Alberta Street Stories

Vanport was dramatically destroyed at 4:05 p.m. on May 30, 1948, when a 200 ft section of the dike holding back the Columbia River collapsed during a flood, killing 15. The city was underwater by nightfall leaving its inhabitants homeless. The Vanport Extension Center refused to close after this disaster and quickly reopened in downtown Portland. Dubbed by a national magazine “The College that Wouldn’t Die,” it became present-day Portland State University.