Portland Places: Washington Park

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

Washington Park is one of Portland's oldest and most distinguished parks. Within the park are a number of separate attractions, including the Oregon Holocaust Memorial, the International Rose Test Garden, the Portland Japanese Garden, the Oregon Zoo, the World Forestry Center, the Portland Children's Museum, the Hoyt Arboretum and the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial. The map below shows the locations of the attractions in Washington Park. The following posts include links to historic photographs from the Oregon State University Library Digital Collections, the University of Oregon Library Digital Collections, and the Salem Public Library's Oregon Historic Photograph Collection.

Map of Washington Park in 2010

Lewis & Clark Memorial
Sacajawea & Jean-Baptiste
Chiming Fountain
Coming of the White Man
Oregon Holocaust Memorial
Reservoirs
International Rose Test Garden
Portland Japanese Garden
The Strolling Pond Garden & The Tea Garden
The Natural Garden
Rose Garden Children’s Park
Elephant House Picnic Shelter
Washington Park & Zoo Railway Station
Oregon Zoo
Great Northwest Exhibit
Trillium Creek Family Farm
Pacific Shores Exhibit
Primates & Fragile Forests Exhibits
Inland Pigs of Asia Exhibit
Asian Elephant Exhibit
Predators of the Serengeti Exhibit
Africa Savanna & Rain Forest Exhibits
Lorikeet Landing
Insect Zoo
Les AuCoin Plaza
World Forestry Center Discovery Museum
Portland Children’s Museum
Hoyt Arboretum
Oregon Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial

The land that is now Washington Park was originally the home of the Atfalati tribes of Native Americans, who used the area for hunting and gathering and for winter villages and camps. By the early 1800s, diseases like malaria had wiped out most of the Atfalati.

Amos Nahom King was born in 1822 and came to Oregon in 1845. In 1849, he purchased 513 acres of West Portland, stretching from a small tannery on the current site of Providence Park west to cover the west hills from SW Jefferson Street and Canyon Road to NW Lovejoy Street and MacLeay Park. Parts of this land became the King's Heights and Arlington Heights neighborhoods. The City of Portland purchased 40.78 acres of this land from King in 1871 for $32,824, a bargain at $800 an acre, and named it simply City Park. King died in 1901 at the age of 79, having lived in Portland for 52 years and being the only remaining resident whose name appeared in the first edition of The Oregonian in 1850. The park's name was changed to Washington Park in 1909 at the recommendation of landscape architect John Charles Olmstead.

Meanwhile, Multnomah County established a poor farm and sanitarium to the west of Washington Park in 1868. Scandals in 1910 caused the poor farm moved to a new location. In 1922, Multnomah County deeded the farm's 160 acres to the City of Portland, which added the land to Washington Park. The southern part of the property became the West Hills Golf Course (now the site of the Oregon Zoo) and the northern part became the Hoyt Arboretum.

Related Links:
Portland Parks & Recreation
Washington Park
Oregon Holocaust Memorial
International Rose Test Garden
Portland Japanese Garden
Oregon Zoo
World Forestry Center
Portland Children's Museum
Hoyt Arboretum
Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition at PdxHistory.com
Portland Zoo Trains at PdxHistory.com
Washington Park & Zoo Railway at Rose City & Northwestern

Continue to Lewis & Clark Memorial…