Kenton, Portland, Oregon

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Paul Bunyan, a Kenton landmark

Kenton is a neighborhood in the North section of Portland, Oregon.

[edit] Geography

Kenton's northern border is formed by the channel of the Columbia River that separates this region of Portland from Hayden Island. Kenton's eastern boundary is the Interstate 5 freeway and the neighborhood's southern edge is defined by N Lombard Street. The western border (traveling from north to south, respectively) follows N Portland Road, N Columbia Boulevard and, then, N Chautauqua Boulevard.

Neighborhoods bordering Kenton are: Hayden Island to the north; Bridgeton, Sunderland, and Piedmont to the east; Arbor Lodge to the south; University Park to the southwest; and Portsmouth and St. Johns to the west.

The Columbia Slough runs through the Kenton neighborhood.

Kenton is home to the Portland International Raceway and also the Portland Metropolitan Exposition (Expo) Center. The historical site of Vanport City, a public housing project built to provide homes for World War II shipbuilders (and later destroyed by a 1948 flood), is also located within the present boundaries of the Kenton neighborhood.

Kenton is a racially diverse working class neighborhood. Kenton was also one of Portland's first black neighborhoods following the Vanport flood.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

Kenton was a company town built by the Swift Meat Packing Company, with major development beginning circa 1911. The area was later annexed by the City of Portland, becoming home to Portland's main stockyards and the center of the west coast cattle trade for a time. The 1959 Oregon Centennial Celebrations were held in Kenton. A large statue of Paul Bunyan was built at the intersection of N Interstate Avenue and N Argyle Street (just north of Kenton's historic business district on N Denver Avenue) as a reminder of those centennial festivities. The statue now stands at the corner or N Interstate Avenue and N Denver Avenue across from the Kenton/N Denver Ave light rail station, and is considered a symbol of the neighborhood.

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