Kerns is a neighborhood in the inner Northeast and Southeast sections of

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, ...

. It borders the

Lloyd District The Lloyd District is a primarily commercial neighborhood in the North and Northeast sections of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is named after Ralph Bramel Lloyd (1875–1953), a California rancher, oilman, and real estate developer who ...

and Sullivan's Gulch on the north, Laurelhurst on the east, Buckman and Sunnyside on the south, and (across 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 ...

)

Old Town Chinatown Old Town Chinatown is the official Chinatown of the Northwest Portland, northwest section of Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District, Portland, Oreg ...

on the west. The Kerns neighborhood dates back to the 1850s when the area's first homesteader, William Kerns, wielded axes and saws to clear his 320-acre Donation Land Claim. Kerns earned a living making and selling wood shingles and shakes. By 1855, Kerns was elected by the local school district as its school director, and he led the effort to purchase land for Washington High School. Kerns has a healthy mixture of commercial buildings, condos, rental housing, and single-family residences. Its streets are characterized by many trees and comfortable sidewalks. Sandy Boulevard, which follows a path that was used by Native Americans to travel from the

to the Sandy River, is a main thoroughfare in the neighborhood. Transportation to and from the neighborhood is easy by foot, bike, bus, or car. According to the 2014 Kerns Neighborhood Street Tree Inventory, the neighborhood has 3,140 trees representing 91 different types. Parks in Kerns include Everett Community Garden (1988), Buckman Field (1920), and Oregon Park (1940). Portland Public Schools include

Benson Polytechnic High School Benson Polytechnic High School (BHS) is a technical public high school in the Portland Public Schools district. Its campus is located in the Central Eastside commercial area of Portland, Oregon, United States. Students are given a special em ...

and da Vinci Arts Middle School. Pacific Crest Community School also resides within the neighborhood. 28th Avenue's popular restaurant scene brings a great deal of business into the neighborhood. Paadee,

Pambiche Pambiche is a Dominican music genre and dance form derived from merengue típico, the traditional style of merengue. It has a slower tempo than standard merengue and its tambora rhythm is based on the cinquillo. This style of merengue was orig ...

, and Navarre are just a few of the notable restaurants which operate on this street. Screen Door, a restaurant which has been featured on the Food Channel is located nearby on East Burnside. The neighborhood hosts the Art-Deco

Laurelhurst Theater Laurelhurst Theater is a movie theater located in the Kerns neighborhood in northeast Portland, Oregon. Known for showing first and second-run films and for serving food and beer, the theater was constructed in 1923 with an Art Deco design. H ...

, Bond Organ Builders, which makes and refurbishes real pipe organs, and the

Oregon Children's Theatre Oregon Children's Theatre (OCT) is a children's theatre organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States. History Originally created by Sondra Pearlman as the "Theatre for Young People" in 1988, OCT became a resident company of the Portla ...

. For many years,

Sunshine Dairy Sunshine Dairy was a dairy manufacturer and supplier in the Kerns, Portland, Oregon, Kerns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. The company was founded in 1936. As well as a full line of dairy products, the company produced plant based ...

operated in the Kerns neighborhood on NE 21st Avenue and Oregon Streets. Sunshine Dairy ran its sales and marketing out of the Fire Alarm Dispatch (FAD) building, which, in 1928 was constructed solely for use as a communications headquarters at NE 21st and Pacific Avenue. In May 2018, Sunshine Dairy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closing their historic location after 83 years of dairy production. Starting in the 1960s, Pepsi Beverages Company operated a bottling and distribution facility on a 4.7-acre Northeast Portland tract on 2505 Northeast Pacific Street, but this location closed in the mid-2010s and was purchased by a developer in 2017.

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

operates a bottling and distribution facility on 2710 NE Davis St in a former school building.

References

External links

Guide to Kerns Neighborhood
(PortlandNeighborhood.com)
Kerns beats strongly as booming heart of Portland’s east side

PepsiCo Tract Planned for Major Development

2018 Sunset Times Article on Kerns

A Perfect Day in Kerns
{{Portland neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon Northeast Portland, Oregon Southeast Portland, Oregon