Mt. Tabor

Portland's Mt. Tabor neighborhood is named for the extinct volcanic  cinder cone that rises 636 feet in elevation in its middle. The "mountain" itself is a park (with a large city reservoir system included), but is surrounded by a residential community. The western portion of the Mt. Tabor neighborhood, in the direction of downtown Portland, includes lots of grand old homes and historic structures to enjoy looking at. This walk, 2.8 miles long, will take you by many of these architectural treasures, and it will also include a journey to the lower reaches of the Mt. Tabor Park. The route includes moderate ups and downs, especially in the portion within the park.

This walk begins at the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, located at the intersection of SE Belmont Street and SE 55th Avenue. While the church has been located at this site since 1892, this building was constructed in 1910. The ever-popular (at the time) bell tower designed to look like a romanticized medieval castle turret dominates the structure. The church has made great efforts in recent years to reach out to the community in different ways, efforts that are chronicled on the church's website.

Cross Belmont Street to the east side of SE 55th Avenue. At the corner is the Irvington Masonic Lodge building, which according to a plaque in the front was constructed in 1952 - it looks much older. There is no sign of continued masonic use of the building, which is not surprising given the steep decline in Masonic membership in the U.S. over the past several decades. Although no signs indicate it, the building now houses the Mt. Hood Model Engineers Club, dedicated to the creation and maintenance of model trains.

From the Masonic Lodge building continue south on 55th Avenue. This street contains a number of fine old homes. This one on the right between Taylor and Salmon Streets, built in 1900, is located on a lot almost one acre in size, and now houses the Vedanta Society of Portland. Vedanta philosophy claims to be the foundation of Hinduism. The leaders of the society are known as Swamis. The current leader in Portland is Swami Shantarupananda.

Continuing along SE 55th Avenue, on the left between Salmon and Madison is the Samuel Cobb House, a large craftsman-style home constructed in 1911. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Samuel Cobb was a prosperous Portland sawmill owner who designed and built the house himself. Among the beautiful craftsman interior finishes are seven fireplaces.

The next block on the left, between Madison and Hawthorne, is home to the Western Theological Seminary Portland branch. The seminary describes itself as "a theologically conservative graduate school that promotes true innovation and humility in ministry practice. The Bible is God's inerrant Word and we set it at the center of our curriculum in the belief that faith and practice must be driven by principled interpretation and integration of the scriptures." However the house itself is located on the site of the first home in the area, constructed by pioneer Peter Prettyman in 1846, at the head of Hawthorne Street. The current house was constructed by Philip Buehner in the first decade of the 20th century. A history of the site and the house can be found here. 

At Hawthorne Street, after passing the Seminary building, turn left. Go five blocks through the neighborhood to 60th Avenue, where you should carefully cross this busy street. turn right, and after a few hundred feet you will see this stairway on the left. Take it up to the turret above, which you will soon see is part of the Mt. Tabor water reservoir.

At the top of the steps you will see the main reservoir. Before turning right to go around the reservoir, note this sign. Perhaps what this guy did doesn't qualify as "throwing things," but the whole incident created quite a stir! The reservoirs themselves must be decommissioned from holding city drinking water, but the fate of the reservoirs after they are drained of drinking water is still being decided by the city. And some in the area are still fighting any kind of reservoir closure.

At the corner of the reservoir turn left and continue around it. At the next corner, veer to the right away from the reservoir and start heading up a roadway, which is really a paved trail. Keep going up the hill on the gradual slope, and stay off the more developed roadway you will see below you. Mt. Tabor, for those who are interested, is an extinct volcano cinder cone. It is 636 feet in elevation - however, this hike doesn't take you to its top.

Eventually you will see ahead in the distance the maintenance building for the Mt. Tabor upper reservoir. A trail will veer to the right - take it and start heading down the hill. Eventually you will see this plank wooden stairway heading down the hill to the right. Take the stairs. At the bottom of the first set of stairs is the Mt. Tabor off-leash dog park. If you were to continue down the stairs, you would reach the campus of Warner Pacific College.

However at the end of the first set of stairs turn right and travel through the off-leash dog park. Eventually you will get to this gate. Go through the gate and turn left on the roadway, and then quickly right onto SE Lincoln Street. Ahead is a long strip of park land with a street and homes on each side. On one side (to the right) are older Mt. Tabor neighborhood homes, on the other (to the left) are homes that were built in the late 1980's.

On this park block you will soon pass by this community garden. There are 50 of these community gardens located on Portland City park land throughout the city.

Continue to the west end of the park strip and then cross 60th Avenue at Lincoln Street. Continue west on Lincoln Street. At the corner of 54th and Lincoln, on the left is the Lincoln Street Kayak and Canoe Museum. The Museum is open on Wednesday from 5 to 7 PM, and admission is free. It looks like a great place to visit if you are interested in kayaks and canoes.

