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Introduction

Today the Mt. Tabor area in Southeast Portland is home to charming

houses and a 200-acre city park. Without knowing anything of its past it is

hard to imagine this neighborhood being much different. The beautifully kept

houses seem to fit well with the lush coniferous groves and interspersed

clearings reminiscent of native forest found on the hill; everything seems

settled. The park itself accommodates runners, bikers, dog walkers,

picnickers, children, and is highly utilized by all of them. The two younger

reservoirs serve as a resting point for anyone wishing to take in the grandeur

of either the reservoirs or the view of the city. The older and much smaller

reservoir hides behind towering Doug firs and is falling into disrepair. I

never see people gazing at this site, for there is not much to look at now. If

people knew the history of this place, I wonder if they would look at this

crumbling concrete differently, with more imagination?

My interest in Mt. Tabor began as a desire to better understand the

place it is today. As a frequent patron of the park, I wanted to see more in

the landscape than the quotidian scenery of every other walk in the park.

Though some of the many chapters of Mt. Tabor are long past and have left

little or no physical evidence of their presence, simply knowing of their

existence adds appreciably to the landscape. And it is likely that without the

very sequence of occurrences that happened upon the hill, the landscape might

look very differently today. The appropriate baseline for this study is the

period of pioneer settlement since it initiated development of the area that

has led to its modern landscape. Thus the reconstructing of this landscape

began with a thorough inquiry into the origins of settlement.

Origins of Settlement

The history of Mt. Tabor is directly linked to the formation of the city

of Portland and its subsequent geographic and economic development. Portland

was established in 1844, after several attempts by other men to settle in the

clearing amongst the dense forest on the west side of the Willamette River.

The Chapters of Mt. Tabor Lori Summers March 19, 2008

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Two cadastral maps from the 1850’s cropped and connected to show East Portland from the river to Mt. Tabor. Notice the land claims of Stephens, Kelly, and Prettyman.

Francis Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy succeeded in laying out the initial

townsite. A year later James B. Stephens bought the only inhabited land on the

east side of the river in that area from John McLoughlin, of the Hudson Bay

Trading Co., and commenced setting down a townsite later known as East

Portland. His plot abutted the river across from Portland and did not extend

very far east. Stephens later established the Stark Street Ferry between his

land and Portland in 1850.

Perry Prettyman, in 1846, was the first resident to move to the Mt.

Tabor area, settling on the western side of the hill. The initial extent of

his claim stretched from modern-day Stark to Division and 39th to 60th. In 1848

Reverend Clinton Kelly staked a claim on the east side of the river, southwest

of Mt. Tabor. Though his land was not in the Mt. Tabor area, he figured

prominently in its history.

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By the 1850’s several more inhabitants had settled in East Portland. The

U.S. Census of 1850 put the combined population of both rivers towns at

13,294. Mt. Tabor had its own small school by 1852. The first teacher, Hicks,

made the astute assertion that the hill was an extinct volcano, a fact that

was not verified until 50 years later when excavation for gravel hit upon a

volcanic vent.1 Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, both sides of

the river produced crops to generate a flourishing trade between California

and Southern Oregon gold miners and Willamette Valley farmers. By 1855, all of

the land in the vicinity of Mt. Tabor was claimed by farmers.2

Early Terrain

The farmers at Mt. Tabor were primarily involved in growing fruit. Most

of the fruit shipped from Portland to California was grown in the area. The

high demand made many of these farmers prosperous. In 1856, exports of apples

alone totaled 20,000 boxes, which sold for nearly $2 per pound.3 Prior to

settlement, most evidence attests to the heavily forested nature of East

Portland. However, in 1846, a forest fire known as the “Big Burn” began on the

slopes of Mt. Scott, southeast of Mt. Tabor, and spread north to the wetlands

of the Columbia River.4 This event lessened the work for pioneers in much of

East Portland by creating desirable agricultural land, largely cleared of

trees and dominated by grasses. General Land Office Surveys from the 1850’s

show evidence of “timber burnt and fallen” around the area.5 The recorded

vegetation on the same map shows fir stands typical of this region, with an

understory of maple, alder, and hazel surrounding Mt. Tabor. A few records

tell of new species brought in by farmers and newcomers. Perry Prettyman, a

doctor from Delaware turned farmer, studied medicine at the Botanic Medicinal

1 Grant Nelson, “The early years of Mt. Tabor,” Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association History, p. 2. 2 Ibid. 3 Liza Mickle, “Historic Context: Hawthorne Boulevard from SE 20th to SE 55th Avenues,” City of Portland, Bureau of Planning (February 2003), p. 5. 4 Ibid. 5 GLO Survey (1854).

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The vegetation labeling on this 1954 cadastral map shows “timber burnt and fallen”.

