Portland International Rose Test Garden

These photos were taken in October 2014.

The Portland International Rose Test Garden is located in Washington Park in the hills above Goose Hollow, near the Alphabet District.  It is fairly easy to walk from those locations.  The excellent Portland Japanese Garden is nearby in Washington Park.  While I wouldn't be inclined to visit the rose garden if it were the only attraction there, it is certainly worth a stop when visiting the Japanese garden.  If you are walking up from the city below, you can easily pass through the rose garden on your way to the Japanese garden.  As far as rose gardens go, this one is quite extravagant.  There are over 7,000 rose plants on 4.5 acres.  It's all very nicely arranged.  There is an excellent view of Mt Hood.  But my enthusiasm for roses is limited.  The plants aren't particularly attractive.  The flowers vary in color, but all pretty much look & smell the same.  Roses are probably the most beloved & common garden flower.  That explains both the allure & also the unexciting nature of this garden & rose gardens in general.  Roses are evaluated here & Portland is the only North American city that gives awards to roses from around the world.  Portland is known as the City of Roses.  The Portland Rose Festival has been held in the city every year in June since 1907.  The garden opened in 1924.

The Alphabet District in Portland

These photos were taken in October 2014.

The Alphabet District is my favorite part of Portland OR, a city I have visited often.  It is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Portland. Much of the architecture is quite charming, built between 1890 & 1950. It has an impressive retail district, with many shops & restaurants on NW 23rd Avenue, somewhat fewer on NW 21st Avenue & W Burnside Street. The Alphabet District is named for the alphabetical arrangement of streets from Burnside to Wilson across the district. These same streets also run through the Pearl District & Old Town/Chinatown, within walking distance.

John H Couch staked a claim to the square mile directly north of Portland in 1845. When laying out his claim, he used the same 200 x 200 foot blocks as the original plat of Portland. Streets were given numbers & letters in alphabetical order, later named in 1891. He followed the bend of the Willamette River in orienting this grid, creating angled & misaligned streets along W Burnside Street. The original plat went as far as west as 8th Street & north to Glisan Street. Subdivision reached NW 16th Street by 1865. This grid was later extended to most of Northwest Portland.

The Alphabet District is part of the Northwest District & also called Nob Hill. The North South Line of the Portland Streetcar runs through the district on NW Lovejoy & NW Northrup Streets as far as NW 23rd Avenue on its was to & from the Pearl District & Downtown Portland.

The Pearl District in Portland

These photos were taken in October 2014.

I've stayed in Portland about a dozen times.  I love the urban landscape.  It's particularly interesting in the Pearl District, where old warehouses mix with modern residential buildings.  The Pearl District has changed since it was rezoned from industrial to mixed use in the mid-1980s.  There are restaurants, shops & parks.  Tanner Springs Park is wonderful.  Powell's City of Books is a huge bookstore at the downtown edge of the district on W Burnside Street.  The Pearl District lies between downtown & the Alphabet District.  It's easy to walk between these areas.  The Portland Streetcar runs between them.  I don't always go downtown.  But I do always visit the Pearl District. 

The Hawthorne District in Portland

These photos were taken in October 2014.

In my opinion, as an infrequent but regular visitor to Portland, the Hawthorne District is the 3rd most interesting neighborhood in Portland, after the Alphabet District & the Pearl District.  It has the most interesting business district east of the Willamette River.  I have only come here when I had a car, which has not been often.  Portland has a very walkable central core west of the river, accessible by bus & train from Seattle.  Southeast Portland devotes more land to residential areas with business districts far apart.  I like the Hawthorne District.  There are shops & restaurants in interesting old buildings.  It is a charming urban landscape.  See it before it has been replaced by large apartment buildings with ground floor  retail, as has happened in many Seattle neighborhood business districts.  Fremont was once something like this.