Marylhurst - Lake Oswego

Lake Oswego is the poshest of Portland's suburbs, but there's more to this community than just fancy houses. The city is also home to Marylhurst University, a school founded by Roman Catholic nuns in the late 19th century. The school moved to its current bucolic campus in 1930, and this walk will take you there. The walk also traverses trails through some pretty forested areas, and begins and ends in George Rogers Park, site of a late 19th century iron smelter. The walk is approximately 4 miles, and contains some moderate ups and downs.

The walk begins at George Rogers Park. The park provides an excellent swimming beach on the Willamette River, and also is at the mouth of Oswego Creek, which drains Oswego Lake to the west. You will start the walk at the end of the lower parking lot.

From the parking lot, head south across a bridge over the mouth of Oswego Creek. Once across the bridge, the main paved trail continues to the left. However you should turn right and take the unpaved path.

Continue on the pathway. Occasionally the route gets a little rough with tree roots as it goes along the creek. Eventually you will pass under the massive Highway 43 Bridge over Oswego Creek. Some musings about the bridge can be found here, but it's unclear when exactly this bridge was built (sometime between 1920 and 1930) and whether it was widened at some point.

The trail along Oswego Creek continues until it reaches the end of Maple Street. Follow the street to busy McVey Avenue. Take a left on McVey and very quickly take another left onto Erickson Street. Follow Erickson three blocks up the hill, through a neighborhood of modest homes that is already starting to be transformed with tear downs and new McMansions, to Laurel Street.

At Laurel Street take a right turn. After crossing Bickner Street, halfway down the next block you will see this stairway going up the hill to the left. Take the stairs. You will end up on Cedar Street.

Turn left on Cedar Street and then right onto Bickner Street. After two blocks Bickner ends - to the right is Hemlock Street. You should head left, which is the entrance into Freepons Park. The park is a peaceful neighborhood green area, with benches, a grassy area, and lots of trees. Continue straight on the main path through the park until you reach the end of Hemlock Street, then continue on the street. Freepons Park is typical of a major feature of Lake Oswego neighborhoods - discontinuous streets clearly meant at one point to connect, but then permanently disconnected, most likely through neighborhood opposition to through traffic. While it makes for a nice neighborhood park, the discontinuance of this street has undoubtedly meant thousands of cumulative extra miles driven by cars forced to detour around the park, with extra gasoline burned and air polluted. But enough of my soapbox ...

After passing through the park continue three blocks on Hemlock until it tees into Hallinan Street. Continue straight on a path into the grounds of Hallinan School. This elementary school features a very elaborate playground.

Go around the large soccer field to the other side, where you will find this trail out of the school grounds. It will take you to Chapin Way, where you will turn right. Continue on Chapin Way for two long blocks to Glenmorrie Drive. The houses along this street are a mixture of old and new, with the old being both modest and fancy, and the new being uniformly grandiose.

Turn left on Glenmorrie and head down the hill to State Highway 43. Here, you must turn right and, unfortunately, either walk in a drainage ditch along the roadway or walk in the bike lane uncomfortably close to fast-moving traffic. Fortunately the distance along this roadway until the sidewalk begins again is only a couple hundred feet. This would be a great sidewalk "infill" project for the City of Lake Oswego to undertake, assuming that they don't have to work through the Oregon Department of Transportation to get it done.

Soon (but not soon enough) a sidewalk starts on Highway 43. You will see a pathway veering to the right. Take it, and you will come to Marylhurst Park, a small green space. Walk through the park to Brookhurst Drive, then turn left. Brookhurst Drive tees into Brookhurst Drive (yes, it's a suburban loop street). At the tee take a right, and then quickly take a left onto Marylbrook Drive. Follow Marylbrook to Highway 43 and then cross the street at the signal light. The neighborhood was built in the mid-1990's, with faux-Tudor and other traditional styles typical of that era's luxury housing.

Once you cross the street you are entering the campus of Marylhurst University. Originally founded in 1893 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, the school has been in this location since 1930. A timeline of its history and evolution can be found here. Befitting its origins, the first building you reach after a long walk across a grassy field is St. Anne's Chapel.

Continue to the right of the chapel. Soon on your left you will come to this interesting little bit of architecture. This is the Griffin House, designed by noted Italian-American architect Pietro Belluschi and built in 1951. Less than 1,000 square feet, it was overtaken by demographics in its fancy Lake Oswego neighborhood, but instead of being demolished it was put into storage and eventually moved to this site. It is used by Marylhurst University for campus events.

Continue straight ahead past the Belluschi House. Amid some other university buildings is the Balogh Bandshell, constructed in 2012. The Bandshell is named for the very musical-looking Lajos Balogh, who has been a fixture of the Portland and Marylhurst music scene for many decades.

