Scene of fire at Pacific Telephone & Telegraph exchange building, West Park and Alder streets, Portland

Open original Digital object

Identity elements

Reference code

373G0265

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Item

Title

Scene of fire at Pacific Telephone & Telegraph exchange building, West Park and Alder streets, Portland

Date(s)

  • 1925-05-08 (Creation)

Extent

Photograph; glass plate negatives; 4 x 5 in

Name of creator

(1902-1982)

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

Photograph showing firefighters and others standing among fire hoses in the outside the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph exchange building at Alder and West Park streets (now Southwest Alder Street and Southwest Park Avenue) in Portland. A cropped version of this photograph was one of four that were published on the front page of the Oregon Journal city edition on Friday, May 8, 1925, under the headline “Here Is Fire Which Paralyzed City.” The photographs had the following caption: “Photographs of this afternoon’s blaze in the Telephone building at West Park and Alder streets, which brought home to thousands how dependent they are on telephones.” This photograph had the following additional caption information: “Lines of hoses littering the streets in the vicinity.” The photographs accompanied a story headlined “Telephone Service Paralyzed by Blaze; Damage is $150,000.” The story reported: “Telephone service in the downtown district south of Washington street was completely paralyzed today, shortly after noon, when fire broke out in the basement of the Main-Atwater exchange of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, West Park and Alder streets. The fire, which is believed to have been caused by a short circuit in the multiple switch box, was confined to the basement of the building and lay like a pall over the surrounding blocks of the business district. The estimated damage to the apparatus and building, which is valued at $600,000, is in excess of $150,000.”

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

No Copyright - United States http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Physical access

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Languages of the material

Scripts of the material

Language and script notes

Finding aids

Acquisition and appraisal elements

Custodial history

Immediate source of acquisition

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

Accruals

Related materials elements

Existence and location of originals

Oregon Journal Negative Collection; Org. Lot 1368; Box 373; 0373G265

Existence and location of copies

Related archival materials

Related descriptions

Notes element

Specialized notes

Alternative identifier(s)

Description control element

Rules or conventions

Sources used

Access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Digital object metadata

Digital object (Master) rights area

Digital object (Reference) rights area

Digital object (Thumbnail) rights area

Accession area