Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a park located on the west bank of the Willamette River

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...

 in downtown Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. It is 36.59 acres (148,074.6 m²), comprising 16 tax lots owned by the City of Portland.

The name of the park was changed in 1984 to honor former Oregon Governor

Governor of Oregon

The Governor of Oregon is the top executive of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. territorial governments....

 Tom McCall

Tom McCall

Thomas Lawson McCall was an American politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the 30th Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, he grew up there and in Central Oregon before attending the University of Oregon...

. It is currently home to the Waterfront Blues Festival

Waterfront Blues Festival

The Waterfront Blues Festival is an annual event in Portland, Oregon, United States featuring three to five days of performances by blues musicians. The festival started in 1988 and takes place in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, along the west bank of the Willamette River in downtown Portland...

, Oregon Brewers Festival

Oregon Brewers Festival

Oregon Brewers Festival is a four-day craft beer festival held annually since 1988 at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, Oregon. In addition to beer, OBF features food vendors, live music, as well as exhibits from hop growers, home brewers, breweriana collectors, and others.Each...

, Gay/Lesbian Pride Festival and The Bite of Oregon Festival. The park is also the host of many Rose Festival

Portland Rose Festival

The Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Association with the purpose of promoting the Portland region...

 events.

History

In 1903 the Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

 Report identified several needs for the City of Portland. Important items within the plan:

• need for parks within the city
• need for greenways along riverbanks
• need for preservation of river access for future generations

These needs were readdressed in the 1912 Bennett Plan, however, the City of Portland had its sights set on the city itself and not access to geographical features.

One problem for downtown Portland and its location by the Willamette was that the river would flood occasionally during the winter. In 1920, a seawall

Seawall

A seawall is a form of coastal defence constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation and leisure activities from the action of tides and waves...

 was built to protect the downtown core. Unfortunately, the seawall removed access to the river, a problem that would be exacerbated in 1940 with the construction of Harbor Drive

Harbor Drive

Harbor Drive is the name of a street in Portland, Oregon, which was formerly a freeway that carried U.S. Route 99W along the western shore of the Willamette River in the downtown area...

 along the bank of the river.

During the mid-1960s, the completion of the Marquam Bridge for Interstate 5

Interstate 5

Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...

 caused Harbor Drive to reduce traffic. The Waterfront for People, a humorous civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

 group, organized a picnic on the sliver of land between Harbor Drive

Harbor Drive

Harbor Drive is the name of a street in Portland, Oregon, which was formerly a freeway that carried U.S. Route 99W along the western shore of the Willamette River in the downtown area...

 and the river. In 1968, Governor Tom McCall initiated a task force to study the feasibility of replacing Harbor Drive with open park space. ZGF Architects LLP was hired in 1971 to design the park. Removal of Harbor Drive began in 1974, and work progressed until the dedication of the park in 1978. The park gained instant popularity, and in 1984 it was renamed Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Along with Harbor Drive, the Portland Public Market

Portland Public Market

The Portland Public Market was a public market in Portland, Oregon, United States, built in 1933 at a widely-advertised cost of $1 million. Controversial and ambitious, it was never as successful as the Central Public Market, centered at southwest Fifth and Yamhill Streets, which it was intended to...

 building also stood where Waterfront Park is now.

In 1978, the Francis Murnane Wharf, the only public memorial to a labor leader in the state of Oregon, was dedicated in the Park by Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union

International Longshore and Warehouse Union

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska, and in British Columbia, Canada. It also represents hotel workers in Hawaii, cannery workers in Alaska, warehouse workers throughout...

. The memorial consisted of a bronze plaque and steps leading down to a floating dock on the Willamette River. Murnane was a leader of Portland ILWU Local 8 and a gadfly for historic preservation. In 2009, the plaque and steps were removed by the expansion of the Saturday Market.

Battleship Oregon Memorial

The USS Oregon

USS Oregon (BB-3)

USS Oregon was a pre-Dreadnought of the United States Navy. Her construction was authorized on 30 June 1890, and the contract to build her was awarded to Union Iron Works of San Francisco, California on 19 November 1890. Her keel was laid exactly one year later...

 was constructed in 1893. This memorial erected in 1956 honors this "Bulldog of the US Navy" and its heroic fight in many naval battles. Underneath the memorial lies a time capsule

Time capsule

A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...

