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Ladd's Addition Historic District
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The central traffic circle in Ladd's Addition.
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| Location: | Portland, Oregon |
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| Built: | Apx. 1891 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 88001310 |
| Added to NRHP: | August 31, 1988 |
Ladd's Addition is one of the oldest residential districts in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood in the southeast part of the city. Roughly eight blocks (east-west) by ten blocks (north-south) in size (by reference to the external grid), Ladd's is bordered by SE Hawthorne, Division, 12th, and 20th streets. The neighborhood is known in Portland for its diagonal street pattern, which contrasts markedly with the regular grid of the surrounding areas. This unconventional street layout can be disorienting to drivers.
Ladd's Addition is named after William S. Ladd, a nineteenth-century Portland mayor who originally owned a 126-acre (500,000 m²) farm on the land. In 1891 (when the city of East Portland was merged into Portland) Ladd decided to subdivide the land for residential use. Rather than adopt the standard orthogonal grid of the majority of Portland, Ladd followed the inspiration of Pierre L'Enfant's plan for Washington, D.C. and created a diagonal "wagon wheel" arrangement, including four small diamond-shaped rose gardens and a central traffic circle surrounding a park.
The narrow streets of Ladd's Addition are lined with American Elm trees. The Save Our Elms organization inoculates the elm trees yearly for Dutch elm disease.[1] Each of the four smaller, diamond-shaped "circles" to the east, west, north, and south contains one of Portland's test rose gardens.[2] Friends of Ladd's Addition Gardens (FLAG), regularly solicits money and volunteers to maintain the rose gardens.[3]
The entire Ladd's Addition neighborhood was designated a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.[4]
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