Page 70 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Pacific Northwest

68  POR TLAND

e Chapman and t Governor Tom
Lownsdale Squares McCall Waterfront
Bounded by SW Salmon & SW Park
Madison Sts, SW 3rd & SW 4th Aves. Bounded by SW Harrison & NW Glisan
Map 3 C1.  Mall/SW 4th Ave Sts, SW Naito Pkwy & Willamette River.
(red, blue lines), City Hall/SW Map 4 D1.  Skidmore Fountain,
Jefferson St (green, yellow lines). Morrison/SW 3rd Ave, Yamhill District
(red, blue lines).
It is only fitting that Daniel
Lownsdale should have a one- This 1.5-mile- (2.5-km-) long
block-square park named for park on the west bank of the
him. The tanner who became Willamette River covers land
one of Oregon’s early legislators that once bustled with activity
had the foresight to set aside on the Portland docks and
a parcel of downtown for which, from the 1940s to
the South Park Blocks (see p66), the 1970s, was buried beneath
and he did much to encourage an expressway. The city con-
trade on the nearby waterfront verted the land to a park as
by building a wood-plank road part of an urban renewal
into the countryside so that scheme and named it for
lumber and other goods the environmentally minded
could be transported to Tom McCall, Oregon’s
the Portland docks. The limestone, aluminum, and glass Mark governor, 1967–75.
Judge William Chapman, for O. Hatfield US Courthouse The park is a much-used
whom the adjoining square is r Mark O. Hatfield riverside promenade and the
named, was one of the founders locale for many festivals. One
of the Oregonian newspaper. US Courthouse of its most popular attractions
Along with Terry Schrunk Plaza – 1000 SW 3rd Ave. Map 3 C1. is Salmon Street Springs, a
a third, adjacent park-like block – Tel (503) 326-8000. @ Transit Mall. fountain whose 100 jets
the squares provide a soothing Open 7am–5pm Mon–Fri. splash water directly onto the
stretch of greenery in Portland’s Closed major hols. 7 pavement, providing easily
quiet courthouse and accessible relief on a hot day.
government-building district. Named for a popular Oregon The foot of nearby Southwest
The neighborhood was not governor and senator, the Salmon Street was once the
always so sedate, though: anti- Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse roughest part of town. Here,
Chinese riots broke out here in defies any preconceived notion drunken revelers were routinely
the 1880s, and the area was that a government building is knocked unconscious and
raucous enough in the 1920s by definition unimaginative. then taken aboard ships as
that Chapman Square was Designed by the New York involuntary crew members.
declared off-limits to men so firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox A block away, at the foot of
that women could enjoy the and completed in 1997, the
space in safety. courthouse presents a hand-
some and bold façade of glass,
aluminum, and limestone.
A ninth-floor sculpture garden
provides excellent views of both
the river and one of Portland’s
most beloved pieces of statuary,
the Elk Fountain, which stands
across the street.
Erected in 1852 on land
where elk once roamed
freely, for many years the Elk
Fountain provided citizens’
horses with a place to drink.
When automobile traffic
began to increase in the
early 20th century, the fountain
stood in the path of a proposed
extension of Main Street.
Angry citizens protested
plans to move the fountain;
Portland’s popular Elk Fountain, built in it now stands in the middle The Battleship Oregon Memorial,
1852, near the courthouse of the street. Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park
For hotels and restaurants see p286 and pp294–6

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