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South Park Blocks
The South Park Blocks form a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian has called it Portland's "extended family room", as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's "living room".
Twelve blocks in length, it is intersected by the Portland Streetcar and forms the Portland Cultural District and the greenspace at the center of Portland State University. The New York Times stated the blocks are "literally at the heart of the city's cultural life." Public artworks in the park include Shemanski Fountain (1926), In the Shadow of the Elm, Peace Chant, (1984), Alexander Phimister Proctor's Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider, and a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The park also contains approximately 337 elm, oak, and maple trees valued at $3.4 million, as well as roses. A plaque from the Lang Syne Society was placed in the South Park Blocks at Jefferson Street in 1991, commemorating the Great Plank Road.
Portland was platted in 1845, then Daniel H. Lownsdale purchased land south and west of the original platting. He drew up a plat in 1848 that included 11 narrow blocks, 100 feet (30 m) × 200 feet (61 m), instead of the standard 200 feet (61 m) × 200 feet (61 m). He then brought on Stephen Coffin and William W. Chapman as partners, and dedicated the South Park Blocks and midtown park blocks in 1852. This made them the first official greenspace in Portland. While they were dedicated to the city, they weren't owned by the city until September 22, 1870, when Mayor Bernard Goldsmith and Chapman agreed on selling the South Park Blocks and the two Plaza Blocks (Chapman and Lownsdale Squares) to the city for $6,250. Most of the purchase price was for the Plaza Blocks, since the park blocks were at the edge of the developed city.
Ownership of the continuous park blocks was not without dispute, however. After Lownsdale died without a will, and then his wife Nancy died, his estate challenged that his plat didn't require the central section to be dedicated to public use since Nancy had not signed over legal title to the land. The courts agreed in 1865. Benjamin Stark reneged on the donation of two north central park blocks to the city, instead offering to sell them for $138,000. Captain John H. Couch deeded his section, which became the North Park Blocks to the city on January 25, 1865, only ten days after receiving the federal patent for the land. Six of the South Park Blocks were lost to private parties in the 1870s, and elected city officials were unwilling to spend the asking price of $6,000 per block to purchase them so soon after the city had bought the land for Washington Park. Only a year later, a proposal to acquire the six blocks for $92,000 was brought by the city council, showing the increase in prices in that year.
A 1907 tax bond issue was brought to the voters. It would have been a $2 million bond, likely including money to buy back the blocks. The measure failed, and some time later, the street name changed from "West Park" to Southwest 9th". Two missing blocks have been recaptured since then: O'Bryant Square was purchased in 1973, and Director Park opened in 2009.
By the late 1870s, the Park Blocks near the current location of Portland State University were fronted by formal Italianate mansions.
By the 1920s, the central park blocks were home to the 12-story Stevens Building and the 9-story Woodlark Building, as well as six or more hotels. Edward H. Bennett proposed making the Park Blocks continuous in 1912, part of his "Greater Portland Plan". Otherwise, the next spark was the conversion of one central park block into O'Bryant Square in 1972. The next block to be reclaimed was Director Park, dedicated as a park in 2009, inspired by a 1995 plan to turn the block into a 12-story parking lot.
In 1933, the area surrounding Skidmore Fountain was "tawdry" and nearly neglected, and there was an effort to move the fountain to the South Park Blocks. This did not happen.
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South Park Blocks
The South Park Blocks form a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian has called it Portland's "extended family room", as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's "living room".
Twelve blocks in length, it is intersected by the Portland Streetcar and forms the Portland Cultural District and the greenspace at the center of Portland State University. The New York Times stated the blocks are "literally at the heart of the city's cultural life." Public artworks in the park include Shemanski Fountain (1926), In the Shadow of the Elm, Peace Chant, (1984), Alexander Phimister Proctor's Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider, and a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The park also contains approximately 337 elm, oak, and maple trees valued at $3.4 million, as well as roses. A plaque from the Lang Syne Society was placed in the South Park Blocks at Jefferson Street in 1991, commemorating the Great Plank Road.
Portland was platted in 1845, then Daniel H. Lownsdale purchased land south and west of the original platting. He drew up a plat in 1848 that included 11 narrow blocks, 100 feet (30 m) × 200 feet (61 m), instead of the standard 200 feet (61 m) × 200 feet (61 m). He then brought on Stephen Coffin and William W. Chapman as partners, and dedicated the South Park Blocks and midtown park blocks in 1852. This made them the first official greenspace in Portland. While they were dedicated to the city, they weren't owned by the city until September 22, 1870, when Mayor Bernard Goldsmith and Chapman agreed on selling the South Park Blocks and the two Plaza Blocks (Chapman and Lownsdale Squares) to the city for $6,250. Most of the purchase price was for the Plaza Blocks, since the park blocks were at the edge of the developed city.
Ownership of the continuous park blocks was not without dispute, however. After Lownsdale died without a will, and then his wife Nancy died, his estate challenged that his plat didn't require the central section to be dedicated to public use since Nancy had not signed over legal title to the land. The courts agreed in 1865. Benjamin Stark reneged on the donation of two north central park blocks to the city, instead offering to sell them for $138,000. Captain John H. Couch deeded his section, which became the North Park Blocks to the city on January 25, 1865, only ten days after receiving the federal patent for the land. Six of the South Park Blocks were lost to private parties in the 1870s, and elected city officials were unwilling to spend the asking price of $6,000 per block to purchase them so soon after the city had bought the land for Washington Park. Only a year later, a proposal to acquire the six blocks for $92,000 was brought by the city council, showing the increase in prices in that year.
A 1907 tax bond issue was brought to the voters. It would have been a $2 million bond, likely including money to buy back the blocks. The measure failed, and some time later, the street name changed from "West Park" to Southwest 9th". Two missing blocks have been recaptured since then: O'Bryant Square was purchased in 1973, and Director Park opened in 2009.
By the late 1870s, the Park Blocks near the current location of Portland State University were fronted by formal Italianate mansions.
By the 1920s, the central park blocks were home to the 12-story Stevens Building and the 9-story Woodlark Building, as well as six or more hotels. Edward H. Bennett proposed making the Park Blocks continuous in 1912, part of his "Greater Portland Plan". Otherwise, the next spark was the conversion of one central park block into O'Bryant Square in 1972. The next block to be reclaimed was Director Park, dedicated as a park in 2009, inspired by a 1995 plan to turn the block into a 12-story parking lot.
In 1933, the area surrounding Skidmore Fountain was "tawdry" and nearly neglected, and there was an effort to move the fountain to the South Park Blocks. This did not happen.