Print this Article Mail to a Friend

Mt. Tabor Park

Mt. Tabor Park in Portland

Oregon Historical Society Research Library OrHi 102169


Southeast Portland's 196-acre Mt. Tabor Park sits on an extinct volcanic butte, one of thirty-two cinder cones in a thirteen-mile radius. The park offers visitors a forest-like setting and panoramic views of the city.

Mt. Tabor Park dates to 1894, when the city built two open reservoirs on land acquired for that purpose (two other open reservoirs were built in 1911). After the turn of the twentieth century, Portland's growing east-side population demanded park space, and, in 1903 landscape architect John C. Olmsted recommended the city obtain more land at Mt. Tabor. In 1909, the Board of Park Commissioners used voter-approved bonds to buy approximately forty lots on Mt. Tabor for $366,000.

Portland Parks Superintendent Emanuel Tillman Mische, who had worked with the Olmsted Brothers' landscape design firm in Massachusetts, consulted with Olmsted on his naturalistic design for the park. The plan included long flights of stairs, gently curving parkways, numerous walking trails, and a nursery yard. It also showcased native plants. Since then, the parks department has added basketball and tennis courts, picnic areas, playgrounds, an amphitheater, and, during the 1950s, a soap-box derby course that is still used for annual races.

In 1990, the city decommissioned a reservoir at Southeast 60th Avenue and Division Street and sold the land for development. In recent years, park neighbors have successfully organized to fight city plans to bury the remaining open water reservoirs and to sell or lease the nursery yard. In 2004, Mt. Tabor Park and the reservoirs were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Author(s):

Kathy Tucker

Kathy Tucker received her master’s degree in history from Portland State University in 2005, focusing on environmental history. She has worked on the Oregon Historical Society’s award-winning Oregon History Project and taught classes at Portland State University. She is venturing into the world of publishing with the White House Grocery Press, which recently published Eating It Up in Eden: The Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Cookbook. Kathy is also a board member of the Northwest History Network.

Further Reading:

Guzowski, Kenneth James. "Portland's Olmsted Vision (1897-1915): A Study of the Public Landscapes Designed by Emmanuel T. Mische inPortland, Oregon." Master's thesis, University of Oregon, 1990.

Hershey, Edward. "Deal puts Mt. Tabor Land Sale in Past." Oregonian, May 18, 2007.

Copyright © 2009 Portland State University