PORTLAND, Oregon — Walk around Portland's South Park Blocks and you may notice something new on the ground: bronze plaques sitting at each end of the park. The new additions proclaim the South Park Blocks' as being on the National Register of Historic Places.
Crews installed one of the plaques in Shemanski Park Tuesday morning. However, the official designation came in 2022 after the Portland Downtown Neighborhood Association and a group of volunteers completed the nomination process.
The South Park Blocks are among more than 100,000 historic places in the U.S. deemed to be worthy of preservation, according to the National Register of Historic Places' website. The U.S. National Park Service maintains the national register.
History of the South Park Blocks
The 12-block greenspace that now stretches through the heart of downtown was dedicated in 1852 as Portland's first official open public space. For nearly 20 years, the park remained as an "unimproved roadway on the outskirts of the city center," according to the city of Portland's website.
In 1877, city council commissioned horticulturalist Louis Pfunder to create a landscape plan featuring a grid of deciduous trees to form an overarching canopy. Pfunder planted more than 100 trees between Salmon and Hall streets. The first parkkeeper was appointed in 1885.
Today, the park is filled with public art throughout, with the most recent work installed in 2004.
The South Park Blocks have been the site of many community events, as well as protests. In May 1970, Portland State University students protested the Vietnam War in the park. This month, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in the park as a group of protesters occupied Portland State's library for several days.
