Vanport

By Manly Maben

Vanport City, Oregon was conceived in 1942 as a temporary housing project for the families of men and women who came to the Pacific Northwest to work in the Kaiser shipyards and further the war... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087595118X
• ISBN13: 9780875951188
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 151 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 9.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Spectacular Rise and Swift Destruction Of Vanport

On Memorial Day 1948 an Oregon city of more than 18,000 residents was swept away in a matter of hours. Manly Maben's "Vanport" does an outstanding job of telling the story of the swift rise and astonishing destruction of the largest World War II housing project in the United States.Portland, Oregon was one of the communities that saw spectacular growth during the Second World War, mainly due to Henry Kaiser's decision to make it one of the principal locations for construction of Liberty Ships. Kaiser realized that the thousands of workers he was attracting to the community would need places to live, and so Kaiserville, eventually rechristened Vanport City, was born. The development was another marvel of the US's capacity to mobilize to meet the needs of the war effort. An entire city, complete with grocery stores, schools, a library, a post office and a police and fire station rose in less than a year's time. The decision that doomed Vanport was made at its birth. The townsite selected was in a flood plain very close to the Columbia River. It was protected by a series of dikes, but when one of those dikes gave way at the end of May, 1948, the city vanished in a matter of hours. Although the death toll was never conclusively documented, at least 15 lives were lost.Although Maben's book covers the destruction of Vanport quite extensively, it also tells much about the life of this wartime community. In some respects the ultimate company town, Vanport was progressive in many ways, such as offering one of the first 24-hour community day care programs. The city's life was brief, its impact on the region was lasting. Many of the displaced residents stayed on in the area. Vanport College eventually evolved into Portland State University. This remarkable story is well-illustrated throughout with photos from the Oregon Historical Society's files. "Vanport" is a valuable contribution to the history of the region.--William C. Hall