St. Johns, Portland, Oregon

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St. Johns is a neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located in North Portland on the tip of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Willamette River and the Columbia River.

St. Johns is named in honor of settler James John, who laid out the original eight block town site in 1865. He reportedly was a recluse, which inspired the population to address him as "Saint" John. (An alternate version of the story says that he never visited the local brothel, and that's why he was called "Saint" John.) The site eventually became a rival to other Willamette River townsites vying to become the Head of Navigation on the upper Willamette. St. Johns was originally a separate incorporated city, annexed by Portland in 1915.

St. Johns is bordered by the Columbia River (separating it from Hayden Island) to the northeast, the Willamette River (separating it from Sauvie Island and Linnton) to the northwest, the North Portland railroad cut (separating it from the University Park, Portsmouth, and Kenton neighborhoods) to the southeast, and the Cathedral Park neighborhood to the southwest. The main business district of St. Johns (referred to as "Downtown St. Johns") is around the intersection of Lombard and Philadelphia Streets.

The St. Johns Bridge is named after the neighborhood, though it actually connects neighboring Cathedral Park and not the St. Johns neighborhood itself. The bridge is host to a pair of breeding Peregrine Falcons.^{[citation needed]}

There are numerous parks and natural areas located in St. Johns, including Kelley Point Park (1984), Pier Park (1959), and the Smith and Bybee Lakes wildlife sanctuary (1961).

The northern portion of the neighborhood is a vast industrial landscape of huge warehouses, parking lots, and cargo facilities, including the 11 km² Rivergate Industrial District of the Port of Portland.

[edit] External links

• St. Johns Neighborhood Association
• St. Johns Neighborhood Guide (PortlandNeighborhood.com)
• North Portland Walking Map
• St. Johns Sentinel
• North Portland Business Association

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

St. Johns' Kelley Point Park that was originally created by the Port of Portland. It is named for New Englander Hall Jackson Kelley (1790-1874), one of the most vocal advocates for Oregon in the first half of the 19th century; Kelley spent most of his life trying to win notice for having sparked American interest in the Pacific Northwest. Kelley unsuccessfully attempted to establish a city at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers in 1926, and the site was named Kelley Point; now the site that was once envisioned as a city is a park on an isolated tip of land.