand for him to arrive/depart on. The photos show the sequence of him landing, but one of his main wheels dropped off the edge of the wood runway, w/ expected results. The photos show the upended gyro w/ damaged rotors. The captions state they planned to rebuild the machine.

Judging from those photos & the location of the bridge in those photos (showing automobiles driving over the Columbia Slough on Hwy. 99, b/4 it became I-5), the wooden runway was where the amusement park swimming pool later was. That is the area between the McDonald's on Jantzen Beach is & I-5.

As a kid, I remember going to that amusement park & swam in that pool b/4 it was demolished & it become the Jantzen Beach mall area.

I photocopied those stories & photos into the PRA Chapter 73 newsletter sometime in the early 1990s. I don't have those newsletters saved anymore. Another story told of King Baird landing in his Pitcairn @ a car dealership promotion @ SE 20th & Belmont. He landed on the street & took off again after his visit. Must have been prior to installation of all the power lines & traffic signals that are present now...

Thanks for the pointers to the article about Jantzen Beach. I accessed the Oregonian articles via the Multnomah County Library (https://multcolib.org/resource/historical-oregonian-1861-1987 ... needs a library card number and PIN).

As a teen, I attended summer workouts at the Olympic-sized Jantzen Beach pool at the end of each day (we also had two earlier workouts at other pools). When the workout was done, we rode the roller coaster at least once.