PlacesPages: Portland Places: South Park Blocks

Sunday, August 23, 2015

I originally posted the PORTLAND PLACES: South Park Blocks page on my old website on March 17, 2010.

Portland's South Park Blocks are a strip of narrow city blocks between what would be SW 8th and SW 9th Avenues, though both are typically called Park Avenue, since they are narrow and one runs in each direction. These blocks are only about half as wide as the other city blocks in this part of the city.

The South Park Blocks were part of Daniel H. Lownsdale's 1852 plat of what is now downtown Portland. At the time the narrow blocks were an unimproved road on the outskirts of the city and from Jefferson Street south were part of the Great Plank Road to the Tualatin Valley. The South Park Blocks were not landscaped until 1877 when the city council authorized florist and landscape designer Louis G. Pfunder to plant 104 Lombardy poplars and elms between Salmon and Hall Streets. The blocks didn't begin to develop into a formal park until 1885.

Research sources for the following posts include Portland Parks & Recreation, Emporis and Wikipedia. The following posts include links to historical photographs from the Oregon Historical Society, the Salem Public Library's Historic Photo Collection, American Classic Images and Wikipedia.

Map of the South Park Blocks & Surrounding Area