A Walking Tour of Portland with AllPrep and Early College Academy

I love Portland and I know that its history is incredibly interesting...So I was excited to be able to go on this walking tour offered with the kids' online charter school.

I took notes as quickly as I could...as the guide was very amiable, informative...and a fast walker.

The kids knew that Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's Living Room...and so Gabriel was able to proudly raise his hand and offer the knowledge when the guide asked for other names for the Square. But we didn't know that the history of the Square included Portland's Central School principled by Principle Terwilliger, the school opened in 1858. Above is a picture of the school. Later a fancy hotel was built on the square and I was delighted when the guide told us that during the 61 years that the hotel was there, every sitting president stayed in that hotel and passed through its entrance gate, which still stands in the Square! That hotel cost 1 million dollars to build in 1888!




You can click on the picture of the schoolhouse (at the top of page) to go a historical site about the square.

Click HERE to go to a site that has many old photos of Portland Schools including Central School.

We also learned that on the S.E. corner in front of the Hotel as it faced the river. Was a mansion belonging to Mrs. Corbett...who kept a cow on site for daily fresh milk. So you can picture the contrast between the 8 story presidential hotel and the waiting limosine...and the cow in the front yard of Mrs. Corbett's mansion.

Then the square was a parking lot ( I can remember this)...and then in 1984 the Pioneer Courthouse Square was built.

Here is a slide show of the pictures that I took as we walked, and talked about art and sculpture, Portland's philosophy of "clean vistas", our street and building design and our recognition of many types of transportation.



We also learned that the Portlandia statue is the second largest hammered copper statue in the world. The largest is the Statue of Liberty. Portlandia is not green because the artist wants her to be waxed regularly. Portland officials learned that this has a benefit in making the statue to slippery for bird to roost on, thus now many of Portland's statues are also waxed. Above is the City Seal, on which the Portlandia Statue is based artistically. Click on the photo to go a wikipedia file about the City Seal.




The "Elk" Statue was a popular tourist destination for many years because of the uproar that it caused in that it looks very little like an elk. The Elk's club for whom it was commissioned was not pleased to say the least and this statue became and still is Portland's most controversial statue.

Some of the titles of my photos didn't fit in the final product of the slideshow so there are some incomplete sentences there.

Another fascinating fact that I didn't know...is that until 1967 the grassy riverfront of the Willamette was covered by a freeway...

There are too many interesting things to summarize them here...I would like to find some more old photos and facts. I think that Gabriel and Isaaiah had a great time taking photographs on the tour and making friends. They did store some interesting facts away and will look at Portland with more interest from this point on...