Sabin Now and Then
Monday May 12th @ Sabin School
Sabin Mural by Isaka Shamsud-Din
The Sabin mural by artist Isaka Shamsud-Din was done in 1996 as collaboration between the artist and the neighborhood. The theme of the mural is Saturday Morning in Sabin. Sunflowers, apple and cherry trees, birds, and butterflies, and children playing and gardening adorn the wall.
Isaka Shamsud-Din painted the mural with the assistance of young apprentices and volunteers of all ages. It was painted on plywood panels and was originally located in the area that is now the Whole Foods loading dock. It was moved to its current location when the building was remodeled in 1999.
The project was directed by Sabin Community Development Corporation. Sabin CDC is a local nonprofit, community based organization committed to community involvement in local development projects. Sabin CDC also created a Youth Incentive Program to give kids the opportunity to "earn as they learn" by involving them with adults in neighborhood improvement activities and giving them the opportunity to earn credits for scholarships to after-school programs and classes, weekend activities, and summer camps and sports clinics.
The second stage of the project involved the Portland Parks and Recreation, Community Garden Department. The plan was to build a community garden in raised beds for flowers and vegetables on Beech Street.
Was this Community Garden ever built? If you have any information about the project, please contact Linda at the Sabin RR.
Isaka Shamsud-Din painted the mural with the assistance of young apprentices and volunteers of all ages. It was painted on plywood panels and was originally located in the area that is now the Whole Foods loading dock. It was moved to its current location when the building was remodeled in 1999.
The project was directed by Sabin Community Development Corporation. Sabin CDC is a local nonprofit, community based organization committed to community involvement in local development projects. Sabin CDC also created a Youth Incentive Program to give kids the opportunity to "earn as they learn" by involving them with adults in neighborhood improvement activities and giving them the opportunity to earn credits for scholarships to after-school programs and classes, weekend activities, and summer camps and sports clinics.
The second stage of the project involved the Portland Parks and Recreation, Community Garden Department. The plan was to build a community garden in raised beds for flowers and vegetables on Beech Street.
Was this Community Garden ever built? If you have any information about the project, please contact Linda at the Sabin RR.
The Development of the Sabin Neighborhood
The Development of the Sabin Neighborhood The donation land claim that became the Sabin neighborhood was established in 1853 by Alvin Allard. On March 28, 1860, Allard mortgaged his entire quarter section (160 acres) for $430 to William Irving to be repaid in one year at 24% interest. On January 31, 1865, Allard gave Irving a warranty deed to the whole quarter section, the value shown being $600. On December 20, l 870, Irving sold the entire tract to George W. Shaver for $1,000. The first platting of the area for house lots did not occur until 1888 when the Highland plat was established. The Highland plat was followed by Lincoln Park (l889), Irvington Heights (1890), and Lincoln Park Annex (1891). The greatest activity in housing construction did not occur until after 1900. Eighty-five percent of the houses now standing in Sabin were built between 1900 and 1939. By the 1890s several residential communities in North and Northeast Portland were developing rapidly. Streetcar suburbs such as Irvington and Piedmont were popular places to live for the expanding middle class. Sabin's development pattern is characterized by smaller houses and a mix of working class, white collar and ethnic communities. One of the most distinctive of these groups is the German-Russians. This tightly knit community emigrated from Germany to Russia in the 1790s when Catherine the Great was recruiting people from all over Europe to Russia. One hundred years later the group of Germans again emigrated to Canada and the United States from Russia leaving for the same reason they had left Germany, to avoid oppressive conscription policies. Many of these German people were craftsmen and artisans who were forced into farming in Russia, another motivation for emigration. In the Sabin community, the German-Russians lived from NE l0th to NE 15th and from NE Fremont to NE Prescott. Many German/Russians worked at the Albina railroad yards and would walk to work through the areas with predominantly Scandinavian, Polish and Irish populations. The tension between these groups sometimes erupted into street fights. |
I read about the RR project in the Sabin newsletter, and I immediately thought about these old photos of the block.Dave Russell, who owns the car dealership at NE 18th and Sandy, used to live in my house. He's popped by a couple of times and left these photos with me. The one of the Jeep full of kids was taken in 1946, so you get a sense how old they are. All the photos were taken on our street, and many include my house. He was associated with our house for about 30-40 years, from the 1930s/40s to the 1970s. Laura Grimes
The African-American community is a strong and vital presence in Sabin today. Kaiser's Vanport housing development brought a dramatic increase in the black population in the 1940's. The destruction by neglect and flood of Vanport and the segregationist policies of the Real Estate Board of Portland led to a black community forming in the close in area of North and Northeast Portland. The construction of the memorial Coliseum and the Emanual Hospital Urban Renewal Project eliminated much of the housing in this area and brought about the decline of the African-American business community in the Williams/Vancouver corridor. During this same period, beginning in the late 1950's, fair housing laws were passed and there was a general improvement in the economic conditions for African-Americans, Sabin was one of the neighborhoods where blacks found affordable single-family housing as had other ethnic and working class communities before them.
Sabin Neighborhood Plan - October 1993 Bureau of Planning Portland, Oregon |