2.  Multnomah Arts Center, once the Multnomah Grade School.  It's now home of many art activities of Portland Parks Bureau, the Police Bureau's SW contact center, SouthWest Neighborhoods Inc. (SWNI) offices, and several senior citizen services including the Neighborhood House Senior Center.

3.   Multnomah Village, location of many antique shops, book stores, restaurants, and specialty shops.  It was once a rural stop on the electric railroad line, but today the city of Portland has grown far past Multnomah, gobbling up it and many other outlying communities as it grew.

4.   Bridge over former electric railroad.  Capitol Highway was separated from the electric railroad (now Multnomah Blvd) by this concrete overpass.  The electric railroad went west to Garden Home, where it split into two tracks, one west to Beaverton and one southwest to Tigard.
 

5.  Capitol Highway took the high, well-drained, ground along the ridge between Tryon Creek and Woods Creek.  Steep slopes drop into those two creeks, but the road to Salem followed a gentle grade up to what is now West Portland and beyond.  About a mile further, Capitol Highway is no more, being replaced by I-5 southbound near Haines overpass.
 

6.  Woods Memorial Park, donated to the city by the Woods family.  It's a steep-walled pair of canyons, still undeveloped except for a few lightly maintained trails and a couple of picnic tables.  The paved street through the park was closed to vehicular traffic to reduce the increasing vandalism.  In 1999, several meetings with the Parks Bureau and citizens ("charettes") resulted in a master plan to guide the park's development.

7.  Most maps show many streets in this area that don't really exist.  Woods Creek cuts up the terrain here making those streets impossible.  Lobelia St, Marigold St, Dolph Ct, and 45th Ave are often shown as continuous in this area, but only Marigold offers a route through, and only for pedestrians.

8. Although most maps show 42nd Ave as a continuous street, it is actually broken into short street segments.  However, a path near Freeman St and stairs at Garden Home Rd make it a good pedestrian route.  The official address of one of the houses at the corner of Freeman and 42nd Ave is on the 42nd Ave path: the owner petitioned the Post Office to get a Freeman St address because no one could find the 42nd Ave address.

9.  Garden Home Rd, the original wagon road to the village of Garden Home.  It winds in and out, up and down the hills and ridges,  while the nearby Multnomah Blvd (the newer railroad route) runs straight and level.

10. Gabriel Park.  In the south end of Gabriel park is a large community garden, next to which is an demonstration orchard surrounded by a fence of espaliered apple trees.  North of the community garden, is a popular wooded area along Vermont Creek that has suffered from overuse for many years.  It has been recently restored with native plantings and fallen logs to provide a more natural habitat for wildlife, including stream protection to encourage fish.  A large bio-swale with many native plantings is located just north of Vermont Creek.

11. Gabriel Park.  North of Vermont Creek, Gabriel Park is developed for community use.  A fenced off-leash dog area, several ball fields, playground equipment, tennis courts, picnic facilities, and a new Community Center.

Download route description page for printing.
(Use "Back" to return.)