Previous Portland Neighborhood Tours…
Sellwood/Westmoreland\\\Hosford-Abernethy\\\ Irvington
Goose Hollow\\\Buckman\\\Multnomah Village\\\St. Johns\\\Mississippi
CTLH stands for
Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill. It is a collection of neighborhoods just south of downtown Portland that are grouped together under one neighborhood association (as I’ve mentioned in previous threads, I’m using City of Portland Neighborhood Association boundaries for these tours). In addition to the neighborhoods listed in the acronym “CTLH,” this area also includes the Johns Landing, Fulton, and South Waterfront neighborhoods, the last of which is a new high-rise district built on a former brownfield (you can skip to the end of this thread if you’re only interested in shiny new highrises
).
More generally, for this thread, I’ll divide the CTLH neighborhood into three separate areas:
Corbett/LairHill - north and west of Interstate 5;
South Waterfront - between I-5 and the Willamette River, north of Bancroft St.;
Terwilliger/John’s Landing/Fulton - south of South Waterfront and between I-5 and the river.
These areas are pretty well cut off from each other by the freeway. For example, though Corbett and South Waterfront are directly across I-5 from one another, it is quite difficult to get between the two on foot or on bike.
Here’s a map. (Cor. = Corbett, SoWa = South Waterfront, Terw. = Terwilliger, J.L. = John’s Landing. I’m not totally clear on the boundaries for John’s Landing vs. Fulton vs. Terwilliger, but that part of the hood is south of the diagonal portion of I-5…
The Corbett/Lair Hill part of the neighborhood is mostly residential. The “South Portland Historic District” is located here (though I didn’t see any signs indicating it – I found out about it online), and consists of many homes dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s probably the highest concentration of Victorian style homes of any Portland neighborhood I’ve seen. There’s not much retail in the area, and only a few small apartment buildings. It’s a hilly part of town (though I read that Lair Hill is actually not the name of a hill, but was named after lawyer/author William Lair Hill).
The aerial tram from South Waterfront to Oregon Health & Science University passes over the neighborhood.
OHSU up on the hill in the background
Mt. Hood in the distance…
Pedestrian underpass under Naito Pkwy., apparently built in an era when small, poorly lit tunnels were not considered a safety issue (actually, it’s not a dangerous area at all, and I didn’t have any reservations about using the tunnel).
Interesting name for a park…
The Terwilliger/John’s Landing/Fulton neighborhoods have a mixture of residential and commercial zoning, with most of the offices and retail located along Macadam Ave. This area seems a lot less historic, and some of it appears suburban, but there are some new townhome rows here and there (not terribly interesting, though). I didn’t spend too much time in this part of the neighborhood, so not too many photos…
Willamette Park is also in this part of the neighborhood on the banks of the river. It seemed like a really nice park, but it was pouring on the day I went there, so I didn’t get any pics.
These two were taken at the far southern end of the neighborhood looking north. The high-rises in the background are in South Waterfront.
South Waterfront is the most urban of these neighborhoods in terms of zoning. It’s pretty interesting watching a completely new high-density neighborhood being built from the ground up. Despite the growing density, it still lacks the vibrant street life of the Pearl District. I suspect that this will change as more retail opens and more buildings are built. Buildings in the district do a pretty good job of interacting with the sidewalk. There is retail, or space for retail on the ground level of most, and the blocks in the neighborhood are similar to Portland’s downtown or Pearl District grid – short, walkable, with no more than two traffic lanes per street.
More to come…
Ross Island Bridge – it doesn’t go to Ross Island, which is inaccessible to the public. The bridge crosses the Willamette just north of the island. The high-rise buildings in the background are the Lloyd District.
The Portland Streetcar has its southern terminus here. There is talk of extending it south to Lake Oswego, a southern suburb, using the existing tracks for the Willamette Shore Trolley, a tourist-oriented historic trolley line.
And what tour of CTLH (and South Waterfront in particular) would be complete without the aerial tram? The tram carries people from Oregon Health & Science University’s office building up the hill to OHSU’s hospital (anyone can ride, it’s not limited to OHSU employees or patients). The views of downtown and the Willamette River are spectacular – way too good for my camera.
From the tram (sorry about the glare, the sun was on the wrong side on the way up). This is looking down at the Corbett & Lair Hill sections of CTLH…
At the top looking down at South Waterfront with Corbett and Lair Hill in the foreground
That’s the Marquam bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Willamette. The yellow & blue tent to the right of the bridge is for Cirque du Soleil.
Downtown Portland
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). Not exactly cheap, but the views are great, and I couldn't pass it up for the neighborhood tour!
These threads are great! 
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