At the bandshell turn left and continue around the parking lot, turning left again. Eventually you will come across this sundial. Installed in 2009, it isn't your typical sundial - it is an analemattic sundial.

To your left is the BP John Administration Building, the original Marylhurst College structure built in 1929. It has recently seen restoration of its original features.

To the right, between Flavia Hall and Aquinas Hall (pictured), take the pathway that goes into the woods. Aquinas Hall, built in 1930, is one of the other original buildings on the Marylhurst campus, and served as a dormitory before conversion to its current use as the office of admissions. Speaking of admissions, Marylhurst University is facing difficult times.

Follow the path and you will transition from Marylhurst University to the Mary's Woods community. To the left of the pathway is the university's Education Hall, but to the right is a community garden associated with the Mary's Woods retirement center.

Mary's Woods was begun in 2001, and now consists of a full continuing care retirement center, with independent senior living and skilled nursing care. However its genesis was actually as a home for elderly nuns of the Sisters of the Holy Names, who founded Marylhurst University. Most of what you will see, including the first building at the end of the pathway of Marylhurst University, is just a few years old.

The pathway ends at Holy Names Drive - turn right and follow the roadway. When the road curves to the left continue following it. Soon on your left is the Provincial House, which dates from 1910 (although it has been very much refurbished when it was incorporated into Mary's Woods).

After you pass the Provincial House you will see this sign to the right, a series of stairways that lead to River Road and the Willamette River frontage. Take this pathway. This part of Mary's Woods consists of independent living units.

With perhaps one exception - as you go along the pathway, to the left is this fenced-in building. While I'm not certain, and there isn't any indication online, this is most likely the "memory care" facility within Mary's Woods - that would explain the fence. "Memory care" is a euphemism for taking care of seniors, such as those with dementia, who have lost their memories.

Continue down the pathway, and stairs. The route takes you out of Mary's Woods and toward Old River Drive and the Willamette River. It was recently constructed, and provides an excellent short-cut from Marylhurst to the river.

Once on Old River Drive turn left. The narrow roadway has a marked pedestrian-bike lane on its right (river) side). Traffic is slow and very intermittent along this road. There is no public river access here - the lots with homes on the left side of the road cross the road and own the land along the river to the right as well. But you will have great scenic views of the Willamette as you head down the street.

Eventually Old River Drive ends - the roadway turns sharply to the left and becomes Glenmorrie Drive, but a paved pathway continues along the river. Take the pathway, which has a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic. To the left are cliffs leading uphill, and to the right are more scenic views of the Willamette. Downstream you can see in the distance a railroad bridge, which is over 100 years old and serves a branch railway line.

Soon you will arrive at your starting point. Cross the bridge back to George Rogers Park. In a grassy area to the left of the lower parking lot is this vestige of the site's industrial past. From 1867-1885 this was a furnace for the Oregon Iron Company, which both mined and processed iron ore in what is now Lake Oswego. It's hard to imagine this posh community as a 19th-century mini-Pittsburgh, but it really happened here!

South Waterfront - SW Portland (and a bit of SE)

Portland's South Waterfront area has seen dramatic changes in the past 20 years. A former waterfront industrial area south of the I-5 Marquam Bridge is now a bustling hub of hipster business and residential activity. The recent opening of the landmark Tilikum Bridge over the Willamette, available to all forms of traffic except motor vehicles, has opened up new vistas and provided new routes for walking. A pedestrian bridge over I-5 from the South Waterfront connecting with the Lair Hill neighborhood to the west has ended an awful choice pedestrians used to have to make between walking a couple miles out of the way or taking their lives into their hands navigating the Ross Island Bridge approaches. This 3.5 mile loop also goes through an interesting historic slice of Portland - the South Auditorium urban renewal district, now a mixture of 1970's modernism and the early 21st century reworking of that modernism. Also featured are the century-old Hawthorne Bridge and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This route is packed with interesting things to see and experience!

The walk begins at the corner of SW Corbett Ave. and SW Gibbs St. in the Lair Hill neighborhood. The walk starts here because, unlike most of the route, street parking is free. There is a two-hour limit during weekday daylight hours, and no limits for the rest of the week. From the intersection turn north toward downtown and follow Corbett as it veers to the left (there is a name change to Grover Street). You will soon see this pedestrian tunnel under Naito Parkway, paralleling the street. The tunnel is well-lighted, and any alternative route would require you to cross busy Naito Parkway at an unsignalized intersection, but still, be alert as you go through the tunnel.

After going through the tunnel Grover Street curves to the right and becomes First Avenue. At the first left turn onto Woods Street. This 1889 Victorian home on the corner has been converted into a triplex condominium, and looks well cared-for.

