Pettygrove Park is a city park in downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States. It is the second park in a series of urban open spaces designed by American landscape architect

Lawrence Halprin Lawrence Halprin (July 1, 1916 – October 25, 2009) was an American landscape architect, designer and teacher. Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist a ...

in the South Auditorium District

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

area. The soft mounds of landscaping are responsible for the park's nickname of '

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

Park'.

Description and history

Pettygrove Park is bounded on all sides by pedestrian malls, which connect to other parks, including

Keller Fountain Park Keller Fountain Park is a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. Originally named Forecourt Fountain or Auditorium Forecourt, the park opened in 1970 across Third Avenue from what was then Civic Auditorium. In 1978, the park was renamed after ...

and Lovejoy Plaza. The park is characterized by a dense tree canopy which shades a core of internal asphalt pathways pivoting along grassy berms and basalt stone walls. At the southeast corner of the park, a reflecting pool and sculpture serve as a focal point for pedestrians. The sculpture, called '' The Dreamer'', was designed by

Manuel Izquierdo Manuel Izquierdo (September 26, 1925 – July 17, 2009) was a sculptor and woodcut artist. He is best known for his abstract, organic welded-metal sculptural forms and his sturdy woodcut prints. Izquierdo was born Manuel Izquierdo Torres in M ...

and commissioned by the

Portland Development Commission Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission (PDC), is the community development corporation A community development corporation (CDC) is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage ...

in 1979. The park was named for

Francis Pettygrove Francis William Pettygrove (1812 – October 5, 1887) was a pioneer and one of the founders of the cities of Portland, Oregon, and Port Townsend, Washington. Born in Maine, he re-located to the Oregon Country in 1843 to establish a store in ...

, one of the early settlers of the Portland townsite. The same coin used by Pettygrove and settler Asa Lovejoy to determine whether the city would be named Portland or Boston was flipped to determine which park in the open-space sequence would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove.

References

{{Parks in Portland, Oregon 1966 establishments in Oregon Parks in Portland, Oregon Protected areas established in 1966 Southwest Portland, Oregon Urban public parks

Description and history

See also

References