St. Johns: "The Manhatten of the West"

This advertisement in The Peninsula, a boosterish publication, sought to draw people to the budding Portland peninsula. The Oregon Flake Food Company, St. Johns Port, a shipyard, a machine works, and woolen mills were but a few of the early industries. Although incorporated into the city of Portland for over a hundred years, residents of St. Johns still harbor a local identity manifested in support for local businesses.

Every vessel on its way to Portland, from either up or down the Columbia River must first pass St. Johns; all trains on the recently completed transcontinental railroad must first stop at St. Johns before arriving in Portland. The Peninsula, 1909

By 1909 St. Johns, "a scattered cluster of houses lost in a forest of firs" already had churches, schools, a library, and 5-cent electric streetcar service to Portland. Many members of St. Johns considered the community self-sufficient, their port on the Willamette rivaling the nearby city.

• "St. Johns the City of Destiny" - From The Peninsula, 1909
• Statistics -- Portland population and density, mode of transportation and streetcar lines

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