Famous Long Ago

Apr. 29, 2024
By: Fred Leeson

The building above bears no formal historic designation.  Still, it truly is a “landmark” in the dictionary sense of being a prominent feature of a particular place.  For roughly 40 years, it helped define Northeast Portland’s Hollywood thriving business district as much as the grandiose Hollywood Theatre across the street.

The single-story building with basement was the first Fred Meyer retail store built to the specifications of Fred G. Meyer himself after World War II.  It was the first of three Meyer one-stop-shopping venues to feature rooftop parking, a concept he no doubt borrowed from the unsuccessful Portland Public Market that opened downtown during the Great Depression. 

A preliminary design for Meyer’s Hollywood store was completed in 1936.  However, the Depression and World War II delayed its completion until 1947.  Until then, Meyer’s nascent retail empire had grown through the remodeling of older buildings he purchased during the Depression.

Meyer followed the Hollywood store with a rooftop parking store at Rose City (now destroyed) and at the Hawthorne store, which still retains about half of its original upper-level parking.  His rooftop parking plans died a few years later when he learned about a faster, cheaper construction process that did not allow the weight of vehicles on the roof.

By the time Meyer died in 1978, his newer suburban stores were several times larger than the Hollywood store.  The company closed the Hollywood store in the late 1980s after building a far larger emporium a half a mile away on the former Hyster forklift manufacturing site.  For a while, the bigger store was a place you could buy all your food, drugs, clothes, shoes, garden supplies and hardware, in addition to a table saw and a Barbie doll.  (Kroger Inc., the current owner, has scaled down the inventory compared to the old days.)

The drug chain Rite Aid renovated the old Fred Meyer store and operated a pharmacy until moving out last year.  The bulk of the building remains vacant, although a bank and a couple small businesses operate on its edges. 

Empty racks and assorted retail debris still clutter the former Fred Meyer/Rite Aid space.  Several other vacancies dot the Hollywood district as well.  What once ranked as one of Portland’s busiest neighborhood commercial centers is in apparent decline.  One of the most notable vacancies is the old Poor Richard’s steakhouse that enjoyed an ample parking lot.  The Poor Richard’s site, just a couple blocks from the former Fred Meyer store, has sat vacant now for several years.

Drive right up...but why?

Oddly, perhaps, rooftop parking is still available at the old Hollywood Fred Meyer store.  The monthly fee is $90, should you live in the neighborhood and need a place to park.  It is also possible to walk up the ramp to get an interesting and rather close-up elevated view of the Hollywood Theatre's amazing terra cotta façade across Sandy Boulevard. 

While the fate of contemporary retailing remains heavily in question, the Hollywood business district will remain a shadow of its former self until a successful enterprise reincarnates Fred Meyer's vision from long ago.

Fred Leeson is a former president of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation and a member of the foundation's Board of Advisors.