FARMLAND TO GOLF COURSE: THE MAKING OF A NEIGHBORHOOD
efore the Broadmoor development in the 1950s and before the Multnomah Amateur Athletic and Golf Club of 1924, much of the land between Raleigh Hills and Beaverton belonged to the Ladd and Reed Farm Company, its fields on rich Tualatin Valley oak savannas used to grow feed for their extensive herds of cattle and horses. By the turn of the century, some of the land had been sold to dairy farms, and in the 1920s when the golf craze hit Portland, courses were cut from the fields and spread among the farms.
The Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club purchased 225 acres from Ladd and Reed in 1924 and developed an eighteen hole championship course designed by William J. Lock of San Francisco. Morris Whitehouse architects designed the clubhouse which sat on the current site of West Slope Library and Raleigh Park School. The fairways stretched north to Canyon Drive, south to White Pine Lane, and west past 87th Avenue (then called Multnomah Club Road) and included the pond off 87th as the water hazard. The caddy shack, now a residence, sat above the pond at the end of Birchwood. For years, long stands of poplars to the south hinted at the old course boundary and the wide variety of heritage conifers, broad-leafed maples, willows, and oaks confirm careful landscaping. Two years after opening the golf club, its maintenance became too expensive and the M.A.A.C. sold its shares to a separate corporation who named it the Multnomah Golf Club.
By 1935, crippled by the Depression, the operation closed and the club house and some acreage were sold to Priscilla Gabel who used it for her new school: Gabel Country Day School (she taught Latin and James Beard taught English). Half acre plots sold here and there along existing roads: Laurelwood, Fairway, Birchwood, Parkview. Lyle Cobb bought ten acres on Brentwood where he raised prize palominos. But much of the old course lay in grassland where bobwhites paraded through yards, ducks and geese nested in the wetlands and along creeks that fed various strands of Fanno Creek. In autumn, bird hunters came to shoot pheasants and quail among the tall grasses. When winters were cold and snowy enough, children sledded down Gabel Hill (Broadway Drive, now 78th Avenue) and skated on the frozen pond, the former water hazard. Old photos from the 1940s show a clear view from 86th Avenue (formerly Wyndermere Circle) all the way to Sylvan.
Raleigh District 95, established in 1893, was a district unto itself until 1960 when Beaverton Unified. In 1928, thirty-two students attended Raleigh, in 1945, ten graduated eighth grade. But as the area filled with development after World War II, especially in the Broadmoor and Raleighwood areas, the school overflowed with students. In 1957, with an enrollment of 850 students, the district took Gabel Country Day School and its property by eminent domain and opened Raleigh Park in the Gabel buildings. Seventh and eighth graders from Raleigh Hills were bussed over for physical education in the cedar-shingled clubhouse gymnasium.
New classrooms were built for the elementary school in 1958, and the Gabel buildings served for a time as the Unified District’s headquarters, and later as a center for Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District offices. Today the Multnomah Golf Club land is shared by the West Slope Library, Raleigh Park School, and THPRD Raleigh Park and Pool.
- - Carolyn Wood
Carolyn grew up in the Raleigh Park neighborhood and she is an avid gardener, amateur historian, former English teacher and outdoorswoman. When she is not walking the Camino or trekking in the Alps you might find her practicing yoga or reading a good book.
The Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club purchased 225 acres from Ladd and Reed in 1924 and developed an eighteen hole championship course designed by William J. Lock of San Francisco. Morris Whitehouse architects designed the clubhouse which sat on the current site of West Slope Library and Raleigh Park School. The fairways stretched north to Canyon Drive, south to White Pine Lane, and west past 87th Avenue (then called Multnomah Club Road) and included the pond off 87th as the water hazard. The caddy shack, now a residence, sat above the pond at the end of Birchwood. For years, long stands of poplars to the south hinted at the old course boundary and the wide variety of heritage conifers, broad-leafed maples, willows, and oaks confirm careful landscaping. Two years after opening the golf club, its maintenance became too expensive and the M.A.A.C. sold its shares to a separate corporation who named it the Multnomah Golf Club.
By 1935, crippled by the Depression, the operation closed and the club house and some acreage were sold to Priscilla Gabel who used it for her new school: Gabel Country Day School (she taught Latin and James Beard taught English). Half acre plots sold here and there along existing roads: Laurelwood, Fairway, Birchwood, Parkview. Lyle Cobb bought ten acres on Brentwood where he raised prize palominos. But much of the old course lay in grassland where bobwhites paraded through yards, ducks and geese nested in the wetlands and along creeks that fed various strands of Fanno Creek. In autumn, bird hunters came to shoot pheasants and quail among the tall grasses. When winters were cold and snowy enough, children sledded down Gabel Hill (Broadway Drive, now 78th Avenue) and skated on the frozen pond, the former water hazard. Old photos from the 1940s show a clear view from 86th Avenue (formerly Wyndermere Circle) all the way to Sylvan.
Raleigh District 95, established in 1893, was a district unto itself until 1960 when Beaverton Unified. In 1928, thirty-two students attended Raleigh, in 1945, ten graduated eighth grade. But as the area filled with development after World War II, especially in the Broadmoor and Raleighwood areas, the school overflowed with students. In 1957, with an enrollment of 850 students, the district took Gabel Country Day School and its property by eminent domain and opened Raleigh Park in the Gabel buildings. Seventh and eighth graders from Raleigh Hills were bussed over for physical education in the cedar-shingled clubhouse gymnasium.
New classrooms were built for the elementary school in 1958, and the Gabel buildings served for a time as the Unified District’s headquarters, and later as a center for Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District offices. Today the Multnomah Golf Club land is shared by the West Slope Library, Raleigh Park School, and THPRD Raleigh Park and Pool.
- - Carolyn Wood
Carolyn grew up in the Raleigh Park neighborhood and she is an avid gardener, amateur historian, former English teacher and outdoorswoman. When she is not walking the Camino or trekking in the Alps you might find her practicing yoga or reading a good book.