Hoyt Street Properties, The Pearl District, Hoyt Yards

As a visitor to the Hoyt Yards neighborhood it's hard to imagine that it once served Portland as a major railyard. At NW Hoyt Street, famous luxury trains such as the Empire Builder and the North Coast Limited prepared for their journeys east. A few blocks further, freight that fed the City's economy dominated the daily activity of the district.

It was 1905 when "Empire Builder" James J. Hill, informed Portland's business elite of the planned arrival of his Portland & Seattle Railway promising the community faster and easier access to cities and markets in the East. This railroad was later named the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S).

The news began a rather interesting battle of wills between Hill and his rival Edward Harriman, who controlled the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. Harriman enjoyed dominating the Portland market and had little interest in letting Hill expand in this market.

In a rather clandestine move Hill purchased the land between N.W. 10^th and 12^th Avenues and Hoyt Street and Front Avenue through the Security Savings and Trust Company, so as not to signal his intentions to Harriman. Upset by Hill's grab for prime land near Union Station, the Harriman controlled Northern Pacific Terminal Company, which owned the Station, refused to allow P&S passenger trains access.

Hill responded by converting one of his rail yard freight houses at the corner of Hoyt St. and 11^th Avenue into a passenger depot. Known as North Bank Station, it handled passenger trains to Chicago and the east, Seattle, Astoria and Southern Oregon until World War I. It continued to handle intercity passenger trains until 1931.

Hill envisioned a seamless service of trains and ocean liners between Portland and San Francisco. He built two luxury ocean liners the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific, which sailed from Flavel at the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria.

From 1915 until the end of World War I, well-dressed travelers boarded the Steamer Express train at North Bank Station for a scenic ride to Flavel where the ships sailed for San Francisco.

When passenger service stopped, Hoyt Street Yards continued to handle freight trains and service locomotives until the merger of the SP&S into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1970. Over the next two decades the rail yard declined, until 1994 when Hoyt Street Properties purchased the 34-acre area.

While the trains are gone, several brick freight houses remain as luxurious town homes. Warehouses have been removed to make way for Jamison Park. The Roundhouse has been replaced by construction of a 14-story building of luxury condominiums.

Although Hoyt Yards is a fashionable residential and cultural center, the grittiness of steel, brick and strong willed visionaries can still be felt in this vibrant and historic neighborhood.

The historical information provided by Daniel W. Block a resident of Hoyt Yards Neighborhood.

Fifty years ago the area north of Lovejoy was the location for Hoyt Street Rail yards very busy roundhouse and staging area. Today it has been replaced with the luxury Lexis on the Park and Pinnacle condominiums and Tanner Springs Park.

In the early 1900's workers prepared passenger coaches at the North Bank Station in Hoyt Yards to serve well dressed travelers heading to destinations such as San Francisco.