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349 online
Server Time:
2024-04-16 17:43:12
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 wastepdx
Location: Portland, OR
 |  |  | stairs
< on 2/23/2007 10:27 PM >
|  | | | Anybody in Portland notice the OLD staircases near Pioneer Square on the sidewalks that lead down under the streets? I've seen at least 4-5 of them in the area, and it looks like they were used as underground walkways, or entrances to the old government buildings in the area. On some of the sidewalks you can see the glass tiles used as skylights in the underground passages. The entrances to the stairs have been boarded & chained up.
Any insight on this?
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Agent Skelly
       
Web Sheriff
Location: Oregon Territory
Gender: Male
Prenez De L'Avance Avec Chrysler!
| |  |  | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 1 on 2/24/2007 12:22 AM >
| | | | I know what your talking about. One of those actually is a public restroom the city actually wants to restore because of lots of businesses in downtown have no public restrooms.
The other one is a service entrance if I remember right.
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wastepdx
Location: Portland, OR
| | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 2 on 2/24/2007 12:31 AM >
| | | | Heh, one of them DOES look kind of like it might be a crapper..
One of the other ones is right next to the aforementioned glass tiles, which run directly parallel with the sidewalk. Must be a passageway of some kind. It looks like it was once a public area, since the decorative stair entrance is positioned right in the middle of the sidewalk... A little too nice to be a service entrance.
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egdinger
Location: PDX
Gender: Male
| | Re: stairs
<Reply # 3 on 2/24/2007 8:39 PM >
| | | | I think I've seen the one your talking about, and I noticed the tiles too. My first thought was something like the underground tunnels in Pendleton, but that doesn't seem like it would be the case. Another thing I've noticed it that there are lights under some of the tiles, makes me think the are part of the basement of the building they are next to.
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Agent Skelly
Web Sheriff
Location: Oregon Territory
Gender: Male
Prenez De L'Avance Avec Chrysler!
| | | | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 4 on 2/24/2007 8:41 PM >
| | | | Posted by egdinger
I think I've seen the one your talking about, and I noticed the tiles too. My first thought was something like the underground tunnels in Pendleton, but that doesn't seem like it would be the case. Another thing I've noticed it that there are lights under some of the tiles, makes me think the are part of the basement of the building they are next to.
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Well...there is a 4-space parking garage under the Pioneer Courthouse.
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RailGuy88
  
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: Where you're not...
Gender: Male
| | Re: stairs
<Reply # 5 on 2/24/2007 10:20 PM >
| | | | Are we talking about the same city? There is a Pioneer Square in Seattle with the same features. I can enlighten you on why's and how's there.
Didn't know Portland had a Pioneer Square too.
-Ryan
Going where others can't... |
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Agent Skelly
Web Sheriff
Location: Oregon Territory
Gender: Male
Prenez De L'Avance Avec Chrysler!
| | | | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 6 on 2/24/2007 10:38 PM >
| | | | Posted by BARN550
Are we talking about the same city? There is a Pioneer Square in Seattle with the same features. I can enlighten you on why's and how's there.
Didn't know Portland had a Pioneer Square too.
-Ryan
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Yes...Portland has one too  The full name here though is Pioneer Courthouse Sqaure
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egdinger
Location: PDX
Gender: Male
| | Re: stairs
<Reply # 7 on 2/25/2007 5:59 AM >
| | | | Agent I had no idea there was a parking garage under the courthouse, but the tiles I've seen with lights under them were elsewhere. I'll see if I can't find some tomorrow and get a photo, because I can't remember what they were in front of, seems like some kind of clothing store though.
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Agent Skelly
Web Sheriff
Location: Oregon Territory
Gender: Male
Prenez De L'Avance Avec Chrysler!
| | | | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 8 on 2/25/2007 6:07 AM >
| | | | Posted by egdinger
Agent I had no idea there was a parking garage under the courthouse, but the tiles I've seen with lights under them were elsewhere. I'll see if I can't find some tomorrow and get a photo, because I can't remember what they were in front of, seems like some kind of clothing store though.
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Yeah....the politicians who have offices I think there or nearby wanted it.
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wastepdx
Location: Portland, OR
| | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 10 on 2/28/2007 6:03 AM >
| | | | Underneath the corner of Southwest 6th Avenue and Yamhill Street lies another historic comfort station, this one mothballed after Pioneer Courthouse Square and its modern restrooms opened across the street in 1984. Above ground, two small buildings house staircases that descend below the sidewalk to separate men's and women's bathrooms. The walls of the crumbling rooms, built in 1912, are covered with intricate tile mosaics like old New York City subway stations. There is an anteroom where attendants stood and a complex steam-heating system that prompts gasps from the city maintenance worker who let me down here a few weeks after my downtown restroom tour (Carol is in Uganda for a while, organizing a conference on AIDS). Thick slabs of marble were used as stall dividers, he says, but they were removed when the station was closed. And in the women's bathroom are unfamiliar fixtures that look like stunted urinals: a row of bidets.
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Wow. I never thought I'd want to UE a public restroom, but now I'm not so sure!
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RailGuy88
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: Where you're not...
Gender: Male
| | Re: stairs
<Reply # 11 on 2/28/2007 1:00 PM >
| | | | Oh ye of little faith.
It's fun what you find. I make it a point to find at least one in every place I go, just to see what it looked like then.
The last I hit, they had stainless-steel urinals, highly polished. But the place was abandoned for several years. Pretty creepy. Makes you wonder.
-Ryan
Going where others can't... |
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flyguybri
Location: Alaska
Gender: Male
| | Re: stairs
<Reply # 12 on 4/20/2007 9:21 PM >
| | | | Here's another mention in the Tribune:
http://www.portlan...117676388133187000
Gates block off restrooms of yesterday
The bathrooms with the cast-iron entrances at Southwest Sixth Avenue and Yamhill Street were opened in 1908. If you look between the shuttered gates you see dust, old leaves and a beggar’s cardboard sign. But there’s no explanation of what’s going on.
They were closed in 1984 when Pioneer Courthouse Square opened. According to Sorensen at the parks bureau, it would cost too much to bring them up to code by making them accessible and providing an emergency exit.
During the recent renovation of the old courthouse there was talk of moving its heating and air conditoning units into the space, but that plan was dropped because of the security risk of them being below a federal building. Consequently, there are no plans to reopen these bathrooms.
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Deuterium
Location: PNW
Gender: Male
| | Re: stairs
<Reply # 13 on 4/21/2007 11:58 AM >
| | | | Not to mention opening it would bring in even more transient population to already transient contaminated Portland, then lawsuits against cities associated with problems arising in the restrooms.
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Agent Skelly
Web Sheriff
Location: Oregon Territory
Gender: Male
Prenez De L'Avance Avec Chrysler!
| | | | | Re: stairs
<Reply # 14 on 4/21/2007 7:50 PM >
| | | | Posted by Deuterium
Not to mention opening it would bring in even more transient population to already transient contaminated Portland, then lawsuits against cities associated with problems arising in the restrooms.
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Yeah, there was the whole thing when they put them in Seattle and actually the City of Portland said they would fix that issue first before they put them. I'm guessing they will just put in a old school bathroom attendant in. Which would be kind of funny actually...you would have to TIP HIM!
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