School in Baltimore.6 He brought with

him the dandelion to use for medicinal

purposes. The current vegetation at Mt.

Tabor also hints at the historic

vegetation.

There are only a few remnants of

the orchard trees that covered the area

in the park today. A few scattered pear

and crabapple trees can be found around

the reservoirs. The rest of the park is

composed of a dominant Doug fir stand,

interspersed with native and invasive

plants. Around the youngest reservoir

there are remnants of a formal garden

called the Terrace Garden including

witch hazel, rhododendron, and juniper.7 The presence of many mature non-

native trees such as true cedars (found throughout the park and in a row along

60th Avenue), sequoias (dispersed throughout the park and surrounding

neighborhood), hawthorns (found around both reservoirs 5 and 6), and other

well-established decorative species such as English ivy and Japanese cherry

suggest that landscape alteration occurred early in Mt. Tabor’s history. In

the 19th century, Portland was considered unique in the matter of private

residences for the ability of elegant and costly dwellings to possess equally

beautiful gardens and grounds year-round. A requisite for high civilization

was the emulation of New England sophistication. West coast publications in

the 1880’s claimed that “beautiful lawns and profusion of choice and carefully

cultivated flowers speak more loudly of the culture and refinement of the

6 Nelson, “The early years of Mt. Tabor,” p. 1. 7 National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (January 2004), p. 132.

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people than do palatial residences.”8 One such high-class residence on Mt.

Tabor in the early 20th century was that of Bennage Josselyn, president of the

Portland Railway Light and Power Co. who bought the Massachusetts Building

from the Crystal Springs Sanitarium (originally from the 1905 Lewis and Clark

Exposition) and remodeled it into a residence.9 A drawing of the Josselyn

House shows the ornate gardens and significant landscaping.

Naming and Toponymy

Stepping back, the naming of the actual hill and subsequent neighborhood

and street toponymy can shed light on the activities, occupation, and

establishments in the area. In 1853, there were 10 families in the area that

formed a Methodist-Episcopalian congregation with Reverend Clinton Kelly as

the pastor.10 When deciding the name of their church, they wanted to

incorporate an area name. Though the group had been leaning towards calling

8 E. Kimbark MacColl, The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1885 to 1915 (Portland: Georgian Press Company, 1976), pg. 58. 9 “A vanished house still bears its traces,” Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association Newsletter, Summer 2004, pg. 5. 10 Nelson “The early years of Mt. Tabor,” p. 2.

Drawing of Josselyn House at Mt. Tabor, date unknown.

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the hill Mt. Zion, Kelly’s son, Plympton Kelly, had been reading about the

battle fought at the base of Mt. Tabor, Palestine. While he was impressed with

the bellicose aspect of Mt. Tabor, the congregation was most likely convinced

by the fact that it had traditionally been recognized as the place of Christ’s

transfiguration. Thereafter, both the hill and the church were named Mt.

Tabor.

When all the land surrounding the hill was claimed and the neighborhood

established, the name Mt. Tabor came to represent the entire area. As

development of East Portland increased, more neighborhoods east of the urban

core and near Mt. Tabor became established. By this time, Mt. Tabor was a very

desirable area with scenic amenities, newly built reservoirs, and streetcar

access. Many neighborhoods and subdivision developments professed the

connection to Mt. Tabor by incorporating the name into their own neighborhood.

Mt. Tabor Villa (later shortened to Montavilla), North Mt. Tabor, East Tabor

Villa, Tabor Heights, Tabordale, and Mt. Tabor Place all capitalized on Mt.

Tabor amenities. New residents wanting to live in the desirable suburban

properties that had access to the urban core filled these neighborhoods. The

most rapid development occurred after two major catalysts: bridges and

streetcars.11

Transportation and Development

By 1860, nearly 20 families occupied the Mt. Tabor area. Original

holders of donation land claims began selling off parts of their plots in

smaller parcels. Most new residents to the area were typically orchard

laborers. However, new occupations emerged in the area. The 1860 census

affirmed that blacksmiths, carpenters, and doctors appeared along with the

predominant occupation of farmer. One new resident, Richard Price, who

purchased 45 acres on the west side of Perry Prettyman’s plot, instigated the

selling of land in a piecemeal fashion that established the path for the

future formation of the modern Mt. Tabor neighborhood. He extended roads

11 MacColl, The Shaping of a City, pg. 119.

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through his property and sold off all but 6 acres. The farmers-turned-real

estate agents that followed in Price’s footsteps profited immensely from the

increasing value of the Mt. Tabor area.

