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Happy 235th Birthday,
America!
Southwest Portland’s Independent Neighborhood Newspaper
Volume No. 19, Issue No. 9
www.swportlandpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Complimentary
July 2011
History comes alive in walking
tour of Maplewood
By Polina Olsen
The Southwest Portland Post
“You are standing in what was the
first homestead in Maplewood,” Karen
Williams said as she coaxed the crowd
of 24 “tourists” away from the table
laid out with lemonade and apples. It
was time to start the Maplewood His-
tory Tour.
Sponsored by the Maplewood Neigh-
borhood Association, the June 12 event
started in April Hill Park and included
nine stops ranging from the site of a
five million year lava flow to recent
triumphs of community activism. Ev-
eryone received a map and walking
tour guide.
The first homestead, Williams con-
tinued as she looked around the park,
started right here when Francis and
Caroline Nieber received a donation
land grant of 320 acres in 1873. “West-
ern settlers, of course, were not the first
inhabitants,” she added. Settlers found
Native American artifacts from earlier
times.
As the tour meandered through
woodsy paths and winding streets,
Williams held up geological maps
and referred to Marjorie E. Hoffman’s
Maplewood Centennial 1875 – 1975 for
historic information. Marjorie and John
Hoffman’s families lived in Maplewood
since 1885. Stop #5 showed the site of
the Hoffman homestead.
“J.P Hoffman bought this land in
1885 and built a successful dairy,” the
handout read. “Chinese laborers lived
in a log cabin near SW 55 th and Texas.”
In addition to building Hoffman
Road, “They cut down trees and burned
them into charcoal in a pit located near
SW 53 rd and Texas.”
Generations of the Hoffman family
remained at the ancestral home where
Southwest 53rd Avenue intersects with
Vermont Street..
History came alive as the tour contin-
ued. The building at 5206 SW Custer St.
housed the Maplewood Grocery and
post office beginning in 1911.
Elderly neighbors remember the
1962 burglary; owner Myrtle H. Rogers
reported no missing postage stamps.
When the store closed in 1976, an Or-
egonian advertisement read: “Maple-
Four Guys in the Healing Garden
Karen Williams used a geological map to point out the site of a ancient lava flow,
during a historic tour of Maplewood. (Post photo by Polina Olsen)
wood, Grocery Store with Living Qtrs
and Basement; $22,500 for BLDG &
Land, Good Contract Terms.”
The Oregon Electric railroad station
on the south side of Maplewood Road
was Stop #9. Its 1908 arrival prompted
a flurry of interest in the area, which
at that time was called Kusa. One No-
vember 1908 Oregonian notice posted
by “R.H. Fay, Hillsdale” read: “Twenty
acres suitable for milk and/or garden-
ing, with suitable buildings, near Kusa.
25 minutes from Portland on Oregon
City Electric.”
A Feb 27, 1910 Oregonian announce-
ment predicted further development:
“Kirchner & Hanno have purchased
(Continued on Page 3)
City prepares to study Barbur
corridor between PSU and Sherwood
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
National College of Natural Medicine president David Schleich with
South Portland Neighborhood Association board members Jim Gardner,
Bill Danneman and Lee Buhler at the dedication of the college’s new
Min Zidell Healing Garden, June 24.
Additional photos on Page 5. (Post photo by Lee Perlman)
Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
The City of Portland is
about to embark on the Bar-
bur Corridor Concept Plan,
a venture that involves far
more than its name implies.
As City planner Jay Sug-
net told the Portland Plan-
ning and Sustainability
Commission, the multi-ju-
risdictional project is ex-
pected to look at everything
The crossroads of Barbur Boulevard, Capitol High-
within a half-mile of South-
way, and Interstate 5 on June 29.
west Barbur Boulevard be-
(Post photo by Leslie Baird)
tween Portland State Uni-
versity and Sherwood.
It will consider making the state
project will have a large and diverse
highway the next light rail route. It
Citizen Advisory Committee, and this
will consider such local issues as the
will be the “glue” that keeps its partici-
140 miles of arterial streets without
pants connected, he said.
sidewalks, long a priority for the area.
Other plans for community involve-
The venture will not even be limited to
ment include a series of community
transportation issues.
“walks” in September and an open
“The idea is that land use should
house in October.
inform transportation decisions,” Sug-
Sugnet said the study area contains
net told the Commission. “We’re not
“major regional destinations” where
just focused on transportation, but on
Metro expects an employment growth
building great places.”
of 47 percent and a population increase
In addition to the Barbur corridor
of 54 percent in the next 25 years, and
the study will look at the Portland
“twenty-five miles of one of the most
Community College Sylvania campus,
congested transportation corridors in
Multnomah Village, Hillsdale, Oregon
the region.”
Health and Sciences University, the
Commission member Mike Houck
South Waterfront and River Place, he
asked that the study include consid-
said.
eration of Southwest Portland’s trail
Sugnet said that Washington County,
network and its potential as a commuter
the City of Tigard and Metro would be
route.
(Continued on Page 8)
involved in addition to Portland. The