The Walpole Garden, a collaboration with our partners at Portland Parks and Recreation, is named after the noted American botanical illustrator Frederick Andrews Walpole who built a house at Eagle Point (300 ft to the north of the garden) in 1895. We are gradually planting many of the native plants that he illustrated for the US Botanical Garden before his untimely death of typhoid in 1905.

Match your Friends of Terwilliger charitable donation with a donation to the Oregon Cultural Trust and Double your impact while earning a tax credit for 2024!

Have you noticed the “comfort station” at SW Hamilton St and SW Terwilliger Blvd is now open and got a much needed and deserved painting? Many thanks to Wyatt with Portland Parks & Recreation for the painting and clean up of this very old and still used facility in Historic Terwilliger Parkway.

The Frederick Andrews Walpole Garden is a public garden created in the strip of land between SW Terwilliger Boulevard and SW Hamilton Terrace with spectacular, unobstructed views of the Willamette Valley and Mount Hood. The garden is named after Frederick Andrews Walpole, a major US botanical illustrator hired by the US government who settled in Portland and built his home at Eagle Point in 1894.

The project has been developed by the Friends of Terwilliger and Portland Parks & Recreation over the past six years: reflecting our volunteer capacity, funds raised, and exploring what works in the area.

Here’s a photo for you to remember the fall colors with a bit of sun.

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.

Cooper and his Hillsdale Scout Troop 1 spent a full morning completing this path and bench area today.

As you can see from the “before” photo of the area below, these improvements further enhance this ugly street right-of-way into a welcoming garden for humans and nature.

Check out this sunrise photo taken by a Friend of Terwilliger volunteer.

Friends of Terwilliger (FOT) was honored to guide participants of the “Preserving the Historic Road International” (PHRI) Conference on a tour of Terwilliger Parkway during their conference being hosted in Portland in late September.

(photo from 1912 bus tour)

Hillvilla, where the Chart House restaurant is now located on Terwilliger Blvd, was most famous for its pumpkin pie and owner Ed Palaske’s special recipe. When restaurateur and baker Eddie Palaske died, the recipe was posted in the Oregonian in his obituary. The special seasoning for this pie is different, but makes the best pumpkin pie many have ever eaten and has become a tradition in many Portland homes for the holidays.

It is sure to get rave reviews!

Eagle Point, the area of Terwilliger Parkway with spectacular views of the mountains to the east and the Willamette River, got a welcome clean up in July.

Portland and Seattle transportation agencies recently unveiled a program urging drivers to Slow the Flock Down!

Our native Lupine are thriving in Historic Terwilliger Parkway!

We had a tenacious group pulling ivy Saturday, May 21st. We freed 12 trees and cleared 200 sq feet of the forest floor to allow our native plants room to grow.

April 26^th was the 200^th anniversary of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s birthday.

Various lectures, symposiums, and discussions have been going on in 2022 to celebrate and call attention to the Olmsted family’s prolific and groundbreaking work. His sons, John Charles and Frederick Law Jr., carried on his work and worked in Portland on various projects starting in 1903. Most notable was their parks master plan for the city that recommended a “South Hillside Parkway” that became Terwilliger Parkway. A proclamation issued by Mayor Wheeler and the Portland City Council perhaps sums up best the impact of the Olmsteds:

On behalf of Friends of Terwilliger, Earthwise Law Center has recently submitted two sets of formal comments to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regarding the proposed upgrades and improvements to Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC):

FOT is concerned that the inadequate Draft Environmental Assessment and the VA’s conclusion of “no significant impacts” to Terwilliger Parkway by their Washington, DC office, will prevent effective mitigation in the final designs and construction and cause real harm to the Parkway and environment.

Friends of Terwilliger wants to acknowledge that where we live, work, and play, and what we build rests on stolen land.

Check out these natural elements seen in Historic Terwilliger Parkway recently.

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.

We are a registered 501(c)(3) organization and donations are tax-deductible. All donations go directly to support our restoration, advocacy and outreach efforts.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has largely completed the installation of new LED light fixtures on the light poles along Terwilliger Parkway between Duniway Park and Capitol Hwy. The change is notable!

A few months ago, a realtor’s “For Sale” sign in Terwilliger Parkway prompted concern from neighbors and Parkway supporters, fearful that a development might threaten the integrity of this linear park. This led to calls to both Friends of Terwilliger and the Portland Parks & Rec (PPR).

On November 26, 2019, Commissioner Nick Fish and PP&R Director Adena Long presented “A Sustainable Future” to the Portland City Council for discussion and guidance. This is the first step to determine funding options for PP&R.

Friends of Terwilliger (FOT) Board Members met with the new Portland Parks and Recreation (PP&R) Director Adena Long and PP&R City Nature Manager, Rachel Felice recently. The goals for the meeting were to provide Director Long with information about FOT and its mission of protecting and advocating for Terwilliger Parkway, to describe the challenges FOT sees for the Parkway today, and to review the partnerships FOT has established with PP&R over the past 30 years.

November’s restoration work party brought us back to the Norris “foundation” to remove tree and ground ivy as well as blackberries. This 2-acre site was once considered by the Portland chapter of the Rhododendron Society for its test garden before locating to its current site at Crystal Springs.

A Metro steering committee has decided that a new Southwest Portland light rail line will travel out Barbur Blvd. from downtown Portland to Tigard and Tualatin. A planned station at SW Gibbs St. (below the tram) is intended to serve OHSU and other Marquam Hill institutions that are located several hundred feet up a steep hillside with Terwilliger Parkway lying in between. TriMet and Metro have proposed a “Marquam Hill Connection” to get people up the hillside from the SW Barbur MAX station to OHSU. Three of the proposals involve a combination of above-ground elevator towers and bridges and ramps, most of which would be located in Terwilliger Parkway and will necessitate the removal of many trees and significant alterations to the park. A fourth proposal is to build a pedestrian tunnel under the hillside with an underground elevator to bring people up to OHSU.

Friends of Terwilliger has contacted the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) to express our concern for the Totem Pole in the Terwilliger Parkway. The Totem Pole has numerous holes inflicted by wood-boring woodpeckers and is in need of protective restoration, repainting, and care.

The RACC public art “Totem Pole” is located at the Elk Point Viewpoint in the Terwilliger Parkway and was carved by Chief Lelooska in 1959. It became a partof RACC’s Public Art Program in the late 1980’s.

What would you say is the most identifiable and “iconic” thing about Terwilliger Parkway? The views and lush natural vegetation may be what people most like about Terwilliger, but they don’t really signify the parkway itself. The roadway and adjoining path are the spine of the linear park and are the most significant piece of park infrastructure, but they aren’t very iconic. We think that the historic streetlights that line the roadway are its most identifiable feature.

​The Terwilliger Parkway Design Guidelines and the Terwilliger Parkway Corridor Plan are two important documents that protect the natural character of Terwilliger Parkway and environs.

Anyone see this view?

A revised building proposal, submitted this June, adds a third story to the building.

Beginning construction this Spring in April and May will be two City of Portland Neighborhood Greenway project improvements along SW Terwilliger Boulevard.