SE 35th Place off Hawthorne

The boundaries of the different neighborhoods in SE have changed many times since the mid-1800s. Neighborhoods such as Sunnyside and Ladd’s Addition were plotted as real estate developments, similar to what happens in today’s suburbs. The difference is that these neighborhoods and others around Portland were built around streetcar. For example, when you look at the map from the SE 28th PL post, you see that Gladstone is an isolated area. So when you are heading up a street and it suddenly stops in the middle of a neighborhood, you know you probably hit an area that was once the boundary of a different community.

If you look at the map above, Marguerette Avenue is a street that seems to be in the middle of Se 37th Avenue and SE 35th Avenue. If you just draw a straight line down 37th, you notice that Marguerette is aligned with it until you hit Hawthorne, where it suddenly stops and shifts into 35th Avenue. One thing that becomes obvious is this whole area wasn’t plotted at the same time.

According to Multnomah County, Oregon GenWeb, a site that lists street name changes througout the century, “Marguerite” Ave became SE 35th PL in 1928, however according to the map above which is a Sanborn Map from 1901, the street’s name is actually “Marguerette Avenue” and looks like it is better suited as 37th. I’m not disputing the validity of the name change or location – I just think it points out how the shape of SE has changed over the years.

Anyway, the point? Marguerette Avenue + Marguerite Avenue + 37th + 35th = SE 35th PL.

SE 28th Place near Hawthorne

Edit: I found a Sandborn map from 1924 which shows Kenilworth street. It is located just left of the mouse pointer.

If you look at the sidewalks South of Hawthorne on 28th Place, you will notice it says “Kenilworth Ave”. According to Portland Parks and Recreation, the name comes from a neighborhood to the South which includes Holgate and Gladstone streets called “Creston-Kenilworth”. The picture above is in front of a school near Division St. on 28th place, which doesn’t place it within the neighborhood. I can’t seem to find any old maps of the area (or anywhere else above 20th for that matter) which details how long of a street it originally was, but the street was renamed in 1931 to 28th Pl.

Supposedly, the name Kenilworth came from the title of a romantic book series by Sir Walter Scott. He wrote such hits as: Ivanhoe, Lady of the Lake, and Rob Roy. Here I was thinking that I may have stumbled upon another lesser known Portland merchant to research. Other streets within the district are named for characters by Scott.

Lone Fir Cemetery History

Lone Fir Cemetery – Portland, Oregon – written by Josh Steiner, December 2008

The Lone Fir Cemetery lies on 30.5 acres in SE Portland, between Morrison and Stark, and 20th and 26th. There are renovations currently planned to turn the SW corner of the cemetery into a a place to ponder and a memorial to the thousands of Chinese workers that were once buried there, sometimes in mass graves. Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery and Metro are heading the rejuvenation of the historic cemetery so current citizens of the city can come to touch some of Portland’s most important citizens of the past at “The Silent City of the Dead”.

The original acre plot of land that the cemetery now sits on was a farm owned by Emmor Stephens who received the land as a pioneer land grant in the 1840’s. Stephens died in 1846 and was buried in the NW corner of the plot by his son, James. In 1854 James sold the family farm to Colburn Barrell under the condition that Barrell maintain the area Emmor was buried at. The following year, a steamboat owned by Barrell called “Gazelle”, which operated between Portland and Oregon city exploded near Oregon City killing one passenger and Barrell’s business partner, Crawford Dobbins. The casualties of the boat explosion were buried near Emmor Stephens at the cemetery. Barrell then set aside 10 acres of the land as a cemetery and renamed the area “Mt. Crawford” in memoriam of his business partner and because the site sat on a hill. Barrell sold plots for $20 an adult, and $10 a child. It was known though that he was flexible with the price and allowed others to occupy the space for less money or no money at all. In 1862 the City Fire Department and Masons bought plots on the North side. Barrell bought an additional 10 acres in 1855, and added more in 1865 and 1866 – bringing the total acreage to today’s 30.5 acres. In 1857, Portland decided to exhume remains from the four largest cemeteries on city land on the west side and move them to Mt. Crawford. These cemeteries included the land on current Skidmore Fountain, 6th and Burnside, 10th and Washington, 11th and Burnside, and two in South Portland.

In 1867, Barrell tried proposed to sell the cemetery to the City of Portland for $4000 but the city declined citing that the land was too far outside the city and that a funeral procession to the site would take a full day from Portland and that many would not want to grieve for that long. Instead, At this time much of East Portland was still wooded forest and even the cemetery site was surrounded by forest. A trip to the cemetery required a trip on the Stark Street Ferry and a long trip on dirt roads to the site. Later that year, a group of investors including Robert Pittock agreed to buy the land and a wife of one of the investors proposed to re-name the cemetery “Lone Fir Cemetery” because of a single fir tree that lied near the original plot. The name was changed and has remained the name to today.

Around the 1860s, the Oregon Hospital for the Insane operated by James C. Hawthorne was located between SE 9th and 12th, and Morrison and Hawthorne (U street, Asylum street), land donated by James Stephens. It was the largest of mental hospitals in Oregon and was well funded by the state. An estimated 200 patients were buried at the Lone Fir Cemetery, many unmarked and in mass graves, and is said to lay beneath the current entrance to the cemetery on 21st and Morrison. It is not known how many other citizens lie in the grounds because there are no records for the first 17 years of operation and many of the grave markers have disappeared because of weather, grass fires, lack of a desire for extravagance, and time. However, an estimated 25,000-30,000 lie there with records for 14,700.

In 1877 the MacLeay Family Crypt was built by Don MacLeay for at a cost of $10,000. The Gothic crypt was meant as a mourning chapel as well as a family plot. It is now closed off to visitors. In the fall of 1903 the Soldier’s Monument was built by the funding of 500 local citizens at a total cost of $3,500. This is a monument to the soldiers of the civil, Spanish-American, Mexican, and Indian wars.

By the 1920s, the cemetery had deteriorated and had become overgrown with bushes. Many of the grave markings had fallen over or had disintegrated . Some in the community proposed that the bodies be exhumed and that the land be turned into a public park or playground. The idea faced huge criticism and was turned down. A few local committees were started to provide funding to the cemetery to maintain the grounds. In 1928 the State of Oregon granted control and maintenance of the land to Multnomah County. By this time there were streetcars running down Morrison Street and there was a stop on the campus of Lone Fir. It was also a popular picnic spot for people traveling east to Mt. Tabor.

The county decided to construct a county building in the SW corner of the land called the Morrison Building. 265 graves were exhumed for the construction; many were Chinese laborers that had been buried there without identification and were technically outside the grounds of the original cemetery because the Chinese were not allowed inside. Around this time the county relinquished the cemetery to the Metropolitan Services District, except for the building which remained property of Multnomah County. In 2002 the Morrison Building closed and planned to sell the site and connect the area to the main portion of the cemetery. Under suspicion that there may still be bodies buried under the site, in 2004 archaeologists excavated under a parking lot and found human remains. Metro gained control of the land in January 2007 and the complex and parking lot were removed in August 2007.The area is currently vacant but plans are currently in the works to redevelop the area.

Notable burials:

John Couch, Dr. James Hawthorne, Asa Lovejoy, Frank Dekum, George Law Curry, William Wallace Thaver, Daniel Lownsdale, James Stephens, Emmor Stephens, William Ladd, Thomas Dryer, Harry Lane, J.A Chapman, Henry Rowe.

Sources: Compiled from information at the Oregon Historical Society Archives-  Portland, Oregon.