Old Town

Old Town, situated along the Willamette River, is defined by its collection of nineteenth-century cast-iron-fronted buildings and brick structures. As the original urban core of Portland, this district served as a center for maritime commerce and transient labor beginning in the eighteen fifties. It housed one of the largest Chinese immigrant communities in the United States, which developed a thriving network of merchants, social associations, and cultural life along Second Avenue before facing decades of discrimination and displacement.