Where are the Alphabet Blocks in Portland?

Located in Portland's NW section, the Alphabet Blocks in Portland are a group of streets beginning north of Burnside and continue heading north, alphabetically. The Portland Alphabet Blocks is an ubur-trendy area known for restaurants, boutiques, antique shops, bookstores, second hand thrifts, pubs, pubs and more pubs.

The Alphabet Historic District, an area zoned for historic preservation running roughly from NW 24th Ave. to NW 2nd Ave., and from NW Vaughn St. to W Burnside St. It is named for the alphabetical progression of street names in the area and in 2000 was added to the National Register of Historic Places - Wikipedia

The Alphabet Blocks located in the NW District of Portland comprises:

• NW 23rd Ave. Dubbed Trendy-third, this major shopping street is lined with swanky clothing boutiques and other upscale retail, mixed with cafes and restaurants. This area is also known as Uptown (particularly its southern end near W Burnside St.) and includes Nob Hill (centered on NW 23rd Ave. and NW Lovejoy St.).
• NW 21st Ave.The neighborhood’s other main commercial district is a dining and entertainment destination, with popular restaurants, an independent film theater, and numerous bars, pubs, and nightclubs.

How Did Portland Alphabet Blocks Come to Be?

Maybe . . . and I'm only taking a guess . . . for the ease of locating an address. Let's take an address, any addres 2105 NW Hoyt, for example. The Portland City Planners of yore developed a nice block/address identifying system.

• Burnside St. is a great divider. Burnside dissects Portland north and south.
• The Willamette River is the other great divider. It dissects Portland east and west.

"B" is for Beginning the Alphabet Blocks

Portland Alphabet Blocks begins with "B" for "Burnside" I think Alder might be the missing "A" block, but it doesn't run the length of Portlandas Burnside St.

Portland is Divided Into Five Quadrants

• NW Portland : Streets NORTH of the Burnside and WEST of the WILLIMETTE RIVER
• SW Portland : Streets SOUTH of the Burnside and WEST of the river
• NE Portland : Streets NORTH of the Burnside and EAST of the river
• SE Portland : Streets SOUTH of the Burnside and EAST of the river
• N Portland : Streets NORTH of Burnside and EAST of the COLUMBIA RIVER

So Exactly Where Are Portland's Alphabet Blocks?

The Alphabet Blocks in Portland are located on the NORTHWEST side of Burnside St. Alder (which doesn't run / transverse the City as Burnside), Burnside, Couch (pronounced COO-ch), Davis, Everett, Flanders, Glisan, Hoyt, Iriving, Johnson, Kearney, Lovejoy, Marshall, Northrup, Overton, Pettygrove, Quimby, Raleigh, Savier, Thurman, Upshur, Vaughn, Wilson . . . and X Y Z apparently didn't exist in those days of yore -- since we don't have any more Alphabet Block street names for those renegade letters.

How Do the Street Numbers Come Into "Play" with the Alphabet Blocks?

Using the Williamette River as the boundary line, all streets running perpendicular to the river are numbered, beginning with FIRST AVE. -- Both on the EAST and WEST sides of the River.

SW First Ave. is WEST of Burnside, southside, one block up from the river

2105 NW Hoyt is 21 blocks WEST of the river, north side of Burnside

Easy as ABC, 123 . . .

Map of the Alphabet Blocks in Portland NW District

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Condos for Sale Alphabet Blocks

This sofa in Portland Oregon's Twenty-Third district was hiding a secret surprise!

Our company was recently contracted to stage a lovely 3-story townhome in Portland Oregon's trendy NW 23rd district. This historic neighborhood is chock full of upscale boutiques, amazing restaurants and cafes, art galleries and coffee shops ~ all within walking distance. While at one time this neighborhood was mainly an industrial area with few amenities, it has become one of Portland's most sought-after neighborhoods due to it's downtown location, availability of public transportation, and very high walk score. The townhome we staged has a walk score of 97 out of 100 ~ considered a "walker's paradise."

The sellers had moved out of state and asked us to work with their existing furniture (all of which is very nice) and enhance it with some of our accessory items to add interest and color. This type of home staging service is becoming very popular as homeowners and real estate agents realize the importance of presenting a property at its very best for potential buyers who view it online and in person.

Another post will address the "Before & After" transformation of this home, but I wanted to share a wonderful surprise we discovered when staging this Portland OR townhome. We'd studied the photos we'd taken when we first viewed the living room in this home prior to returning to stage it ....

While the sofa is a very nice Pottery Barn model, it's blue slipcover (perfect for everyday use) looked a bit rumpled and dark for this room, which we were going to warm up with color accents as part of our home staging plan.

We began by moving the furniture into a better configuration for selling this home, highlighting it's best features. As we put furniture sliders into place under each sofa leg, suddenly we noticed that the dark blue sofa slipcover had a white sofa underneath it -- we gasped with excitement (as only a stager can) hoping that the white sofa was clean and usable. It took a while to remove the dark blue slipcovers from the sofa and all six zippered pillows ~ but our surprise was well worth the wait!

Look what we found underneath the sofa's slipcover .... a gorgeous bright white sofa in perfect condition!

Likely the neighbors heard me gasp with happiness .... this was SO much better than working with the dark blue slipcover.

So whether you're staging a home in any of Portland Oregon's great neighborhoods ~ or anywhere else in North America ~ be sure to check under your sofa to see if it's hiding a secret.

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Room Solutions Staging in Portland OR helps homeowners and real estate professionals prepare homes so that they look their best and sell faster. We service all Portland Metro area neighborhoods and look forward to providing you a complimentary home staging proposal. Contact us @ 503-246-1800 for more information.