: Sealed on Independence Day, 1976, it will be unearthed and opened July 5, 2076.

Bill Naito Legacy Fountain

This interactive fountain is dedicated to the memory of Portland businessman Bill Naito

Bill Naito

William Sumio Naito , better known as Bill Naito, was a noted businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in Portland, Oregon, U.S...

. It was opened in 2009 next to the Saturday Market

Portland Saturday Market

The Portland Saturday Market is an outdoor arts and crafts market in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest continuously operated outdoor market in the United States. It is held every Saturday and Sunday from February 28 to December 24, at the junction of SW Ankeny and the Naito Parkway located...

 Pavilion.

Founders' Stone

This memorial honors William Pettygrove

Francis Pettygrove

Francis William Pettygrove , commonly known as William Pettygrove, 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 Oregon City...

 and Asa Lovejoy

Asa Lovejoy

Asa Lawrence Lovejoy was an American pioneer and politician in the region that would become the U.S. state of Oregon. He is best remembered as a founder of the city of Portland, Oregon...

, who tossed a coin to determine the city's name. Had the outcome gone the other way, Portland would have been named after Boston, Massachusetts instead of Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

.

Friendship Circle

The Friendship Circle at the north end of Waterfront Park was dedicated in 1990. It celebrates the sister city relationship between Portland and Sapporo, Japan. The Friendship Circle includes a pair of 20-foot stainless towers that generate electronic tones.

Japanese American Historical Plaza

This memorial was dedicated on August 3, 1990, in memory of Japanese immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens of Japanese descent who were deported to inland internment camps

Japanese American internment

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The memorial includes artwork and sculpture that tells the story of Japanese people in the Pacific Northwest. There are one hundred ornamental cherry trees to the north of the plaza.

Police Memorial

The police memorial was constructed in 1993 at Southwest Jefferson adjacent to the Hawthorne Bridge

Hawthorne Bridge

The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the oldest highway bridge in Portland...

. It is dedicated to Portland Police who have laid down their lives in the line of duty.

Rose Building

The Portland Rose Festival Foundation

Portland Rose Festival

The Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Association with the purpose of promoting the Portland region...

 headquarters are located in a historic Northwest Modernist

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...

 building designed by noted Portland architect John Yeon

John Yeon

John Yeon was an American architect in Portland, Oregon, in the twentieth century. He is regarded as one of the early practitioners of the Northwest Regionalist Style of Modernism...

 in 1948 to be the Portland Visitors Information Center

Visitors Information Center (Portland, Oregon)

The Visitors Information Center, also known as the Rose Building, is a historic building located in Portland, Oregon, United States. Built in 1948, it is noted as a prominent product of its architect John Yeon...

.

Salmon Street Springs

This artistic and play fountain is extremely popular in the summer. It was dedicated in 1988 and recycles up to 4924 gallons (18,639.4 l) of water per minute through as many as 137 jets.

Saturday Market Pavilion

A contemporary open-sided pavilion just north of the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain shelters Portland's Saturday Market

Portland Saturday Market

The Portland Saturday Market is an outdoor arts and crafts market in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest continuously operated outdoor market in the United States. It is held every Saturday and Sunday from February 28 to December 24, at the junction of SW Ankeny and the Naito Parkway located...

 on the weekends from March until December.

Sternwheeler Portland

A 1947 sternwheeler

Paddle steamer

A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...

 docked at Waterfront Park houses the Oregon Maritime Center and Museum.

Political significance

The park has also been used as a speaking place during U.S. Presidential campaigns in recent years. In the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election

United States presidential election, 2004

The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...

, an estimated 50,000 people gathered in the park to see John Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

, and in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

United States presidential election, 2008

The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...

, an estimated 75,000 people (the largest gathering in the campaign) gathered to see Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

.

External links

• City of Portland: Tom McCall Waterfront Park
• Congress for the New Urbanism History of Harbor Drive