Portland Trivia: So what the heck is “Slabtown”, anyway?

courtesy of The NW Examiner

 The Slabtown neighborhood gets its name from the enormous quantities of slab wood—the rounded, exterior parts of a log cut away to square off lumber­–that were produced as a popular form of heating fuel in the early 1900s by lumber mills of the neighborhood. Slabtown has been a cohesive residential community, distinguished by a mixed ethnic component, since the 1850s. It encompasses the area roughly from NW 16th Avenue to Montgomery Park and from the Willamette River to NW Pettygrove. Landmarks of old Slabtown include the site of the 1905 World’s Fair, St. Patrick’s Church, the ESCO steel foundry, Chapman School, and the Vaughn Street Baseball Park, home of Portland’s Pacific Coast League club, the Beavers until 1955.