Goose Hollow, Portland, Oregon

Goose Hollow
Neighborhood
Map
Location in Portland
Coordinates: 45°31′11″N 122°41′35″W / 45.51963°N 122.69299°W / 45.51963; -122.69299PDF map
CountryUnited States
StateOregon
CityPortland
Government
 • AssociationGoose Hollow Foothills League
 • CoalitionNeighbors West/Northwest
Area
 • Total
0.45 sq mi (1.17 km2)
Population
 (2000)[1]
 • Total
5,433
 • Density12,000/sq mi (4,600/km2)
Housing
 • No. of households3792
 • Occupancy rate91% occupied
 • Owner-occupied540 households (14%)
 • Renting3252 households (86%)
 • Avg. household size1.43 persons

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.[2][3] Tanner Creek Gulch was a 20-block-long, 50-foot-deep (15 m) gulch (or hollow) that started around SW 17th and Jefferson and carried the waters of Tanner Creek into Couch Lake (now the site of Old Town/Chinatown and the Pearl District). Over a century ago, Tanner Creek was buried 50 feet (15 m) underground (where it still drains the West Hills), and the Tanner Creek Gulch was filled in.[4] 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.[5]

The historically important Canyon Road connects to Jefferson Street underneath the Vista Bridge and was also called "The Great Plank Road." Canyon Road passed through Tanner Creek Canyon, which is how the road acquired its name. However, in the 1960s the section of Canyon Road that passes through the canyon was elevated (infilled with excavated dirt from Interstate 405's construction) and is now just a section of Highway 26. The Goose Hollow name had gone out of common usage for several decades until former mayor Bud Clark named his pub The Goose Hollow Inn in 1967 in an effort to "rekindle civic regard for the neighborhood."[6] Clark resided in the Goose Hollow neighborhood.

  1. ^ a b Demographics (2000)
  2. ^ Gaston, Joseph (1912). "13". The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811–1912 . Vol. 1.
  3. ^ Prince 2011, p. 18.
  4. ^ Prince 2011, p. 9.
  5. ^ Prince 2011, p. 2.
  6. ^ Prince 2011, p. 10.