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.
The Olmsted Network is the first and only national organization dedicated to championing Olmsted parks, places, and principles through advocacy, education and stewardship. Check out their new website.
It’s been a long time coming, but Terwilliger Parkway has finally been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1985 the Portland Park Bureau hired a consultant to prepare nominations to the National Historic Register for several older city parks. But then they never submitted them to the National Park Service for listing. Now FOT has completed the task!
Over a hundred years ago, civic leaders of the young city of Portland hired the world-famous Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to create a comprehensive park plan.
You already knew it, right? Yes, we’ve learned that OregonLive.com has recently published an article about the 16 most beautiful places in Portland and Terwilliger Parkway is one of them.
Marquam Hill has a strange and convoluted history that plays into the creation of both Terwilliger Parkway and Oregon Health and Sciences University. Many people wonder how it is that two large medical facilities – OHSU and the VA Medical Center - would be in such a hard-to-access location. To answer that we have to go back to 1880 and efforts to bring the first transcontinental railroad link to the Northwest.
Terwilliger Parkway is a linear park, owned by the City of Portland, that winds south from downtown along the west hills. It consists of the road itself (“Terwilliger Boulevard”) and about 100 ft. of land on either side of the road. The Parkway represents Portland’s early recognition of the value of green spaces within the city, and now provides recreation and relaxation to its many visitors.