Portland State University as we now know it—a thriving, cosmopolitan campus—would be unrecognizable to its first students, the returning veterans who attended the Vanport Extension Center in Vanport City, Oregon. Vanport City (so named because it lay between Portland and Vancouver, WA) was hurriedly built in 1943 to house wartime workers at the Kaiser Shipyards. The pre-fab buildings were assembled haphazardly: residents complained of thin walls, infestations, and the constant threat of fire (many of the buildings were wooden, with wooden foundations). The city’s population declined after the war ended, but many young veterans returned to Vanport, and the need for an institution of higher education became apparent. The Vanport Extension Center was created in 1946, its buildings scattered around the fledgling city. Students flocked to the new school, which provided veterans a bridge to the established Oregon universities. Suddenly, the temporary city had the makings of permanent institution. No one could have predicted that only two years later, on May 30, 1948, the city and the college would be swept away. Near the end of May, the melting snow that collected in the Columbia River Basin caused the river to crest, but Vanport officials didn’t take notice until May 25, when a patrol was set up to monitor the dikes. Though the river continued to rise, Vanport residents were assured that the dikes were holding “at present” and that they “would have time to leave,” if necessary. Later that afternoon, the first dike burst and the city began to fill with water. Vanport City was all but swept away, the wooden houses lifting from their foundations and floating away. The flood was declared a national disaster, but it was too late for the city and its population. Fifteen people were killed in the flood, but many were shocked that the death toll wasn’t much higher, considering the extent of the material devastation. The Vanport Extension Center was completely destroyed, but students and school officials refused to let their college die. The school moved to temporary quarters in downtown Portland, and continued to grow rapidly. In 1969, the college that began as Vanport Extension Center, then Portland State Extension Center, officially became the competitive urban institution we know today: Portland State University. PSU Memories: The Vanport Flood Portland Hall, flooded, 1948. A new beginning in downtown Portland.
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