THE JOHNNIE RAY HOUSE
OVERALL RATING
THE TRUE BIRTHPLACE OF ROCK AND ROLL. So your gym plays the oldies. I'm talking real old as in Elvis Presley old. And when it comes to Elvis, you've all been raised to know him as The King. And because he is rightfully The King, most people think he invented it in 1955. Not true. Rock and Roll was created by a partially deaf teenage boy named Johnnie Ray from Portland, Oregon in 1952. We now have three generations of Americans who have never even heard of Johnnie Ray, yet in other parts of the world he is still popular many years after his death. At the age of 14 he created a style of music never heard before, combining blues, jazz and a bit of soul into what would become Rock and Roll. Renown crooner, Tony Bennett was the first to proclaim Johnnie "The true father of Rock and Roll". Music historians agree that he was the leading pioneer in this genre of music. Johnnie was born in 1927 in Dallas, Oregon. At age 9 he suffered a head injury in a Cub Scout Jamboree blanket toss gone wrong. The injury left him completely deaf in one ear and partial hearing in the other. At 13, he and his parents moved to Portland and into the little arts and crafts Tudor cottage pictured here. They chose it because it's what they could afford, in a great neighborhood and within walking distance to The Portland School For The Deaf. This neighborhood, known as Colonial Heights, sits on a hillside and the house has commanding views of downtown Portland and the heavily forested West Hills as its backdrop. Those hills contain Forest Park, the nations largest city park that is left in its natural state and laced with hiking trails. Johnnie loved nature and hiking and the views from home would come to inspire every song he ever wrote. To seek refuge from his parents and be alone with his thoughts in a house with only 830 sq. ft. of living space, Johnnie climbed the stairs to the unfinished attic. There he would sit next to a large open window... cont. in comments...