After one block turn right onto Second Avenue. At the corner, to the right, is the Cedarwood Waldorf School. The school, part of a nationwide network of private schools implementing the teaching philosophy of Rudolph Steiner, is located in a building from 1910, known as the Neighborhood House. The Neighborhood House was a Settlement House, built by the National Council of Jewish Women. Settlement houses served as social welfare organizations in the days prior to government social welfare programs. Lair Hill and South Portland, the route of much of this walk, was the center of Portland's Jewish community in the early 20th century.

Across the street from the Waldorf School is Lair Hill Park. One would think that the Lair Hill neighborhood, and this park, were named after a Mr. Lair, since the site is elevated above the river and downtown. However, the neighborhood is actually named after Mr. William Lair Hill. Among its other attributes the park contains a Carnegie Library, now used for recreation programs.

Continue three blocks on Second Avenue to Meade Street, then turn right. On the corner of Meade and Second is this former church, built in 1900, that is now a single-family residence. While originally a church, for almost a century it was the home to the Kesser Israel Orthodox Jewish congregation, which occupied the building until 2008.

Continue one block on Meade to First Avenue, then turn left. Across the street are two charming Victorian homes from the late 19th century. The remnants of the old South Portland neighborhood such as this make us mourn its loss in a different time, when existing neighborhoods were considered dilapidated and worthy only of demolition, rather than charming and worthy of preservation.

Continue on First Avenue across a signalized intersection at Arthur Street to the first major disrupter of the South Portland neighborhood, the I-405, or Stadium, freeway. Construction began in 1964 and finished when the Fremont Bridge over the Willamette connected to I-5 at its northern end in 1973. The freeway provides a loop from I-5, connecting to the Highway 26 freeway to the west and U.S. 30 to the northwest.

Concurrent with I-405's swath through South Portland the neighborhood was the site of Portland's largest urban renewal effort in the 1960's and 1970's, a 110-acre complete demolition and rebuild of what was known as the South Auditorium District. As you continue north on First Avenue you will see the classic results of mid-20th century urban renewal, "towers in the park." The block on the west side of First Avenue, north of I-405, contains several residential towers built in the 1970's in a classic "international" modernist style.

Continue on First Avenue to Lincoln Street, then turn left, after crossing the street. This street is home to Portland's newest light rail line, the Orange Line from downtown Portland to Milwaukie. Lincoln Street's look has changed quite a bit since the line started a couple of years ago, but the controversy over removal of trees in the center of the street seems to have disappeared.

As you continue along Lincoln Street you will soon come to the Linc, a newer addition to the apartments and condos in South Portland. The Linc, having been built after the turn of the 21st century, is architecturally quite different from the "towers in the park" that were built as part of the South Portland urban renewal project several decades earlier. The Linc is a great example of the maxing out of wood-frame buildings at six stories, based upon generally accepted building codes. Going higher requires steel or concrete construction, which is much more expensive. So central Portland is filling up with six-story apartment buildings, like the Linc, as a result.

After passing the Linc you will see this wide pathway to the right of Lincoln Avenue. It approximates where Third Street used to run before the South Auditorium urban renewal project changed the street pattern forever in this area. Turn right and follow the pathway.

The pathway runs between residential buildings to the right and the backs of Portland State University campus buildings to the left. Eventually to the right you will come across Lovejoy Fountain Park. This centerpiece of the South Auditorium redevelopment project was designed by famous landscape architect Lawrence Halprin.

Continuing north on the pathway, you are headed toward the KOIN center, still several blocks north. Constructed in 1984, the building was the focus of short-lived controversy because it blocked the view of Mount Hood visible for motorists exiting the Vista Ridge Tunnel on the U.S. 26 freeway a couple of miles to the west. The building is named for KOIN-TV, the CBS affiliate in Portland, which has its studios located in the building. The upper floors are taken up by luxury condominiums.

Continue on the pathway to Market Street, and after crossing Market you will be on Third Avenue. To the right is the Keller Auditorium, originally the Civic Auditorium, in this location since 1917, but extensively redone in a bland modernist style in 1966. It hosts opera, ballet, and traveling Broadway musicals, but no longer the Oregon Symphony, which moved to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (a glorious repurposed old 1920's movie theater) in 1984. But the chief attraction here is to the left - the Ira Keller Fountain, which takes up a whole city block. Opened in 1970, the fountain was also designed by Lawrence Halprin.

Continue on Third Avenue across Clay Street. On your right is the KOIN Tower. Continue another two blocks to Jefferson Street. On your left is Terry Schrunk Plaza, named for the long-time Mayor of Portland from 1957 to 1973. On the far (west) side of the Plaza is the Italian Renaissance-style Portland City Hall, constructed in 1895. Schrunk Plaza is actually owned by the Federal Government, because it covers an underground parking garage built in conjunction with the federal building across Third Avenue to the right. This became an issue in 2011 when Occupy Portland protesters moved into the plaza and were promptly booted out, as opposed to a more tolerant city attitude in the two park square blocks to the north of Schrunk Plaza.

