Council Crest Park is a city park in southwest Portland in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. Amenities include paved and unpaved paths, a dog off-leash area, picnic tables, public art, a view point, and a wedding site that can be reserved. The park, operated by Portland Parks & Recreation, is open year-round from 5 a.m. to midnight. It was the site of an amusement park from 1907 until 1929.

Description and history

At above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

, Council Crest is one of the highest points in the

Tualatin Mountains The Tualatin Mountains (also known as the West Hills or Southwest Hills of Portland) are a range on the western border of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A spur of the Northern Oregon Coast Range, they separate the Tualatin Basin of Was ...

(West Hills) that run parallel to 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 b ...

in Portland, and is well known for its views of Portland and its environs. The hill was part of a donation land claim by John B. Talbot and was first known as ''Talbot Mountain''. Later, the hill became known as ''Glass Hill'' and then ''Fairmount'', the name of a road that encircles it. In 1898, delegates to the Triennial National Council of Congregational Churches met on the hill and decided to name it ''Council Crest''. A later assertion that Native Americans held councils on the summit remains unsupported by evidence.

Streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

service to the site began on September 20, 1906, when the

Portland Railway, Light and Power Company The Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P) was a railway company and electric power utility in Portland, Oregon, United States, from 1906 until 1924.Thompson, Richard M. (2006). ''Portland's Streetcars'', pp. 57 and 99. Arcadia Publis ...

(PRL&P) opened a newly constructed streetcar loop that extended the "Portland Heights" line (later renamed the "Council Crest" line) to the summit of the hill.Labbe, John T. (1980). ''Fares, Please! Those Portland Trolley Years''. Caldwell, Idaho (US): Caxton. . Soon after, in 1907, an amusement park built by PRL&P was opened,Thompson, Richard M. (2006). ''Portland's Streetcars'', pp. 78, 113–114. Charleston, South Carolina (US):

Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of neighborhood, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs the History Press, which publ ...

. . and it featured a merry-go-round, miniature railway,

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

and other entertainments, served exclusively by the streetcar line. Named Council Crest Amusement Park, it closed in 1929, and the city acquired the property in 1937. By the time of the Portland vice scandal, the hillsides of Council Crest were frequented for gay cruising. The amusement park's wooden observation tower was torn down in 1941 and replaced by a steel water-storage tower. Streetcar service ended on August 9, 1949, with the abandonment of the uppermost section of the Council Crest streetcar line, the service being cut back to the intersection of Vista Avenue and Patton Road.Thompson, Richard M. (2010). ''Portland's Streetcar Lines''. Arcadia Publishing. . Removal of the rails along the line's private

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

began the next day, and a road was then built along the former rail-only right-of-way. The line had been one of the most famous and scenic trolley lines in North America. (The remainder of the Council Crest line was abandoned six months later, on February 26, 1950, with the closure of the city's last three urban streetcar lines.) Today, the Council Crest neighborhood is served by

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

Line 51, but the bus service does not reach Council Crest Park. One of the streetcars which had served the line, car 506, was on static display at Council Crest Park for more than 20 years, from November 1950Katauskas, Ted (2009). ''Portland: Yesterday & Today'', p. 59. Lincolnwood, Illinois (US): Publications International, Ltd. . until 1972, when it was removed after being damaged by vandals. It was later acquired by the

Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society The Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society (OERHS) is a non-profit organization in the U.S. state of Oregon, founded in 1957. It owns and operates a railroad museum for electric railroad and streetcar enthusiasts, and also operates a separate ...

and is preserved at that group's museum. The former streetcar line is also memorialized by replica-vintage streetcars which provided the

Portland Vintage Trolley The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that operated from 1991 to 2014. It operated on a portion of the MAX light rail system, and for a brief time also operated on the Portland Street ...

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...

service from 1991 to 2013, and on the Willamette Shore Trolley line starting in 2014. The ends of these cars display the same slogan as was displayed by the streetcars serving the Council Crest line: ''See Portland from Council Crest''. Although the observation tower erected in 1907 was dismantled in 1941, the city later built an observation area in the park from which it is possible to see Mount Rainier,

Mount St. Helens Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat) is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United St ...

, Mount Adams, Mount Hood, and Mount Jefferson in the Cascade Range. The peak encompassed by the park is commonly known as the highest point within the Portland City Limits, but there are higher points just inside the city limits along Skyline Drive in NW Portland (the elevation around 414 NW Skyline Blvd. is at approximately 1160' (355m)), although those locations do not have the publicly-accessible views offered by Council Crest Park.

References

External links

Council Crest
at PdxHistory.com – History of former amusement park, illustrated by vintage postcards {{Southwest Hills, Portland, Oregon 1937 establishments in Oregon History of Portland, Oregon Parks in Portland, Oregon Amusement parks in Oregon Protected areas established in 1937 Urban public parks Southwest Hills, Portland, Oregon

Description and history

See also

References

External links