History – Slabtown has been around since the ’70s under three different owners.   It was originally a strip club and was also known as “Cal’s Fort.”   It has an interesting “altar” near the entrance, paying tribute to fabled rock musicians Wendy O’ Williams and Freddie Mercury.  The bar was also used as a set for two scenes from the “Portlandia” show.

The Slabtown neighborhood is also one of Portland’s most historic neighborhoods and oozes with history as evidenced by this excerpt from July 13, 2013, The Oregonian

“For a century, Wallace Park was the site of trading for Native Americans, (Tracy) Prince writes in “Portland’s Slabtown.” The book (published by Arcadia Press) traces the Slabtown neighborhood’s history……when Native Americans outnumbered white settlers 1,000 to 275, through its blue-collar decades, and into its current “Trendy-third” reputation for its Northwest 23rd Avenue boutiques…..

It was a working-class neighborhood home to marginalized groups — Native Americans, Chinese and European immigrants, gypsies, and black Portlanders.”

Why the name “Slabtown?  “… back in the industrial days of lumber milling, the slabs of the rounded tree edges made good fuel and were to be found all over this area.” (KGW.com 9/7/2010).  The slices of wood piled up at the George Weidler Lumber Mill on NW Northrup Street commencing in the 1870’s.

Per Slabtown – A “Slice” of Portland History | Thebeerchaser

NOTE: Ad in Cascade Voice May 1984 states, “Vanessa’s First Birthday at Slabtown”. Vanessa was Van Richards, Empress XIII Vanessa of the Imperial Rose Court of Oregon. It appears that Vanessa performed drag here after Dahl & Penne bar closed in 1982. [There were other places they performed as well]

Below notice in the Oregon Journal newspaper, November 4, 1978