Lovejoy Fountain Park

Park
Lovejoy Fountain Park
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COVID-19 related information

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Portland Open Space Sequence

A project of the Halprin Landscape Conservancy

Year acquired
1963
Size in acres
1.11
History

This park is named for Asa Lawrence Lovejoy, one of the first owners of the Portland townsite. He and Francis W. Pettygrove took part in the famous coin flip which decided whether the name of the new frontier town would be Portland or Boston. Pettygrove, from Portland, Maine won. Lovejoy was the director of Oregon's first telegraph company and was an active participant in railroad development in the Willamette Valley.

Lovejoy Fountain Park, along with Pettygrove Park, is in what was known in the 1960s as the 'urban renewal area.' The same coin that Mr. Lovejoy and Mr. Pettygrove used to determined whether our city would be called Portland or Boston was flipped to determine which park would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove.

The Lovejoy Fountain was designed by Lawrence Halprin, the well-known San Franciscan architect. The concrete fountain was installed in 1966. "The fountain wonderfully captures the spirit of Oregon's streams. Pouring in a sheet over the lip of the upper pool, the water is whipped into a foaming cascade as it splashes down over an irregular series of stairsteps and then out again into a placid lower basin." (The Oregonian, 7/28/66)

Park Location or Entrance

SW 3rd Avenue and Harrison Street
Portland, OR 97204

Open hours

Park hours: 5:00am-midnight

Past construction

Park amenities/activities

Plaza
Paths (Paved)
Fountain

Park policy

  • All dogs must be leashed in this park.

Neighborhood

City section

Downtown