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!