To the right on Third Avenue are three blocks devoted to large government buildings. First is the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt federal building, constructed in 1975 and given a new more interesting facade in 2009. Green and Wyatt were two long-time Oregon congresspersons from the middle of the 20th century. Next is the Multnomah County Justice Building, which contains among other users the County Jail and the Portland Police Bureau headquarters. It does not include the County Courts, which are in an historic building to the west. Finally, farthest away is the Mark O. Hatfield courthouse, named for Oregon's long-time U.S. Senator and former Governor, opened in 1997. Its tenants include the U.S. District Court for Oregon and Ninth Circuit Court Northwest branch.

At Madison Street turn right and head toward the Willamette River. Straight ahead is the Hawthorne Bridge - you will be crossing over it on the south (right) side. The bridge opened for business in 1910. Fortunately river traffic has declined since then, because the bridge seems to have the least clearance above the river of all the Portland bridges. The extra-wide sidewalk on each side doubles as a bike lane, and is clearly divided between pedestrian and bike use. The bridge gets an incredible amount of bike traffic, over 5,000 bike trips per day - the figure is confirmed by the city's bike counter located on the bridge.

As you walk over the bridge the view to the south includes the massive double-deck Marquam Bridge carrying I-5 freeway traffic (and nothing else), constructed in 1963. Beyond is the Tilikum Bridge (about which more later), which carries everything EXCEPT auto traffic.

As you approach the east bank of the Willamette you will see a ramp down from the bridge to the right. Take the ramp, which is shared with bicycle traffic. The trail along the east side is the official beginning of the 40+ mile long Springwater Corridor, but is more popularly known as the Eastbank Esplanade, which officially runs only north from the Hawthorne Bridge along the east side of the Willamette River.

The pathway along the east side of the Willamette is marred by the freeway noise from I-5 above. A fair number of homeless people frequent the path. However it also hosts a large slice of the rest of Portland humanity and is well-used. After walking a bit you will see this dock extending into the river. On a sunny summer day it will be filled with sunbathers and river swimmers. Any time of year it's worth a walk out onto the dock to enjoy the views of the river and its bridges and downtown Portland on the other side.

Continuing along the pathway you will soon come to a significant Portland institution, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which located here on the site of an old electric generating plant in 1992. Part of the museum lies in the river to the right - the USS Blueback, which was the last non-nuclear American submarine warship.

Continue on the pathway past OMSI, and you will veer to the left to get to the "onramp for the Tilikum Crossing Bridge.

Portland's newest Willamette River bridge opened in 2015, and welcomes pedestrians, cyclists, light rail trains, streetcars, and buses. The cable-stayed design is striking. Views to the north include downtown Portland and beyond, while views to the south include the South Waterfront and Ross Island. To the east Mt. Hood casts its presence over the city.

At the west end of the Tilikum Crossing you will find two new strikingly-designed buildings. Both belong to the riverfront campus of Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU), whose main campus looms a couple of miles to the west on "pill hill." The more unusual building, pictured here, hosts the dental school.

Once across the bridge cross the train tracks and head to the left (south) toward the South Waterfront. After crossing under the Ross Island Bridge, which carries a lot of cars and trucks, you will pass by a mixture of new uses (apartment building to the right) and old uses (shipyard to the left). Straight ahead is another OHSU medical building and, in front of it, the lower station of Portland's Aerial Tram. If you have a bit of time you can take the tram from this station up to Oregon Health and Science University's main campus. A round trip is $4.55 and promises some great aerial views of Portland on the short ride.

When under the tram turn right and cross the street. Ahead you will see this elevator and long staircase leading to the Darlene Hooley Pedestrian Bridge, also known as the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge. (For more on Darlene Hooley, see here) The bridge goes over Interstate 5 and is a vital connection between the South Waterfront and the Lair Hill neighborhood to the west. You have the choice of the easy way (elevator) or the hard way (132 stair) up.

Once you get to the top of the bridge, before crossing over the freeway look back at the last remaining vestige of the former industrial South Waterfront area, the Zidell Yards barge construction area. This picture shows what you would have seen from this spot 30 years ago. Some day this barge construction facility will be gone too, but not yet.

Continue across the pedestrian bridge, which also sees a lot of bike traffic. Above you is the route of the tram. You will notice that, once past the bridge, the tram flies over a residential neighborhood. This fact provoked quite a bit of opposition in the first years of the 21st century. Most notably, one resident placed a large sign stating "Fuck the Tram" on his roof - after a decent interval the city negotiated the sign's removal.




At the end of the bridge continue one block west on Gibbs to your starting point.