page_title: Tom McCall Waterfront Park
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tom McCall Waterfront Park / History
caption_attribution_description: Governer Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon.
context_page_description: Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a 36.59-acre park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive, a major milestone in the freeway removal movement, the park was opened to the public in 1978. The park covers 13 tax lots and is owned by the City of Portland. The park was renamed in 1984 to honor Tom McCall, the Oregon governor who pledged his support for the beautification of the west bank of the Willamette River—harkening back to the City Beautiful plans at the turn of the century which envisioned parks and greenways along the river. The park is bordered by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west, and Willamette River to the east. In October 2012, Waterfront Park was voted one of America's ten greatest public spaces by the American Planning Association.
  The most common uses for the park are jogging, walking, biking, skateboarding, fountain play, lunching, basketball, fireworks viewing and boat watching. Due to its recreational use, lunch hours are peak-use hours for the waterfront park.
context_section_description: In 1903 the Olmsted Report identified several needs for the City of Portland.  Important items within the plan:
  need for parks within the city
  need for greenways along riverbanks
  need for preservation of river access for future generations
  These needs were readdressed in the 1912 Bennett Plan; however, the City of Portland had its sights set on the city itself and not on access to geographical features.
  One problem for downtown Portland and its location on the Willamette was that the river would flood occasionally during the winter. In 1920, a seawall was built to protect the downtown core. The seawall removed access to the river, a problem that would be exacerbated in 1940 with the construction of Harbor Drive along the bank of the river.
  In the mid-1960s, the completion of the Marquam Bridge for Interstate 5 led to a drop in Harbor Drive traffic. The Waterfront for People, a humorous civil disobedience group, organized a picnic on the sliver of land between Harbor Drive and the river. In 1968, Governor Tom McCall initiated a task force to study the feasibility of replacing Harbor Drive with open park space. ZGF Architects LLP was hired in 1971 to design the park. Removal of Harbor Drive began in 1974, and work progressed until the dedication of the park in 1978. The park gained instant popularity, and in 1984 it was renamed Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Along with Harbor Drive, the Portland Public Market building also stood where Waterfront Park is now.
  In 1978, the Francis Murnane Wharf, the only public memorial to a labor leader in the state of Oregon, was dedicated in the Park by Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The memorial consisted of a bronze plaque and steps leading down to a floating dock on the Willamette River. Murnane was a leader of Portland ILWU Local 8 and a gadfly for historic preservation. In 2009, the plaque and steps were removed by the expansion of the Saturday Market.
caption: Tom McCall Waterfront Park at night, from the Morrison Bridge (August 2005)
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