There’s a lot of people on the East side of Portland who don’t even know about their city’s downtown park blocks. They’re active, well used blocks that are often overlooked by tourists or visitors from the other side of the river. There’s an interesting story behind them.
They were the brain child and dream of Daniel H. Lownsdale in 1852; his dream of making sure there were parks in the growing city, that great growth and expansion he could see even way back then. He gave 11 narrow blocks of his property to the city for a public park, which was in fact nothing more than unimproved roadway until 1875. The southern-most blocks were actually part of the Great Plank Road until 1877, when landscaping of the blocks finally became a reality.
The city’s first landscape designer Louis G. Pfunder bought and placed the original 104 poplars and elm trees that provide us today with a cool, shady green canopy full of birds. In 1885 the city hired it’s first park keeper and the park began to appear more like a well cared-for park.
The Northernmost of the South Park blocks is on SW Park between Main and Salmon streets and is named Shemanski Park for a Polish clockmaker immigrant who came to Portland and became a rich businessman. In 1926 he donated a triangular fountain to the city to express his thanks for what Portland had done for him.
The fountain is a three-cornered masterpiece that has basins supported by full-breasted angels with small bowls on the three feet so that dogs can come and quench their thirst. In the center stands a woman carrying a water jar on her shoulder. This cast Oregon sandstone structure was designed by Portland architect Carl L. Linde, who designed many of Portland’s unique and stylish homes and buildings.
The woman in the center is a bronze sculpture called, “Rebecca at the Well” and was done by Oliver Laurence Barrett, an art professor at the University of Oregon. Not the original plan for the center of the fountain, Shemanski thought it better fit because the biblical wife of Isaac was known for her love of animals and kindness to strangers.
The block is paved with two colors of concrete bricks, and a large ‘stage’ sits at the north side of the block. Perfect for artists of any kind to show off their talents and skills, this park is a favorite of many.
The northernmost end of this block holds the Simon Benson Memorial erected in 1959 and was planned at the same time as the Benson Hotel was built. Benson was a colorful character and philanthropist and he gave 54 brass water fountains (still used today) to Portland in an effort to get people to stop drinking so much beer. He thought they were simply thirsty, and therefore offered them a way to get water at every turn in the downtown area.
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