Documenting Hillsboro History: Orenco

• Beginnings of the Oregon Nursery Company:  1867-1905
• Orenco's Heyday:  1908-1920s
• Decline and Disincorporation:  1927-1938
• Orenco Historic Survey:  2009
• Survey Findings
• Actions following Survey Completion
• Contacts

Beginnings of the Oregon Nursery Company:  1867-1905

The Oregon Nursery Company was originally established in 1867.  In 1892 partners Archibald McGill and Malcolm McDonald purchased the company, which employed approximately 300, and was located on 600 leased near Salem.  When the office and warehouse burned in 1905, McGill and McDonald searched the state for a new site, and settled on the area northeast of Hillsboro. 

In 1906, McGill and McDonald purchased almost 1200 acres and laid out the nursery operations.  They also platted a company town for employees:   around a dozen homes were actually moved from Salem for workers and their families.  Several of these families had come from Hungary.  The Hungarians’ homes were built along Quatama Road, and their church was located at the corner of NW 216th Avenue and Quatama. 

McGill built a palatial house in 1907, and a year later the Oregon Electric Railway established service on a line just south of McGill’s home.   In 1909 the Company constructed an office and two large packing houses just north of the new rail lines.  The transplanted Oregon Nursery Company continued to grow and thrive.  McDonald built his house in 1912 just east of the platted town, which was incorporated in 1913 with the name “Orenco” a contraction of the Company name.  McDonald served as Orenco’s Mayor for its first eight years.  Both McGill’s and McDonald’s homes still stand today. 

In 1913 citizens solicited donations to build wooden sidewalks, allowing rural neighbors to come into town during the winter without wading through mud.  Several miles of wooden plank sidewalks were built, including an extension to Mayor McDonald’s home. 

The Orenco Herald newspaper was printed in January of 1914.  Its first issue included a straight forward real estate pitch: 

 

"Mr. Homeseeker, you will make no mistake if you cast your lot in with Orenco. You can buy lots or acreage at reasonable prices; you are within a few minutes’ ride of Portland; you have electric lights and telephone service; fuel is cheap and life is worth living.”

The pitch was apparently successful:  in 1914 the Oregon Electric Railway trains were carrying 1000 passengers a month from Orenco.  By 1915 the town had a city hall, fire department, school, two churches, a hotel, several stores, two stables, a post office, and a 25 piece military-style band. 

In 1924 a movie company from Beaverton made a film on location in Orenco about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, better know as the “Mounties.”  Many Orenco residents had parts in the picture and Orenco city hall was used as the Mounties’ headquarters.

Just before World War I, the Oregon Nursery Company expanded significantly, planting over 1,000,000 apple trees in anticipation of entering new European markets.  The onset of the war crushed this possibility.  The Company began losing money as the costs of maintaining the slow-moving inventory rose and competition increased.  In 1927, the 60-year old company declared bankruptcy and was dissolved.  With the loss of its only large employers, the small town entered a sharp decline as well.  Although some former employees became independent nurserymen, most moved elsewhere to look for work.  In 1938 eight residents representing the only families remaining voted to disincorporate the community. 

Orenco Historic Survey:  2009

Fieldwork for a Reconnaissance Level Survey (RLS) of the Orenco neighborhood was completed during winter 2008 and spring 2009 to evaluate the area’s potential as a National Register Historic District.  The fieldwork consisted of exterior photographs of properties within the survey area, utilizing the standards in the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) manual.  The collected data (maps and photographs) were then entered into the SHPO database.

The boundaries of the survey area roughly coincide with the boundaries of the Orenco Townsite Conservation District. The rough boundaries of the surveyed area were:   Cornelius Pass Road on the east; 231st Avenue on the west; Quatama Road and Marina Drive on the south; and the MAX line on the north.  The survey area was intentionally broad, to include several alternative justifiable boundaries for a potential National Register District.  There are 260 properties within the survey boundary.

• 255 of the 260 properties surveyed were categorized as “domestic.”  Of the remainder, two were categorized as originally associated with “commerce/trade;” two as “religion;” and one as “government” (the fire station). 

 

• A majority of the properties (189) were constructed later than the historic period (1906-1938). 

 

• Seventy-one (71) buildings were constructed within the historic period.

 

• Of those 71 properties, 53 were found to be potentially “eligible contributing” (EC) to a potential National Register Historic District.  To view an interactive map of the EC properties please click here.

 

• Within the survey boundaries, the percentage of EC properties was very low (53 out of 260, or 20.4%) primarily due to high rates of infill construction and redevelopment since the end of the historic period in 1938.  This percentage is too low to consider including the entire survey area in a historic district. 

 

• If a smaller district boundary were proposed, excluding infill development constructed since the 1990s, the percentage of the EC sites would rise.  The smaller district boundaries would roughly be:  NW Alder street on the north; NW Quatama Road on the south; NW 231st Avenue on the west and SW 228th Avenue on the east.  To view a map of this potential boundary please click here.

• The smaller suggested boundary has three drawbacks: 
• It excludes the McDonald House and the McGill (Pittman) House;
• Its irregular boundary is inconsistent with recognized standards for district boundaries;
• an additional 16 sites inside the boundary are outside the historic period (1906 to 1938), thereby further reducing the percentage of potentially EC properties.

Actions following Survey Completion

Given the relatively low percentages of eligible contributing sites within even a compromised potential District boundary, the State Historic Preservation Office suggested that the HLAC consider developing a historic context statement for Hillsboro as a whole and develop first the section on Orenco.  A historic context statement is a written history of a specific geographical area in the context of themes or subjects within a specific time frame.  The Orenco chapter in the historic context statement for Hillsboro would identify the types of properties within Orenco, their associated historical themes, significance and the pattern of development over time.  SHPO staff further recommended that a Multiple Property Submission (MPS) be considered for willing owners of properties in Orenco that are potentially eligible for the National Register.

 

The City of Hillsboro applied for a second Certified Local Government grant in February 2010 to partially fund development of the historic context statement and the MPS.  If the grant is received, work on the context statement and the MPS will begin in the summer of 2011. 

Contacts

Questions or concerns regarding the Orenco Reconnaissance Level Survey, the development of the Hillsboro Historic Context Statement, or future potential Multiple Property Submission documents should be directed to Kimberli Fitzgerald or Deborah Raber: 

Kimberli Fitzgerald

Historic Preservation Consultant  

Hillsboro Planning Department

Phone: (503) 681-5203

Fax: (503) 681-6245   

Deborah Raber

Project Manager

Hillsboro Planning Department

Phone: (503) 681-6155

Fax: (503) 681-6245      

Email       

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