St. Johns

St. Johns has older roots than Portland itself. William Clark and eight men camped at the site on April 2, 1806 — it had long been a fishing and gathering place for Indigenous tribes. James John, an English immigrant, settled here in 1847 and operated a ferry across the Willamette. The town of St. Johns incorporated in 1902 and grew into a fully functioning small city with its own schools, fire department, and commercial district.

Portland annexed St. Johns in 1915 — a consolidation that St. Johns residents resisted and that many have felt ambivalent about for more than a century. The neighborhood is geographically isolated from the rest of Portland, separated by industrial zones and the river. It has retained a small-town character that other Portland neighborhoods absorbed by the city lost decades ago.

The main commercial strip on N Lombard and Philadelphia has expanded significantly in recent years. Tulip Bakery, Proper Eats, and a growing number of independent coffee shops and restaurants have made St. Johns a destination rather than just a drive-through. The neighborhood still has the working-class diner culture that many Portland neighborhoods have lost.

The St. Johns Bridge, completed in 1931, is the only steel suspension bridge in Portland and is generally considered one of the most beautiful bridges on the West Coast. Designer David Steinman modeled the 400-foot Gothic towers after medieval cathedrals. The view from Cathedral Park below — looking up through the arches with the Willamette in front — is genuinely magnificent and free.

Cathedral Park, which takes its name from a 1968 newspaper photograph that described the bridge's arches as cathedral-like, was created through eight years of community fundraising. Howard Galbraith, the unofficial mayor of St. Johns, organized the effort after growing tired of the junkyard that had accumulated under the bridge's eastern tower.