Price had been one of the farmers for the state asylum in Portland.12 He

supplied produce to the sanitarium and the hospital was located on one of the

parcels that Price had sold off. The exact location of the early sanitarium is

hard to pinpoint. The sanitarium underwent several name and location changes

before ending up on Belmont and 60th (still in the Tabor area) as the Portland

Adventist Sanitarium, which changed its name to the modern-day Portland

Adventist Hospital in 1964.13 The first version of this sanitarium was

12 Nelson, “The early years of Mt. Tabor,” p. 3. 13 Adventist Medical Center: Our History, http://www.adventisthealthnw.com/AboutAMC_History.asp (March 2008).

The hill in the background shows Mt. Tabor. Asylum St. (now Hawthorne) runs out to the hill through Price’s land (once Prettyman’s).

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established in a rented eight-bedroom house that could hold only six patients.

It is likely that this property was rented from the lucrative Richard Price

before he sold it to the institution. A map from 1879 shows the beginnings of

Price’s subdivision and newly added roads through the property. The name of

modern-day Hawthorne Blvd. is labeled Asylum St. and extends beyond 39th St.

(the handiwork of Price) where is had previously stopped when the land was

owned by Perry Prettyman. Dr. J. C. Hawthorne later ran the asylum, which by

1873 had become a major employer of east side population, making up 18 to 20

percent of the jobs in the area.14

In the 1870’s the Mt. Tabor area experienced a doubling of population

since 1860. More varied trades entered the area, exhibiting the

diversification of economy. Machinists, hotelkeepers, gardeners, and county

ambassador were some of the non-conforming vocations found in the area during

the decade. The rural farming community was looking more and more like a city.

There was a growing cluster of public and private enterprises at the corner of

Mt. Tabor Ave. and Baseline Rd. (modern 60th and Stark) in the 1870’s and 80’s.

Stores, a school, a post office, a fire station, and a church lined the

streets.

Portland in general was experiencing development in the form of land

subdivision, road building, and in 1972, the genesis of horse and mule drawn

railways, which provided the first public transportation system.15 Though this

system was initially limited to the west side downtown district, it eventually

reached East Portland via bridge. After some resistance from west side

residents that lived north and south of the proposed bridge site, ferry

owners, and river-boat owners, the first bridge connecting East and West

Portland over the Willamette was built in 1887. The Morrison Bridge was

strongly supported by most east side residents, and especially by railway

companies and real estate developers that had bought up many acres of cheap

14 Mickle, “Historic Context,” p. 6. 15 Alfred Staehli, “Preservation options for Portland neighborhoods: A report on the history of Portland’s neighborhoods and the historic centers,” Prepared for 1974 City Options Program, Portland.

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land.16 The bridge was a toll bridge until 1895, charging “five cents for foot

travelers, loose sheep, and hogs; ten cents for loose horses, cattle, and a

lone horse with rider; fifteen cents for a wagon with a single horse and

driver; and twenty cents for a wagon with two horses and one driver.”17 Some

Mt. Tabor residents were instrumental in gathering support for bridging the

Willamette and eliminating the barrier to trade that the Willamette River once

presented.

In 1889, Willamette Bridge Railway Co. extended service to the Tabor

area, and Mt. Tabor Railway Co. opened line from 39th to 69th street along

present-day Belmont St, which later

extended a bit further east and across the

river to downtown and northwest Portland.

Both the bridging of the Willamette in

1887 and the rapid expansion of street

railways starting in 1888 caused sudden

east side population growth and

development. In 1891, East and West

Portland were consolidated and known simply as Portland. By 1897, five bridges

were built and the city had expanded geographically. As increasing

urbanization led to scarcity of public natural areas, the value of Mt. Tabor

as a de facto park increased. As mentioned earlier, the naming of several

neighborhoods near the Tabor area was kept closely linked to the original hill

name, which was associated with pastoral orchards and natural amenities. This

was advantageous for real estate agents trying to allure new residents out to

the suburban areas, even though by the early 1900’s when most Tabor-related

neighborhoods were forming, open fields were largely consumed by roads.

16 E. Kimbark MacColl, The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1885 to 1915 (Portland: Georgian Press Company, 1976), pg. 119. 17Jewel Lansing, Portland: People, Politics, and Power; 1851-2001 (Corvallis; Oregon State University Press, 2003), pg. 189.

Picture from 1908 of a Mt. Tabor Railway Co. car at the base of Mt. Tabor.

