Jackson Tower

Jackson Tower, formerly The Oregon Journal Building is a 12-story, 57.3 m (188 ft) glazed terra-cotta historic office building in downtown Portland, Oregon. Located on the corner of Broadway and Yamhill Streets, it enjoys a prominent location adjacent to Pioneer Courthouse Square.

History

The building was constructed to house the operations of the now-defunct Oregon Journal. The Journal occupied the structure from its completion in 1912 until July 4, 1948, when the newspaper moved to the larger quarters of the former Portland Public Market building on the Portland waterfront. In 1951, the structure was renamed Jackson Tower to honor the newspaper's founder, Charles Samuel Jackson. The impressive clock tower results from the common practice, at that time, of newspapers' integrating such structures into their headquarters. Additionally, 1,800 light bulbs illuminate the tower after dark. There were originally 2,400.

The Jackson Tower was renovated in 1972, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places (as the Journal Building) in 1996. The base of the building measures 100 ft × 100 ft (30 m × 30 m). The north portion of the ground floor has housed Margulis Jewelers for several decades.

Each of the 1,800 light bulbs screw directly into the facade. In addition to the tower's illumination, at one time the clocks used to chime every 15 minutes, but the bells were moved to the Journal's new building on the waterfront in June 1948. Each clockface is 12.5 feet in diameter. The clock itself does not currently function as of summer 2011.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Jackson Tower" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.