Peninsula Park

Peninsula Park located in Portland "the City of Roses" is a formally designed neighborhood park and the city's first public rose garden and first community center, an historically designated bandstand, and Portland's second oldest playground built in the early 1900's.





The park was purchased by the city in 1909 for the sum of $60,000 with funds raised in a 1908 bond measure. Originally owned by local businesswoman Liverpool Liz, it had been the site for a roadhouse and racetrack for quarter-mile horse racing. An autopark and campground were also included in the original parcel. Planned by renowned Oregon architects Ellis Lawrence and Ormond R. Bean, the park was a result of Portland's 1912 'City Beautiful' movement. Completed in 1913, much remains of the original features, including the lantern-style streetlights, the stone pillars, vast brickwork, and the nearly 100-year-old fountain in the center of the rose garden.



The rose garden is one of Portland's most beautiful formal rose gardens, with 8,900 plantings on a two-acre site. Upon entering the park from Ainsworth and Albina Streets, visitors are greeted by magnificent plantings of 65 rose varieties which border the steps leading to the sunken rose garden, the only one in Oregon. The rose garden was the showplace of its time, with 300,000 visitors in the first year alone. The official Portland rose, named Mme. Caroline Testout, is maintained in the garden. Once planted by the thousands along the streets of Portland, this rose earned Portland the name 'City of Roses.'





Walking down the stairs to the sunken rose garden, you will find peace through lush paths, sweeping archways and over two acres packed with nearly 9,000 traditional rose plantings.




You can visit this garden at:
700 N Rosa Parks Way
Portland, OR 97217