The Red Carpet Lounge at Greyhound Bus Depot

 840 S.W. Sixth

Years: 1938 – 1985 [when Greyhound Bus moved to NW 6th/Hoyt.]

Known for its bathrooms downstairs.

Circa 1937

citations & references:

• Possibly due to it’s location across the street from the original YMCA, it has been ‘suggested’ that it had always been a place for ‘sexual behavior’.

• Per https://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/the-greyhound-bus-depot-1948 “The Greyhound Bus Depot was designed by W. C. Knighton in early 1938 and construction completed in 1939. The art deco influenced streamline modern depot design ushered in a new era of modern architecture in Portland. The depot was featured in glamous colorized postcards promoting Portland as a modern forward-looking city.”

  [continued in the post]

  “Per newspaper archives, George S. Lewis owned several restaurants and cafes in Portland starting in about 1905. He immigrated here from Greece where he was born in 1887. He was most noted however as the owner of this restaurant in the Greyhound central bus depot. The restaurant opened at the same time as the bus depot in 1938. He also owned a drive-in restaurant on SW Scholls Ferry called “Biffs.” Lewis died in 1953 in Seaside. It appears that the bus depot dining spot was still in operation under the “George Lewis” name until 1962.”

• Per papers that called Chronology of Portland’s Gay Bars – author unknown, “(In Greyhound Bus Depot)

• Listed in Damron Address Book/Address Guide 1966 under Bars/Clubs with connotation * - Very Popular and a note: (after taverns close) Greyhound Bus Station

• Listed in Damron Address Book/Address Guide 1970 under Bars/Clubs with notation M – Mixed Crowd and note – Greyhound Bus Depot – Taylor at SW 6th.

• Listed in GAY PLACES 1971 International Guild Guide – no telephone number with the connotations of H, M – Hustlers, Mixed.

• Listed in Damron Address Book/Address Guide 1971 under Bars/Clubs notation M – Mixed Crowd and note – Greyhound Bus Depot – Taylor at SW 6th.

• Listed in Damron Address Book/Address Guide 1972 under Bars/Clubs with no notation and note – Greyhound Bus Depot – Taylor at SW 6th.

• Listed in Guild Guide 1973 USA & International.

• Not in Damron Address Book/Address Guide 1973 or thereafter

• Per Sister Paula Nielsen in her book The Trans-Evangelist, page 100 “I also cruised public restrooms, and had good luck ‘scoring’ in both the Greyhound and Trialways Bus Depots.”

• Per Northwest Gay Review June 1977, “Closer to the Bus Depot, in one small area, was the Reed, Brown Jug, Rose City and Buddy’s Post Tavern. The area was like a public market, heavy with an invigorating smell of the sea. As with Dinty’s and The Lotus, they were hangouts for the Navy’s emissaries. Shopping for the market’s enticing morsels was a daily routine. Some of the salads tossed—fresh, green, or wilted—ad more kick in its over-ripe 180 proof dressing than was in its basic seafood-the tavern area is gone now , but the post and jug area is still an entertainment center—the Funland Arcade. [Note Funland is now gone as well]

  Was this the Funland referred in the proceeding paragraph? Looking north on SW 4th Avenue at Washington Street in this 1946 image. The Funland Arcade was housed in the 1912 Merchants National Bank/Hibernia Savings Bank building. The next year the building would lose it’s stately bearing and be given the sleek, modern remodel.

Above left photo 1977. Above Right photo is the beginning of tearing down the building.

The 321-room Hilton Tower (the former Greyhound Bus Depot on SW 6th and Taylor) is scheduled for construction in the summer of 2000. Per Portland Hilton Hotel Wikipedia page: The original 22-story, 240-foot (73 m) tower was completed in 1962 and was named the Hilton Portland. The second tower with 20 floors, located kitty-corner from the original building, to the northeast, was completed in 2002 and was originally named the Hilton Executive Tower, until its renaming as The Duniway Hotel in 2017. The 1962 building was the tallest building in the city for three years until surpassed by the Harrison West Condominium Tower in 1965. The Duniway name was chosen in honor of Abigail Scott Duniway, an early women's rights advocate and newspaper editor in Portland. [Photo below - left]

Greyhound moved to where the Hoyt Hotel had been at 6th/NW Hoyt. It operated from 1985 - 2019. [Photo below - right]