Portland When Nixon Beat Kennedy

Memorial Coliseum

Fountain Plaza of Memorial Coliseum, Portland. This is one of two plazas that is sunk one story below grade level on either side of the main entrance, the doors of which are behind the railing in the background... 5/24/16

The Moda Center is a nice place, but in some ways it is still outclassed by its older counterpart just across the plaza, Memorial Coliseum, which opened in Nov. 3. 1960, five days before John F. Kennedy beat Nixon in the presidential race. Nixon carried Oregon by about 40,000 votes out of 776,421 cast (52.6% to 47.3%)  and thus Oregon gave its six electoral votes to the Republican.

Stairs down to Fountain Plaza. Looking down to a portion of the memorial wall of names is show in black marble.

Google News, Ellensburg Daily Record, Nov. 4, 1960

Front entrance of Memorial Coliseum, Portland. The construction of the arena was part of a larger urban renewal project that razed several existing blocks of lower Albina. In the old street plan, the entrance here would have been facing the former continuation of N Benton Ave  near the intersection with N Flint Ave.

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Memorial Coliseum (which now seats around 13,000) is where the Trailblazers played during their years of greatest success. It is where they won games 3, 4, and 6 of the 1977 NBA finals, going 3-0 at home to beat the Phiadelphia 76ers in six games (May 22 – June 5). Bill Walton was the MVP. The games were broadcast on CBS.

The Blazers now play at the Moda Center next door, but Memorial Coliseum still gets some use. The Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League play split their home games between the two arenas. Most of the time the arena sits empty now. There is a proposal to turn it into a giant homeless shelter.

Memorial rose garden on the south lower plaza. The wall of names here is an overflow continuation of the larger one in Fountain Plaza. Corner tip of the coliseum is along top right of the frame. The structure in the background is a later construction (after the Moda Center)  housing commercial offices and a restaurant.

Stairway down to the Memorial Rose Garden plaza. The Moda Center (built 1993-1995) is in the background across the plaza The two arenas are architectural very different. The balance between them creates an interesting public space.

Location of Memorial Coliseum (now known as Veterans Memorial Coliseum)  shown by red pin. Moda Center is large grey structure just to the right. The pink area on the other side of I-5 is the Oregon Convention Center.

1960 Presidential election, from Wikipedia