South Portland is a long, narrow neighborhood just south of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, hemmed in between the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

and the West Hills. It stretches from I-405 and the

Marquam Bridge The Marquam Bridge is a double-deck, cantilever bridge, steel-truss cantilever bridge that carries Interstate 5 traffic across the Willamette River from south of downtown Portland, Oregon, on the west side to the industrial area of inner South ...

on the north, to SW Canby St. and the

Sellwood Bridge The Sellwood Bridge is a deck arch bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The current bridge opened in 2016 and replaced a 1925 span that had carried the same name. The original bridge was Portland's fir ...

in the south. The Willamette forms the eastern boundary, and SW Barbur Blvd. most of the western boundary. In addition to Downtown to the north, other bordering neighborhoods are Southwest Hills,

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...

, Hillsdale, and South Burlingame to the west, and Hosford-Abernethy,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, and Sellwood-Moreland across the river on the east. The neighborhood, formerly known as Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill or CTLH, changed its name at a meeting of its neighborhood association on September 6, 2006, to be more concise and inclusive. South Portland was the name of a 19th-century community that overlapped the present day neighborhood.

Areas

The neighborhood is a collection of very different areas. *

South Waterfront The South Waterfront is a high-rise district under construction on former brownfield industrial land in the South Portland neighborhood south of downtown Portland, Oregon, U.S. It is one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the Unite ...

. The northeastern part of the neighborhood is the site of a large-scale, high-density district currently under construction. The

Portland Aerial Tram The Portland Aerial Tram or OHSU Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon, that connects the city's South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is on ...

links the district to the

Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public university, public research university, research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded ...

campus in the

neighborhood to the west, across

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

. The Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge connects South Waterfront to Lair Hill. *Lair Hill is in the northwestern part of the neighborhood, bordered by I-405 on the north, SW Barbur Blvd. on the south and west, and SW Naito Parkway on the east. It is named after a person, not a hill: the lawyer, author, and editor

William Lair Hill William Lair Hill (August 20, 1838 – February 24, 1924), also referred to as W. Lair Hill, was an American attorney, historian, and newspaper editor in Portland, Oregon. He worked to codify Oregon's and Washington's laws. He briefly owned prop ...

. This area was part of historical South Portland, a district of Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants much of which was demolished by an "urban renewal" project in 1958. Vestiges remain in the form of synagogues and ethnic shops. *Corbett. The Corbett area (and SW Corbett Ave running north–south through the entire neighborhood) takes its name from Senator

Henry Winslow Corbett Henry Winslow Corbett (February 18, 1827March 31, 1903) was an American businessman, politician, civic benefactor, and philanthropist in the state of Oregon. A native of Massachusetts, he spent his early life in the East and New York (state), ...

. It lies south of Lair Hill, bounded by I-405 on the north, SW Naito Parkway on the west, SW Macadam Ave. on the east. Its southern boundary is marked by the SW Corbett St. bridge over I-5. (This area of Portland should not be confused with the unincorporated community of

Corbett, Oregon Corbett is an unincorporated community on the Columbia River in eastern Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. It is located on the Historic Columbia River Highway (a.k.a. Crown Point Highway) between the Sandy River and Crown Point. Corbe ...

in eastern Multnomah County.) *Terwilliger lies south of Corbett, between SW Barbur Blvd. and SW Macadam Ave, straddling

Terwilliger Boulevard Terwilliger Boulevard is a street in Portland, Oregon, U.S. It begins at SW 6th Avenue and SW Sheridan Street south of Portland State University. It passes through the neighborhoods of Marquam Hill, Southwest Hills, and Burlingame and by Lewi ...

. The area takes its name from the old Terwilliger Park subdivision, served by the Terwil station on the

Oregon Electric Railway The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an interurban streetcar, interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland, Oregon, Portland to Eugene, Oregon, Eugene. History Service from Portland to Salem, Oregon, Salem began in ...

. *John's Landing. According to ''

Oregon Geographic Names ''Oregon Geographic Names'' is a compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon, published by the Oregon Historical Society. The book was originally published in 1928. It was compiled and edited by Lewis A. McArt ...

'', the name refers to the B. P. John Furniture company, the largest of many manufacturers in the area in its industrial past, as well as architect John W. Storrs and John D. Gray, who privately transformed the area into a riverside residential and commercial development. The area used to be known as Fulton. More information is available on th
John's Landing
webpage.

Historic district

Parts of the Lair Hill and Corbett areas are regulated to protect the historic significance of South Portland Historic District. Bounded roughly by SW Arthur, Front, Grover, Hood, and Curry Streets and SW Barbur Boulevard, it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on July 31, 1998.

Parks

Butterfly Park Butterfly Park is a city park of about in Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Located at 7720 South Macadam Avenue, the park includes a natural area and walking paths near the Willamette River. The natural area provides important habitat for ...

- 7720 SW Macadam Ave. *

Caruthers Park Caruthers Park, officially Elizabeth Caruthers Park, is a park located in South Waterfront, Portland, Oregon. Acquired in 2009, the park is named after Oregon pioneer Elizabeth Caruthers. The park includes a bocce court, public art, "splash pad" ...

*Cottonwood Bay - SW Hamilton Ct. (off Landing Dr.) * Duniway Park - SW 6th Ave & Sheridan St. Formerly a garbage dump, then landfilled and used for track and field by

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

and the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

in 1979. *Front & Curry Community Garden - SW Naito Pkwy & Curry St. *Heritage Tree Park - SW Corbett Ave & Lane St. * Lair Hill Park - SW 2nd Ave & Woods St. *SW Terwilliger Blvd. Parkway - SW 6th Ave - Sheridan St to Slavin St. *Water & Gibbs Community Garden - SW Water Ave & Gibbs St. * Willamette Park - SW Macadam Ave & Nebraska St.

References

External links

Corbett, Terwilliger, and Lair Hill Policy Plan
(City of Portland, 1977)
Lair Hill Historic Conservation District Design Guidelines
(Bureau of Planning, 1980) *"Goodbye Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill, hello South Portland" (Lee Perlman, ''Multnomah Village Post'', October 2006, p. 5)
South Portland Street Tree Inventory Report
{{Portland neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon

Areas

Historic district

Parks

See also

References

External links