Kenton Roots:
Explore Our Neighborhood History Together

You’re invited to explore the stories and places that shaped North Portland. Presented by Kenton Neighborhood Association in partnership with Vanport Mosaic, Kenton Roots is a day of shared history at the Historic Kenton Firehouse built around a narrated bus tour, a pop-up exhibit, and a community Story Harvest.

Saturday, September 12

Kenton Firehouse, 8105 N Brandon Ave

All events are free, open to all ages

Map of Vanport City with a contemporary overlay. By Sarah Bagley, PSU Geography.

Bus Tour: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

The bus tour follows the communities who made North Portland home and kept building their lives here through WWII, the 1948 Vanport flood, residential segregation, and urban renewal. Their resilience, organizing, and culture are still part of the neighborhood we’ll ride through. The bus departs from and returns to the firehouse for refreshments and conversation.

You must reserve a seat in advance. The bus is ADA accessible; please let us know during sign up if you need any accommodations or will be attending in a wheelchair.

Reserve your seat > https://luma.com/gxffikmx

Exhibit and Story Harvest: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Vanport Mosaic's pop-up exhibit Vanport: A Story Lived. A Story Told will be on display at the Historic Kenton Firehouse. The panels are a mixture of archival photographs and historical records, with personal testimonies of former residents interwoven throughout

Join the Story Harvest

Vanport Mosaic’s signature program is for gathering community memories. Long-time Kenton residents, Vanport survivors, and their descendants are invited to bring photographs, documents, and keepsakes to be scanned on-site and to sit for a short recorded interview about their memories.

Those stories become part of Vanport Mosaic's community archive, preserved for future generations. Vanport Mosaic collects and honors these stories year-round. Learn more at vanportmosaic.org, or get in touch at info@vanportmosaic.org.

This event is presented by the Kenton Neighborhood Association in partnership with Vanport Mosaic, with funding support from the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, the Office of Community & Civic Life, and the Port of Portland.