Oaks Amusement Park, Looking North on the Avenue - c. 1915

"The Avenue" is the name given to the boardwalk at Oaks Amusement Park in Sellwood when it opened in 1905. This view was captured in about 1915. It appears that a small group of employees are getting the park ready for visitors.

The lack of a crowd gives us a clearer look at the park itself. Oaks Park was built by the Oregon Water Power and Railway Company, at a time when trolley parks were often constructed along streetcar lines. It attracted 300,000 visitors its first year, partly due to the number of tourists who were in Portland for the Lewis and Clark Exposition.

Now one of the oldest amusement parks in the country, in 1985 the park was donated to Oaks Park Association by the Bollinger family, who had owned the park for sixty years.

-- This photo is restored and printed by Old Oregon.