Turn right onto 54th Avenue. The next long block has a good variety of housing types from the early 20th century. This purple house on the left exemplifies the two-story "bungalow" style, with a dormered second story and a generous front porch. Next to this house on the left is a 1982 addition to the neighborhood, very much out of character architecturally.


When you get to Hawthorne Blvd. take a left, but first glance to the right and you will see a block away the imposing Western Seminary mansion that you passed earlier along the route. Quickly turn right onto SW 53rd Avenue. At 53rd and Salmon, to the right, is this impressive 1911 home.


Continue on 53rd Avenue. On the left, one house before the intersection of 53rd and Taylor, is this home built in a traditional early-20th-Century style. But it has that "new" look. Another tell-tale sign: if you look closely the house appears to have no basement windows, and therefore no basement. In fact, this house was constructed in 2010. It is much more respectful of neighborhood architectural traditions than the houses plopped into neighborhoods like this from the 1960's through the 1980's.

At Taylor turn left, and then turn quickly to the right to get back on the next leg of 53rd Avenue. Continue one block to Belmont Street. On the left is this structure on the National Register of Historic Places, the Blaine Smith house. It sits on a lot of almost 1/2 acre. The Arts and Crafts-style home was built in 1909.



Cross Belmont Street and continue north to Morrison Street, where you will turn right. On the right at the corner of 54th and Morrison is the Brainard House. This Victorian-style home has been here since 1888. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the left, diagonally across the intersection from the Brainard House, is another grand Victorian-era home. This one was built in 1890, but is not on the National Register.

Continue one more block to 55th Avenue, then turn right, and you will be back at your starting point for this walk.

Salem - Deepwood Estate and Bush's Pasture Park

Oregon's State Capitol city, often derided as a dull place, is actually, once you scratch the surface, a city with lots of interesting sights and activities. This walk will take you south of the State Capitol, through the Willamette University Campus, to the Historic Deepwood Estate and Bush's Pasture Park before returning through Salem's public hospital and the University campus to the Capitol building. There's lots of interesting architecture to look at along the route. The walk is 2.6 miles long, and has one significant hill n the neighborhood south of Bush's Pasture Park.

This walk starts at the beautiful Oregon State Capitol, constructed in 1938 after the previous capitol building burned to the ground in 1935. The part of the building in the foreground in this photo is actually one of two major 1977 additions, one on either side of the original building. This side is occupied by State Senators and their staffs. The entire building is scheduled to be vacated for over a year after the 2015 legislative session to accommodate a major seismic upgrade.

Start at the State Street side of the Capitol and turn left. Cross at the crosswalk near the intersection of State and Waverly to the Willamette University campus on the south side of State Street. The first building you will see is the newest major building on campus, Ford Hall. Named for major contributor Hallie Ford (she also has the university art museum named for her), the building was completed in 2009 and houses several university liberal arts programs.

Walk to the right of the Ford Center, and then continue to the right of the next building, Smullin Hall, which houses Willamette's information technology functions. Once past Smullin Hall turn left, and to your right will be the Pelton Theater, guarded by two lions out front. The theater was completed in 1923.

Once past the Pelton Theater and the parking lot next to it, turn right. Continue to a bridge over Mill Race Stream. Immediately beyond is the Martha Springer Botanical Garden, opened in 1998 as a tribute to a long-time biology professor. The small one-acre garden includes 12 micro-gardens. Mill Race is a diversion from Mill Creek to Mission Creek that provided water power to the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill located upstream from this location as well as several other long-ago departed industrial enterprises.

After crossing Mill Race and looking at the botanical garden veer right and and then go straight ahead. On your right is the Mark Hatfield Library and on the left is the Sparks Athletic Center. Once you get to the parking area turn left along the sidewalk and pass by the front of the Sparks Center. Continue to the right along the side of a soccer field until you get to Bellevue Street.

Turn left onto Bellevue, and after one block use the crosswalk to turn right on 12th Street. As you proceed south you will see, in the distance to the left, Salem's Amtrak Station, a beautiful Beaux-Arts style building constructed in 1918. Continue along this busy, undistinguished section of 12th Street, to Mission Street. You will pass by the popular Ram pub as well as a bridge over "Mission Creek" (about which more will be said later on the walk).

After you cross Mission Street the scenery takes a turn for the better. To the right is the Historic Deepwood Estate. This four-acre site is owned by the City of Salem as a public park, but the 1894 Queen Anne-style mansion is managed by Friends of Deepwood Estate, who provide organized tours of the home. The estate was given its name by Alice Powell, its final owner before the City acquired the property in 1971.

The estate is much more than just the grand mansion - the four acres of grounds also include beautiful gardens and a greenhouse that are open for free to the public. It is worth your time to wander through the gardens to admire the flora.


