American immigrant Theophanes Frankis (Gus) owned this local grocery store on Willamette Boulevard and Catlin Avenue. The store catered to neighborhood customers of many nationalites. Left to right, Gus Fanakis, Helen Miles, Mike and Maurice Finn. Courtesy of Helen Miles

   Many immigrants came to Portland as part of a mass migration to the American West during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The peninsula, set between the Columbia, the Slough, and the Willamette River, provided good fishing, productive farming, and access to industrial jobs. St. Johns attracted Norwegians, Germans, Russians, Polish, Scots, Swedish, English, Irish, Italians, Canadians. Eight denominations of churches reflected the needs of a community that is still among the most ethnically diverse in Portland.