S.W. Broadway and West Burnside – Portland, Oregon

Broadway is a street in Portland, Oregon that runs from the Southwest Hills into the Rose City Park area of Portland. It is north-south in Downtown Portland, crosses the Willamette River over the Broadway Bridge, and is east-west on the east side of the river.

The section west of the Willamette River was the most vibrant street in downtown Portland even before it was renamed, in 1913, from 7th Avenue to Broadway, and this continued for decades. During the day, it was a bustling shopping street, and remains a busy shopping street today. The street hosted several movie theaters and vaudeville playhouses, and at night their many neon signs and lighted marquees gave the area a look that was similar to Manhattan’s more famous Broadway. Almost all of the movie theaters have since closed, most in the 1960s and 1970s, but the street remains the center of downtown’s nightlife. Theaters still located on Broadway in downtown include the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (in a former Paramount Theatre) and the Antoinette Hatfield Hall.

Over a dozen buildings on Broadway are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but the street is meant to be a busy and commercial, and to provide a route through which Portlanders could commute. Due to an advanced lighting system installed in 1925, it was once called "the brightest street in the world."

The building at the rear of the photo is the Benson Hotel, which opened in 1913. This French Second Empire style building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The blue enamel and oil mural is the work of artists Sean Bennett and Dan Cohen and is entitled "Winter Wonderland." It was painted in 2006.