After you walk around and enjoy the Deepwood Estate grounds, go back onto 12th Street. After passing Lee Street, turn right onto Waller Street. After a block of ordinary apartment buildings you will come to this bridge, which crosses Pringle Creek. Use the bridge to cross the creek, then turn left onto the pathway.

You are now entering Bush's Pasture Park, a 90-acre greenspace. A stroll through the western half of the park is included on this walk - our route will go through the eastern part of the park. Continue past the trees into a large open grassy area, with trails that see a lot of use by joggers. Continue to the edge of the park at Leffelle Street, then turn right onto Leffelle (or stay on the pathway at the edge of the park which parallels Leffelle).

The neighborhood south of Bush's Pasture Park contains a number of old, attractive houses, such as this bungalow-style home, built in 1920, at the corner of Leffelle and Davidson.

Continue on Leffelle to its end at Summer Street, then turn left. Go one block and then turn right onto Cross Street. Go up a short hill on the next block, and at the top of the hill, after crossing Winter Street, is this stately Georgian-style home, built in 1934 for Custer Ross, a prominent local attorney. The American elm tree in front of the house is a lot older, dating from 1890, and is a Salem Heritage Tree. 

At Cottage Street turn right, and after one block you will reenter Bush's Pasture Park. Continue on the park trail that veers slightly to the left, on level terrain. When this path T's into another walking path turn right, and start going down a hill.

As you start on this path down the hill, to the right you will see this statue. It is entitled "Guidance of Youth," and depicts a pioneer family resolutely striding forward, presumably toward Oregon on the Oregon Trail. It was commissioned and placed on this spot in 1959 to commemorate the centennial of Oregon's admission as a state to the Union. Not mentioned on the plaque to the back of the statue is its interesting back story. It was commissioned and paid for with a $34,000 bequest from Carroll Moores, an evidently very thrifty janitor for the Oregon Supreme Court building. An earlier idea to use the money to purchase a painting of a nude by Auguste Renoir was the subject of significant local controversy, and was rejected.

After viewing the statue return to the trail and continue down the hill. You will be leaving the forested portion of the park and heading back into the grassy field portion of Bush's Pasture Park, but the last of the trees is this beautiful deciduous specimen.

At the bottom of the hill continue on the trail to the left. You will skirt the perimeter of the Willamette University baseball field and the University's McCulloch football stadium. The Willamette Bearcats participate in the NCAA at the Division III level. While the Bearcats don't have the consistent level of football excellence found at rival Northwest Conference foe Linfield College in McMinnville, the school plays at a generally high level, last winning the conference championship in 2008.

As you pass by the football stadium the trail branches. At the first branch go to the left, and almost immediately the trail will branch again - at this point, go to the right. You will be heading for the intersection of Mission Street and Winter Street. Cross Mission at the signal light, and proceed up Winter Street. You will soon be in going through the massive Salem Hospital campus. Salem Hospital is the only major public hospital in the city. Its recent plans to expand westward to Church Street has engendered some local controversy.

At the north end of the Salem Hospital campus, between the hospital and Bellevue Street, you will pass over this waterway (earlier you passed over it while on 12th Street near the Ram Restaurant). It is shown on some maps as Mission Creek, but it is actually the Shelton Ditch, a diversion canal from Mill Creek to Pringle Creek originally constructed in the mid-19th century. It is part of the complex set of creeks and ditches serving Salem with water that is for the most part diverted from the Santiam River to the south.

After Sheldon Ditch, you will cross busy Bellevue Street and continue north on Winter Street. You are now back at the edge of the Willamette University campus. On the left side of Winter, across from the main campus, is the Willamette University College of Law. The college is one of three law schools in Oregon, and has a healthy rivalry with the University of Oregon and Lewis and Clark law schools. The law school's main building, the Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center, was built in 1967,

To the right on Winter Street, before its intersection with State Street, is the Olin Science Center, constructed in 1995 and housing Willamette's biology and chemistry departments. 

Continue on Winter Street until it tees into State Street. On the block to the left are a series of interesting buildings. On the corner is the Civic Justice Center, home of the Oregon Law Commission, which inhabits Salem's 1912 Carnegie Library, with a classic beaux arts style used in many such libraries around the world. It served as Salem's public library until 1971, then was used by the YWCA until 2008, when it was refurbished by the law school and dedicated by none other than Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Next on the block is the modern-style YWCA building, which has now been vacated by the YWCA, constructed in 1954. The architect was Pietro Belluschi. Next down is the art-deco style Pacific Telephone and Telegraph building, now occupied by CenturyLink, built in 1930. Finally, on the corner of State and Cottage, is the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, opened by Willamette University in 1998, with an excellent collection.

After taking a look at these buildings, turn right on State Street and return to the State Capitol. You will pass by the other 1977 addition to the original capitol, which primarily is occupied by members of the State House of Representatives and their staffs.