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Another major cause for development of Portland was the 1905 Lewis and

Clark Exposition. This event boosted Portland’s economy and put Portland on

the map as a bona fide city. Over 2,500,000 people passed through Portland,

135,000 of them from east of the Mississippi.18 Property prices soared with the

population

increase after the

exposition and

many farmers at

Mt. Tabor saw

their land value

increase

dramatically. Not

only did the

financial profits

from the

exhibition reach

Mt. Tabor indirectly, but also one of the buildings ended up settling on the

hill. The elaborate gardens of the Josselyn House, mentioned earlier,

surrounded a mobile building that originated at the 1904 St. Louis Centennial

and traveled to the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition. The Massachusetts

Building was disassembled and sold first to the Crystals Springs Sanitarium,

which located at Mt. Tabor from 1905 to 1910, and then Bennage Josselyn bought

the building in 1910.19 The surprising history of sanitariums at Mt. Tabor does

not allude to the benevolent outcome that ensued: public reservoirs to supply

pristine water to Portland and a wildly popular public park.

Bull Run Reservoirs to Mt. Tabor Park

18 Carl Abbott, The Great Extravaganza: Portland and the Lewis and Clark Exposition (Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1981), pg. 64. 19 “A vanished house still bears its traces,” pg. 5.

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In 1894 the first and second reservoirs were built on Mt. Tabor

simultaneously with the Bull Run water system that drained water from the

pristine wilderness of the Bull Run watershed east of Portland.20 Reservoirs

three and four were built in Washington Park (called Central Park at the time

of construction) in 1894 along with the first two Mt. Tabor reservoirs. Before

the population pressure was great enough, Portland’s municipal water was taken

from the Willamette due to its accessibility. Personal wells were also common

in the 1850’s until drainage from a burgeoning city contaminated many wells.

With increasing population and multiple uses of the river such as water for

drinking, transportation, industry, and sewage disposal, water quality was a

health and sanitation concern. Another issue was the increased demand for

pumping, which was prohibitively expensive. Facing increasing demand for water

and the need for a new water source, Portland created its own public Water

Committee in 1885. The committee had bought out all other private water

companies in the area by 1886.21

The forward-looking development of a completely gravity-fed water system

“involved the active channeling of water…to provide power for pumps (and

eventually for the generation of electricity) making the system fiscally

responsible.22 The 600-ft. elevation of Mt. Tabor was an ideal stopping point

for the system’s reservoirs. The novel and attractive, yet functional,

construction of the reservoirs used patented reinforced concrete and

decorative finishing techniques. The distinctive characteristics of the

reservoir architecture have qualified them for the national register of

historic places today. The historic structures may be categorized as Late

Victorian-Romanesque Revival style of architecture.23

The construction of the reservoirs and Bull Run system brought

employment to many laborers during a depression in 1893 and 1894. At the time,

the economic state was not considered a depression, but a “hard time.”

20 National Register of Historic Places, pg. 28. 21 MacColl, The Shaping of a City, pg. 66. 22 National Register of Historic Places, pg. 18. 23 National Register of Historic Places, pg. 28.

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Nonetheless, it allowed thousands of men to be employed by the construction of

the water system. Pipelines and a road had to be installed over heavily

forested terrain over 24 miles from Bull Run Lake to Mt. Tabor. Land was

cleared by hand because the forest was too thick for horses.24 The work of

building the system began in 1893 and was completed in 1894. Water flowed from

Bull Run to city for the first time in 1895.

In 1905, Mt. Tabor was incorporated into the city of Portland. There was

interest in building two more reservoirs on Mt. Tabor to enlarge the water

system. The combination of the two already established reservoirs and the

probability of building two more aided the movement to turn Mt. Tabor into an

official city park. The city purchased the land at Mt. Tabor in 1909. In 1911,

the second two reservoirs at Mt. Tabor were built (reservoirs five and six)

and Mt. Tabor Park was formalized. In 1913 the Bull Run water system came

under direct control of city of Portland, water being the sole municipality

owned by the city until mass transit was acquired in mid-20th century.

Works Cited Abbott, Carl. The Great Extravaganza: Portland and the Lewis and Clark Exposition (Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1981). Adventist Medical Center: Our History, http://www.adventisthealthnw.com/AboutAMC_History.asp (March 2008). “A vanished house still bears its traces,” Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association Newsletter, Summer 2004, pg. 5. Lansing, Jewel. Portland: People, Politics, and Power; 1851-2001 (Corvallis; Oregon State University Press, 2003). MacColl, E. Kimbark. The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1885 to 1915 (Portland: Georgian Press Company, 1976). Mickle, Liza. “Historic Context: Hawthorne Boulevard from SE 20th to SE 55th Avenues,” City of Portland, Bureau of Planning (February 2003). National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. Mt. Tabor Statement of Significance, (January 2004). Nelson, Grant. “The early years of Mt. Tabor,” Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association History.

24 Ibid, pg. 98.

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Staehli, Alfred. “Preservation options for Portland neighborhoods: A report on the history of Portland’s neighborhoods and the historic centers,” Prepared for 1974 City Options Program, Portland.