Portland is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated in the northwestern area of the state at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous county in Oregon. As of 2020, Portland had a population of 652,503, making it the 26th-most populated city in the United States, the sixth-most populous on the West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle. Approximately 2.5 million people live in the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR–WA metropolitan statistical area, making it the 25th most populous in the United States. About half of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.
The International Rose Test Garden is a rose garden in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, United States. There are over 10,000 rose bushes of approximately 650 varieties. The roses bloom from April through October with the peak coming in June, depending on the weather. New rose cultivars are continually sent to the garden from many parts of the world and are evaluated on several characteristics, including disease resistance, bloom formation, color, and fragrance. It is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States and exemplifies Portland's nickname, "City of Roses". The garden draws an estimated 700,000 visitors annually.
The Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Foundation with the purpose of promoting the Portland region. It includes three separate parades, along with a number of other activities.
Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a 36.59-acre (148,100 m2) park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive, a major milestone in the freeway removal movement, the park was opened to the public in 1978. The park covers 13 tax lots and is owned by the City of Portland. The park was renamed in 1984 to honor Tom McCall, the Oregon governor who pledged his support for the beautification of the west bank of the Willamette River—harkening back to the City Beautiful plans at the turn of the century which envisioned parks and greenways along the river. The park is bordered by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west, and Willamette River to the east. In October 2012, Waterfront Park was voted one of America's ten greatest public spaces by the American Planning Association.
The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) is a non-profit, board-governed organization that regulates high school athletics and competitive activities via athletic conferences in the U.S. state of Oregon, providing equitable competition among its members, both public and private. The OSAA is based in Wilsonville.
Goose Hollow is a neighborhood in southwest Portland, Oregon. It acquired its distinctive name through early residents' practice of letting their geese run free in Tanner Creek Gulch and near the wooded ravine in the Tualatin Mountains known as the Tanner Creek Canyon. Tanner Creek Gulch was a 20-block-long, 50-foot-deep (15 m) gulch that started around SW 17th and Jefferson and carried the waters of Tanner Creek into Couch Lake. Over a century ago, Tanner Creek was buried 50 feet (15 m) underground, and the Tanner Creek Gulch was filled in. The only remaining part of the hollow is the ravine, Tanner Creek Canyon, carved out by Tanner Creek through which The Sunset Highway carrying US-26 passes and which the Vista Bridge spans, also called the Vista Viaduct.
The Daffodil Festival is a regional festival and royalty leadership program. The Grand Floral Parade is held in Pierce County, Washington every April. It consists of a flower parade and a year-long royalty program to select a festival queen from one of the 24 area high schools. Each year, the Royal Court spend thousands of hours promoting education, community pride and volunteerism in the county. In 2012, the Royal Court was named the "Official Ambassadors of Pierce County" by the County Executive and the Pierce County Council.
A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped by individual variety, colour or class in rose beds. Technically it is a specialized type of shrub garden, but normally treated as a type of flower garden, if only because its origins in Europe go back to at least the Middle Ages in Europe, when roses were effectively the largest and most popular flowers, already existing in numerous garden cultivars.
Mildred A. Schwab was an attorney and politician from Portland, Oregon, in the United States. She served as a City Commissioner from 1973 to 1986; she was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Neil Goldschmidt was elected mayor, and was re-elected three times. Her brother, Herbert M. Schwab, served on the Oregon Court of Appeals.
Presidents of the United States have frequently appeared on U.S. postage stamps since the mid-19th century. The United States Post Office Department released its first two postage stamps in 1847, featuring George Washington on one, and Benjamin Franklin on the other. The advent of presidents on postage stamps has been definitive to U.S. postage stamp design since the first issues were released and set the precedent that U.S. stamp designs would follow for many generations.
The city of Portland, Oregon is ideal for growing roses outdoors due to its location within the marine west coast climate region, its warm, dry summers and rainy but mild winters, and its heavy clay soils. Portland has been known as the City of Roses, or Rose City, since 1888, after Madame Caroline Testout, a large pink variety of hybrid tea rose bred in France, was introduced to the city. Thousands of rose bushes were planted, eventually lining 200 miles (320 km) of Portland's streets in preparation for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905.
Royal Rosarian is an outdoor 2011 bronze sculpture by American artist Bill Bane, located at the International Rose Test Garden, Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, United States.
The Frank E. Beach Memorial Fountain, officially titled Water Sculpture, is an abstract 1975 stainless steel fountain and sculpture by artist Lee Kelly and architect James Howell, installed in Washington Park's International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon. The memorial commemorates Frank E. Beach, who christened Portland the "City of Roses" and proposed the Rose Festival. It was commissioned by the Beach family and cost approximately $15,000. Previously administered by the Metropolitan Arts Commission, the work is now part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
The Portland Gold Award is given annually by the Portland Rose Society to new rose cultivars that demonstrate exceptional performance in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The first award was given in 1919 by the city of Portland, Oregon.
Georgiana Burton Pittock, was an Oregon pioneer and community leader based in Portland, Oregon. She founded the Portland Rose Society in 1888. The society's annual rose show grew into a rose parade and pageant by 1906, and was the foundation for the Portland Rose Festival. Pittock was actively involved in charities and cultural organizations in Portland from the 1870s through the early 1900s.
