Wilkes is the northeasternmost neighborhood in

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, ...

, bordered on the north by the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

and on the east by the city of Gresham, where it expands into the city as the neighborhood of Wilkes East. It adjoins the neighborhoods of Argay, Russell, and Hazelwood on the west, and Glenfair on the south. Interstate 84 runs through the middle of the neighborhood. Wilkes is a mostly suburban and residential neighborhood in the south, but has many

business parks A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

and industrial space north of

Sandy Boulevard Several special routes of U.S. Route 30 exist. In order from west to east they are as follows. Existing St. Helens business loop U.S. Route 30 Business (US 30 Bus.) in St. Helens, Oregon uniquely uses "Interstate Business Loop" shie ...

History

In 1850, William Wilkes, son of pioneers Payton and Anna Wilkes, took a

Donation Land Claim The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Pree ...

on Sandy Road east of Portland, where the neighborhood is today. Soon afterward, he left for

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, and when he came back, bought more land to the east, what is now known as Wilkes East in Gresham. The Wilkes family also settled other areas, such as

Banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. As banks ...

and Wilkesboro in the Dairy Creek area, and were the family that

John McLoughlin John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, (October 19, 1784 – September 3, 1857) was a French-Canadian, later American, Chief Factor and Superintendent of the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver from 1 ...

sent Noble Ellis up to Mt. Hood to rescue in the winter of 1847. The first park established in the neighborhood was Wilkes Park. The land for the park was acquired in 1998 and the park was dedicated August 3, 2004. Since then, the city's parks department and its Bureau of Environmental Services partnered to acquire of land at the headwaters of Wilkes Creek in March 2011 to create a second park and natural preservation area.

Geography

Wilkes is situated in East

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland metropolitan area. The state's smallest and most populous county, it ...

. Major roads running through Wilkes include NE Marine Drive, NE Airport Way, NE Sandy Boulevard, Interstate 84, and NE Halsey Street. It is bordered on the south by NE Glisan Street, and for the most part on the east by NE 162nd Ave and on the west by NE 148th Ave. The

Columbia Slough The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland, Oregon, Portland suburb of Fairview, Oregon, Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west ...

runs through the north of the neighborhood.

Demographics

According to the 2020 US Census, Wilkes is

non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

54%, Asian 13.7%, Hispanic/Latino 13.4%, Black/African American 12.8%, other 12%, American Indian/Alaska Native 3.1%, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 2%. The average income in Wilkes is $65,000, and the life expectancy is 80.1 years. About 10% of the neighborhood has

limited English proficiency Limited English proficiency (LEP) is a term used in the United States that refers to a person who is not language proficiency, fluent in the English language, often because it is not their native language. Both LEP and English-language learner (ELL ...

References

External links

Fairview-Rockwood-Wilkes Historical SocietyWilkes Community and Rockwood Corridor Plan
(Portland Bureau of Planning, 1987)
Wilkes Street Tree Inventory Report
Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon Oregon populated places on the Columbia River {{MultnomahCountyOR-geo-stub