Pettygrove Park, Portland Oregon
It has beautiful tall trees. Summer time the park has more visitors. I look at the park every morning from my balcony. At night, dim light from street lamps give yellowish sparkles. Noon time people come to eat lunch. I see often people come to smoke there too. It makes me wonder, how come people can smoke under gorgeous trees instead of inhaling nature into their souls? Maybe they know something that I am not aware of it, since I am not a smoker! Dog owners walk around the park all the time. Even pouring rainy days, the park offers a unique shelter to the visitors. Heavy wetness only gives different aura, fresh smell to the park.
Blue jays love to fly around tall trees. I saw many times a blue jay hold a nut in its mouth. Brown, cheerful squirrels jump around tall branches. They get chase by playful dogs as well. I can hear squirrels laughing at them. Winter time the park is more quiet. Trees are naked. There is no water in the little pool. Wind blows harshly, little hills loose color of the green. People pass by fast, it is gloomy somehow. On the other hand when spring comes, the park blooms again. It invites bright colors, tree buds scream for green awakening. You listen the air, summer on the corner, you know it, you feel it. Old magnolia tree blooms large flowers. Seeing light pink flowers scattered around dark green leaves makes me feel alive, ready for new adventures.
This is a tiny little park in downtown, most people do not even know the name, nor care.
When I came to Portland in 2001, the second night I end up there. It was one of those unusually warm spring night for Portlanders. I walked at the park, touched the golden statue. It was calming, peaceful and quite. It was so quite that you could hear your heart beat.
I never knew, years later I was going to move a condo face to this park.
Is there any fate in this? Or is it just a sweet coincidence?
Whatever the reason, I feel good to see this tiny green corner on the earth smiles at me day by day.
Pettygrove Park is located at SW 1st to 4th Ave – Market to Harrison St. Portland, Oregon.
The short history about the park:
Francis W. Pettygrove was one of the early owners and developers of the Portland townsite. He was the winner of the historic coin toss with Asa Lovejoy which determined the name of the city that they founded. Pettygrove, from Portland, Maine, was the owner of Portland’s first house, wharf, warehouse, and store.
Pettygrove Park, along with Lovejoy Fountain Park, is in what was known in the 1960s as Portland’s urban renewal area. Both Lovejoy and Pettygrove Parks were unnamed until the opening of the parks. The same coin that Mr. Lovejoy and Mr. Pettygrove used to determined whether our city would be named Portland or Boston was flipped to determine which park would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove. Pettygrove Park, 300 yards away from the crashing cascades of water in the Lovejoy Fountain, is composed of serene mounds of grass, trees, and stonework laid out among paths.
In 1979, the Portland Development Commission installed Manuel Izquierdo’s muntz bronze sculpture, Dreamer, and fountain on SW Third between Market & Harrison. Manuel Izquierdo (1928–2009) is a sculptor and woodcut artist. Izquierdo was born in Madrid, Spain, moving to the United States in 1942. His work has been shown throughout the northwestern United States, as well as in a collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
