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 This
is where it started in 1845 when the two owners of the town site, Asa Lovejoy
and Francis Pettygrove, christened it "Portland", hired a surveyor (Thomas
Brown) and lay out a grid of 16 blocks. This original subdivided area
extended from the river to Second Avenue and from Washington to Jefferson
streets.
Brown's survey work was now as easy task since the area
was an evergreen forest full of native Douglas Fir toweling 60 plus feet
high. As the firs were cleared for development, stumps were left.
Hence one of the many nicknames for Portland, "Stumptown."
Philadelphia Plan - Street Names
Portland, like many USA cities, followed the Philadelphia
plan of street naming. The Philadelphia idea migrated with the pioneers
- across the Allegheny Mountains, along the Ohio Valley, and down the Mississippi.
Most towns were built on the bank of a river, because transportation by
water was important, and the riverfront was the natural starting point for
the sequence of streets beginning with "First." Later, as towns grew
up along the spreading railroad system, the railroad track itself was the
base line for staring the numbered series.
Street Names Follow Pattern of Presidents, Tree, etc.
 Street
labeling in Portland thus took the schemes of names, without order, one
way and numbers the other way. The Portland street names follow the
pattern of presidents, pioneer Portlanders, trees, etc. Similar to
Philadelphia.
Hats off to Douglas Taylor, superintendent of streets when
Portland, East Portland, and Albina consolidated in 1891. Because
of the street name duplication between the three areas, Mayor W. S. Mason
referred the matter to the City Council "Streets Committee" which passed
the problem off to Superintendent Taylor. Taylor and his staff recommended
to the "Streets Committee" a street naming pattern in the Couch (pronounced
Coo-ch) subdivision (Northwest District and Pearl District) that is easy
to remember; numbers in one direction and letters in alphabetical sequence
in the other. Thus we have going from south to north: Burnside (the
street that divides southwest from northwest), Couch, Davis, Everett, Flanders,
Glisan, Hoyt, Irving, Johnson, and so forth. The numbers are also
in sequence of course. Taylor must have been a pretty good politician
- he gave the "Streets Committee" a list of alternative names for most streets
and he let them pick and choose.
Neighborhoods in the Downtown Area
We consider the Portland "Downtown Area" as those neighborhoods
where you can walk downtown within 10-15 minutes. All on the west
side of the Willamette River. This includes the neighborhoods of
Downtown, Northwest District (aka Nob Hill), Old Town/Chinatown, Pearl District, and Goose
Hollow. The Northwest District and Goose Hollow are the only neighborhoods
with detached single-family homes. The type of housing in all the
other neighborhoods are apartments, condos, and rowhouses.
Downtown Condos
Downtown has a ever increasing number of condos with the
most units in the Pearl District. Visit the
Portland Business
Alliance Web site for information about downtown housing. The
site lists all the available condos projects for sale as well as apartments
buildings that offer rentals. Here is a
map of some
of the apartments and condos available in the downtown area.
Visit my Web page, Downtown
Condos for a summary of all the new downtown condo projects under construction.
Portland Monthly Magazine Neighborhood Guide
 The
Portland Monthly
magazine features neighborhoods in their April issue every year. It has
a ton of information about neighborhoods to include their pick of the 20
best neighborhoods for the year.
To help those in the housing market, the magazine combines
all the data from about 120 neighborhoods and communities in the Portland
metro area. Include in the document are housing prices, school ratings,
demographics, crime statistics, parks, commuting information, and services.
Click
here (PDF format) to download the document.
Farmers Markets
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Downtown South Park
Blocks Between Southwest Salmon and Main streets. 10 am-2 pm
Wednesdays, April 29-October 28. See
portlandfarmersmarket.org.
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Downtown Portland State University South Park Blocks between Southwest Harrison and
Montgomery streets. 8:30 am-2 pm Saturdays, March 21-December 19.
See
portlandfarmersmarket.org.
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Pearl District Ecotrust
parking lot, Northwest 10th Avenue between Irving and Johnson
streets. 3:30-7:30 pm Thursdays, June 4-September 24. See
portlandfarmersmarket.org.
Walking in Downtown Portland
Walk Score ranks 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40
U.S. cities to help you find a walkable place to live. Walk Score
ranked the Pearl District/Old Town-Chinatown/Downtown
number ten. The Pearl obtained a score of 99 (Walkers' Paradise).
45% of Portland residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above. 83% have a Walk
Score of at least 50—and 17% live in Car-Dependent neighborhoods.
Please note that we use an address in the center of each neighborhood to
determine the Walk Score. Scores will vary in a neighborhood depending
upon the address.
Here are some walking tours in
the downtown area of Portland:
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Public Art Walking Tour The Regional
Arts & Culture Council (RACC) along with the Portland Oregon Visitors
Association have a Public Art Walking Tour map/brochure – a colorful
guide to nearly 100 public art pieces in downtown Portland and the near
eastside. This free brochure is available at Portland-area visitor centers,
or by calling RACC at (503) 823-5111. You can also download a copy by
clicking here.
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Walking Tour to Pittock Mansion This
2.8-mile walk begins in Northwest Portland and climbs some of the city's
longest staircases through Westover Heights. It ends at the Pittock
Mansion, a restored French Renaissance Revival chateau. The home,
its grounds, and fabulous views are open to the public. Click
here to download the guide.
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Walking Tour Nob Hill and the Pearl District
This 3.3-mile walk begins at PGE Park it takes you through historic
neighborhoods to shops, galleries, restaurants, and theaters in the
Pearl District and Nob Hill. Click
here
to download the guide.
Videos
Below are some videos of places and events in the
downtown area of Portland:
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Esplanade The Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade is 1.5
miles long, extending north from the Hawthorne Bridge, past the
Morrison and Burnside Bridges, to the Steel Bridge with connections
to eastside neighborhoods as well as across the river to Gov. Tom
McCall Waterfront Park.
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Scenes A one minute video of scenes in the downtown area.
Pleasant and good background music.
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Streetcar Streetcars run on a 4.8 continuous loop from
Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital at NW 23rd Avenue, on Lovejoy and Northrup, through the
Pearl District and on 10th and 11th Avenues to a SW 5th and Montgomery Terminus
at Portland State University. Another extension (about 2 miles) goes south
of downtown along the river to RiverPlace and South Waterfront.
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Burnside Skate Park Located under the east end of the
Burnside Bridge, the skate park was originally built by the skating
community without permission and eventually the city approved the
area as a public skatepark. The skate park was also featured in
videogames such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Grind Session, and Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater.
Search for Homes in Downtown Portland
 To
search for homes in downtown Portland, go to
Search Downtown. You can use over 100 search parameters and then select
a specific area off a neighborhood map by drawing a box around that area.
Alternatively, you can just specify the criteria and obtain all the current
listings in the downtown area.
Comparing Condos Condocompare is a Web site that focuses solely
on the condo market. The Web site populates its live listing data
from the Regional Market Listing Service (RMLS). The format allow you to
compare units and buildings in two different ways. First, you can compare
any building to other buildings in both the same market as well as buildings
in other markets. Secondly, you can compare units in the same building as
well as units in other buildings. Condocompare also allows you to sort units
and buildings side-by-side so you can compare them in one place. Condocompare
has its only real estate agents but we think their idea of comparing condos
is so important, we are willing to point the site out to you.
Guide to the Neighborhoods of Goose Hollow, Northwest District,
and Pearl District, and South Waterfront
Below are four neighborhoods that surrounds the
downtown area. We have created separate web pages for each to give
you details about each of them.
Inner Portland Neighborhoods
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