Skidmore Fountain | |
Portland Historic Landmark | |
Skidmore Fountain | |
Location | Portland, Oregon, United States |
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Coordinates | 45°31′21″N122°40′16″W / 45.52240°N 122.67108°W Coordinates: 45°31′21″N122°40′16″W / 45.52240°N 122.67108°W |
Built | 1888 |
Sculptor | Olin Levi Warner |
Part of | Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District (ID75001597) |
Designated CP | December 6, 1975 |
The Skidmore Fountain is a historic fountain in Portland, Oregon, United States.
The fountain is a contributing property of and the namesake for the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, which is also a National Historic Landmark. [1]
The fountain has also been designated a Portland Historic Landmark and underwent restoration in 2005. [2] [3]
It was dedicated September 22, 1888, in memory of Stephen G. Skidmore, a wealthy Portland druggist who died in 1883, [3] and partly financed by his will. It was designed by sculptor Olin Levi Warner for $18,000, all of which was donated. [4] It is styled after fountains Skidmore viewed at Versailles on his visit to the 1878 Paris Exposition [3] and intended for "horses, men and dogs" to drink from. [5] Henry Weinhard offered to pump beer into the fountain at the dedication. [3] It is Portland's "oldest piece of public art". [6] [7]
The fountain is located near the west end of the Burnside Bridge at SW First and Ankeny streets within downtown Portland. The MAX Light Rail line runs past it and has a nearby stop named after the fountain. When Portland Saturday Market is operating, the open area around the fountain attracts street performers and entertained spectators. The fountain also serves as a gathering point for several Portland events, such as SantaCon, Plunderathon, Zombiewalk and several protest/activist gatherings.
In 2003, when characterizing the neighborhood, Portland Development Commission commented, "there are significant public safety issues around the Skidmore Fountain Station under the Burnside Bridge", and said it, "experiences one of the highest drug related arrest rates in the city". [8]
The fountain's base has various inscriptions on its different faces. That on the northwest side is a quotation from C.E.S. Wood: "Good citizens are the riches of a city". [7] [9]
The Portland Saturday Market is an outdoor arts and crafts market in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest continuously operated outdoor market in the United States. It is held every Saturday and Sunday from the beginning of March through December 24, in Tom McCall Waterfront Park underneath Burnside Bridge and south of the bridge, as well as within an adjacent plaza just across Naito Parkway, extending west to the Skidmore Fountain. The market's hours of operations are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m on Sundays, and admission is free. The market is accessible by foot, bicycle, Segway, and TriMet's MAX Light Rail line which stops near the market at the Skidmore Fountain stop. The market has over 400 members and generates an estimated $12 million in gross sales annually. It has become a central economic engine for the historic Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, and attracts an estimated 750,000 visitors to this area each year.
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 Skidmore Fountain station is a light rail station on the MAX Blue and Red Lines in Portland, Oregon. It is currently the fifth stop eastbound on the Eastside MAX. It was previously also served by the Yellow Line, from 2004 to 2009, until that line's relocation to the Portland Transit Mall.
Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found.
Washington Park is a public urban park in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It includes a zoo, forestry museum, arboretum, children's museum, rose garden, Japanese garden, amphitheatre, memorials, archery range, tennis courts, soccer field, picnic areas, playgrounds, public art and many acres of wild forest with miles of trails.
This is a list of properties and historic districts in Oregon that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are listings in all of Oregon's 36 counties.
Old Town Chinatown is the official Chinatown of the Northwest section of Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District and the Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods. It includes the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District and the Portland New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been referred to as the "skid row" of Portland.
The Henry Weinhard Brewery complex, also the Cellar Building and Brewhouse and Henry Weinhard's City Brewery, is a former brewery in Portland, Oregon. Since 2000, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In that same year, construction began to reuse the property as a multi-block, mixed-use development known as the Brewery Blocks.
The Flatiron Building, also known as Ringlers Annex and Espresso Bar is a historic two-story building in downtown Portland, Oregon. Since 1989, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Previously, it had been designated a Portland Landmark by the city's Historic Landmarks Commission in 1988. This small building has a triangular footprint, as it sits at the end of a triangular lot bounded by West Burnside, SW Stark, and 12th Streets.
The Simon Benson House is a 19th century house located in downtown Portland, Oregon. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The F. M. Knight Building in southeast Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon is a two-story general commercial building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in an Italianate style in about 1890, it was added to the register in 1989.
The Blake McFall Company Building, also known as the Emmett Building, in southeast Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon, is a five-story commercial warehouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by McNaughton & Raymond of Portland and built in 1915, it was added to the register in 1990. The 100-by-200-foot structure is representative of a group of timber-framed loft warehouses built in the early 20th century on the east side of the Willamette River.
The Merchant Hotel, also known as the Merchants' Hotel, is a historic former hotel building in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located at 121 N.W. Second Avenue in Old Town Chinatown. It is a contributing property in the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, which was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1977. It is one of the few remaining examples of Victorian Italianate, cast iron architecture on the West Coast. It occupies half of a city block, specifically along the south side of N.W. Davis Street from Second to Third Avenues.
Elk, also known as the David P. Thompson Fountain, David P. Thompson Monument, Elk Fountain, or the Thompson Elk, was a historic outdoor fountain and bronze sculpture by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The statue was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1900 for display in Downtown Portland's Plaza Blocks. It is owned by Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC). The monument became a gathering place for demonstrations by George Floyd protesters, who lit several fires in the troughs along the base in July 2020. The undamaged bronze elk statue was removed for cleaning and safekeeping on July 2, 2020. The stone fountain was removed on July 17, 2020 after RACC determined there was severe damage to the stone and basin of the fountain.
The Fechheimer & White Building is a historic building located at 233 SW Naito Parkway in Portland, Oregon. Designed by an unknown architect, it was built in 1885 and features cast-iron by Willamette Iron Works. It is adjacent to the Hallock–McMillan Building. In 1975, it was listed as a "primary landmark" in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination of the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, the building's designation subsequently "translated" to "contributing property" under post-1970s NRHP terminology. The building's year of construction has been given alternatively as 1870, as opposed to 1885.
The West Ankeny Car Barns Bay E is a former streetcar carbarn in Portland, Oregon, that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Completed in 1911, it was one of three buildings that collectively made up the Ankeny Car Barns complex of the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P), the owner and operator of Portland's streetcar system at the time. By 1978, the brick building had become the only surviving structure from the Ankeny complex and one of only two surviving remnants of carbarn complexes of the Portland area's large street railway and interurban system of the past, the other being the PRL&P's Sellwood Division Carbarn Office and Clubhouse.
The Packy mural was a public artwork depicting the elephant of the same name, painted on the Skidmore Fountain Building in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. The artwork was designed by Eric Larsen and painted in 1990 by North Pacific Sign and Design, but was destroyed during the building's 2008 renovation to become the new headquarters for Mercy Corps.
The Blagen Block is an historic building in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. The four-story building was designed by Warren H. Williams and completed in 1888. In 1970, the city's Historic Landmarks Commission designated the Blagen Block as a Portland Historic Landmark. In 1975, it was listed as a primary landmark in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination of the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, the building's designation subsequently translated to "contributing property" under post-1970s NRHP terminology. Since 2014, Airbnb has had offices in the building, opening its office in December of that year.
Naito Parkway is a major thoroughfare of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was formerly known as Front Avenue and Front Street and was renamed in 1996 to honor Bill Naito. It runs between SW Barbur Boulevard and NW Front Avenue, and adjacent to Tom McCall Waterfront Park through Downtown Portland.
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