History Lesson: High Class Homes on Terwilliger Blvd
The Olmsted Brother’s Portland parks master plan is contained in the “Report of the Park Board, Portland, Oregon, 1903”. This report called for a “South Hillside Parkway” which eventually became Terwilliger Parkway 9 years later.
To make the case for the proposed parkway, the report stated: “This parkway would be a feature of which the city would justly be proud, and it would almost certainly be a paying investment through the increased taxable valuation which it would give to the high land along its course, much of which will become available for
high-class suburban and country residences.”
Much of this land was owned by the Terwilliger family, who donated a 200 ft. by one mile strip of land to the city of Portland that kick-started the building of Terwilliger Parkway. They may well have seen the donation also as a way to kick-start development of their land for “high class residences.” In 1923 a group of business people led by Joseph H. and James R. Terwilliger platted Terwilliger Heights along SW Westwood Ave. and SW Menefee Drive going up the hill above Terwilliger Boulevard.
Some very nice homes indeed were built in Terwilliger Heights. One notable house, pictured here, is the former Simon and Helen Director House where Arlene Schnitzer grew up, built in 1941 in the Colonial Revival style and located across from the Chart House Restaurant at the bottom of Westwood Ave.
It’s worth a detour off Terwilliger to view the beautiful homes on lower Westwood Ave. and up the hill on Menefee Dr.