A small park at the southern end of the the seawall on the west bank of the Willamette River, created to display and honor the fabled battleship USS Oregon. It is notable in the context of this research because it occupied the location previously used for the Oregon Electric and Southern Pacific’s Jefferson Street stations, and co-existed with the original Oregon Electric depot building for a short period of time.

The USS Oregon had been tied up on the east side just north of the Broadway Bridge since 1925, but a more appropriate and permanent site for her display as a museum ship was desired. The south waterfront site was proposed as early as 1933, but the park wasn’t dedicated until September 13, 1938. The ship itself wasn’t moved to the new park until December 17, 1939, when another grand dedication ceremony was held.

The Southern Pacific gifted their old right-of-way through the park to the city in October 1938. The Oregon Electric’s freight house was demolished, but their track remained running diagonally across the southwest edge of the park. The triangular Henry-Mallory Building, which had served as the Oregon Electric’s Jefferson Street depot from 1908 to 1928 also remained.

In February 1939, a modernist “symbolic statue” of a robed figure holding a sword—representing the courage and audacity of Theodore Roosevelt and his men during the Spanish–American War—was placed on a large raised dais in the center of the park. Carved of tufa stone near Bend by Oliver Laurence Barrett, it was not well-received by the people of Portland. A poem published in the Oregonian on October 23, 1939 was reflective of the public’s opinion of the statue:

Go to the art school, to the library, Look at Abe Lincoln too, Joan of Arc in Laurelhurst park— Look the whole outfit through. But don’t go down, oh DON’T go down; Darling, oh don’t you dare Go down to the Battleship Oregon park And look at the statue THERE.

A photo of the park taken from the Hawthorne Bridge, dated May 9, 1940. This view gives a very clear view of the old Oregon Electric depot. Photo: City of Portland Archives.

An aerial photograph of the park, also dated May 9, 1940. The triangular Henry-Mallory Building and the Oregon Electric track are clearly visible. Note the lack of landscaping compared to the next photograph. Photo: City of Portland Archives.

On May 11, 1940, two old cannons that had previously been located outside the capitol building in Salem were donated to the park by Spanish–American war veterans. The presence or absence of the statue and cannons in photographs of the park can help date them.

A photo of the park from after May 1940 showing the twin cannons and the unpopular statue. The old Oregon Electric Jefferson Street depot can be seen just poking in to the right of the photograph. This is the “final form” of the park, although it wouldn’t last long—construction on Harbor Drive would soon cut right through the middle of this scene.

The next big change to the park was Harbor Drive, a new modern controlled-access roadway right along the seawall. On August 10, 1941, it was announced that the city had acquired the Oregon Electric track and the triangular parcel of land that the Henry–Mallory Building stood on to mitigate the loss of land in the park to the new road. It seems that the building itself had been demolished by this point in time, although the exact date is currently unknown.

The “grotesque” statue also had to be moved out of the path of the new road, and workmen began dismantling it on November 5, 1941 so that it could be moved to the city’s Stanton Street storage yard. However, it seems to have never arrived there, and exactly what happened to it remains a mystery to this day. Efforts to get this statue replaced with the “traditional” statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback from the Park Blocks, the old light from the Tillamook lighthouse and even the Skidmore Fountain all came to nothing.

The Harbor Drive project was pushed through with speed, and the initial operating segment past the park was dedicated on November 20, 1942. A parade was held as part of the ceremonies, featuring “Old No. 3,” a horsecar that had first seen service in Vancouver c. 1889. The park was now split into two segments: a thin sliver along the waterfront, and a square plot to the west of the new road.

“Old No. 3” with dignitaries at the dedication of Harbor Drive on November 20, 1942. Photo: City of Portland Archives.

However, World War II would now call the park’s namesake away. On October 10, 1942 the US Navy announced that the Oregon would be broken up for scrap to support the war effort. Removal of interior fixtures and machinery began almost immediately (some of this material would be turned into patriotic fund-raising souvenirs), and the ship was formally returned to the navy on December 7, 1942—the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lieutenant Commander Lyndon B. Johnson gave the principal address at the ceremony.

The ship’s foremast was removed on February 23, 1943 to be turned into a memorial, and three days later the Oregon was taken by tugboat down the Willamette and Columbia rivers to Kalama to be broken up. However, it was then decided that the ship was more use to the war effort in one piece, and its hull was loaded with ammunition and towed to Guam. She ended up surviving until 1956, when she was finally scrapped in Kawasaki, Japan.

The bay at the park that had housed the ship was converted into a small boat moorage facility by the city, opening on March 10, 1944. It was mainly used by Coast Guard vessels, but private boats could also rent space.

The foremast memorial was erected in the park and was dedicated on Sunday, October 29, 1944. It was located at the foot of SW Clay Street on the east side of Harbor Drive, in the thin sliver of park by the waterfront.

The two separate parts of the park can be seen in this 1948 aerial photograph, with the mast of the Oregon just to the right of Harbor Drive. Evidence of flooding on the east side suggests the photo was taken during the May/June Columbia River (Vanport) flood. Photo: City of Portland Archives.

The foremast was moved to its current location between SW Oak and Pine streets on May 29, 1956 as new grade-separated connections for Harbor Drive were put through the last remnants of the old park. The mast originally sat on a thin strip of land between SW Front Avenue and SW Harbor Drive, but these days is more comfortably situated in the expanses of Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The “new” Battleship Oregon Memorial Park, jammed between SW Front Avenue and Harbor Drive, as seen during Fleet Week in 1966. Photo: City of Portland Archives.