They stopped by the SMILE station to clue us in
Sellwood’s a pretty quiet little neighborhood, but nestled down on the Willamette River is something you just don’t see very often… an amusement park in a residential neighborhood. Oaks Park is beginning its 120th year with big plans for the future, and we got to hear about it when Oaks Park CEO Brandon Roben and Marketing Director Emily McKay came by to tell SMILE about “the biggest improvements to the park since it was initially built in 1905”.
The Oaks Park we know today was originally “The Oaks” when it opened two days before the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition on May 30, 1905. It was built by Oregon Water Power & Railway Company because at the time, while the still-new convenience of electricity was just taking hold in residential and commercial applications, Portland’s streetcar system was the largest consumer of electricity. Building a “trolley park” to give streetcar riders a place to go on the weekends was a great way for Oregon Water & Power to increase demand for their product. It worked, attracting 300,000 visitors to The Oaks in its first year and now bringing in about 30,000 people a month through the peak summer season.
Ownership of the park passed over the years from Oregon Water Power, to park manager John Cordray, to superintendent Edward Bollinger, to his son Robert. In 1985 Robert donated the park to the new 501c3 Oaks Park Association with a mission to “preserve and perpetuate the historic amusement park as an affordable, safe, and family-friendly recreation attraction open to the general public”.
The Oaks Park Association presented its first master plan for the park a year later. They had big ideas including more beach access, a motorized floating dock, roller coasters, new entertainment buildings, expanded parking, and more. Unfortunately, the ideas came with a price tag of $58 million (in today’s dollars). The parking expansion was about the only thing that survived.
In 2018 they began a somewhat more restrained plan for improvement which was finalized just in time for 2020’s Covid Meltdown. Between 2020 and 2024, the Oaks Park Association worked with landscape architect Walker Macy and contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis to further refine the scope of the improvements to about $37 million. That’s still a big lift for a non-profit with limited cash but one Oaks Park thinks it can achieve, and the one they presented to SMILE.
Back in the day, Oaks Park was much like a quiet park with a couple rides and not rides with a park attached. Because a major goal of the non-profit is preservation and perpetuation, this original vision wil play a big role in the anticipated improvements. They’re trying to improve the area as a better place to spend the entire day, a quiet place to relax with family right next to all the exciting opportunities.
This will involve spreading the entertainment zone, improving pedestrian access, and creating better wayfinding signage. They plan to improve access to the river, possibly including the dock (motorized or not) from the 1986 plan. They plan to make the park entrance more of a showpiece. A restored picnic shelter, new office, and expanded rides are also on the way. And one major point; they’ll be trying to move as many structures as possible (like the office) out of the flood plain.
Though the plan anticipates improvements there’s no silver-bullet solution to parking or driving. After all, there’s no more land to expand onto and the park doesn’t have control over the problematic intersection of Oaks Park Way, Spokane St., a railroad track, and the pedestrian/bike path of the Springwater Corridor. But there will be some improvements where possible.
Changes and upgrades are on the way for the buildings as well. The Dance Pavillion has had drop ceiling tile roof for decades, but that will finally disappear to expose the rafters as it was in the original 1905 design. The Pavillion didn’t have walls originally, but they’ll keep those. Expect a new chandelier to light your dancing adventures.
A major point of the new Master Plan is to protect the incredible oak trees that give the park its name and much of its personality. They’ve lost several trees over the years to flood and disease, with the last one having an amazing 246 rings! Oaks Park is eager to re-invigorate the stock, so much of the Master Plan is devoted to adding 180 trees throughout the park.
Though Oaks Park has always been popular, they’ve also always had detractors. When the park first opened a City Council member described Oaks Park as “an immoral place” with “more drunkenness there than he had seen at any place in the City”. While that’s probably not a major criticism today, the planned 120’ drop tower ride has brought some controversy. Concern for the 12 victims of each drop isn’t the problem, it’s the impact of a twelve-story light tower on Oaks Bottom Wildlife refuge and surrounding neighborhood. The park said the ride would be operating 16 days in twilight, for a total of 52 problematic hours per year. Because Oaks Park predates much of Portland it’s grandfathered in many of the regulations and has already been granted a permit for the ride, but Brandon and Emily still did their best to address the concerns of their neighbors. You can read a much more in-depth examination of the tower controversy in this coverage from the Sellwood Bee.
Past Master Plans didn’t make it very far, this one seems to be happening. While there’s no timeline for Phase 2 completion, Phase 1 of the plan including the trees, new rides, and some building improvements is expected to be complete in Spring of 2026. But don’t wait… take your family to see Portland’s past and future, all in one place, today!
Digging Deeper…
A look back at 114 years of Oaks Park, Oregon’s oldest amusement park, Lizzy Acker in the Oregonian, Nov 2019
Activists challenge new thrill ride at Oaks Amusement Park, David Ashton in The Bee, Jan 2025
All the excellent coverage of Oaks Park from our neighborhood paper, The Bee
‘The Oaks,’ one of America’s few remaining trolley parks, turns 110, The Oregonian, updated May 2015
Oaks Amusement Park Proposes 147-Foot “Drop Tower” Ride, Rachel Saslow in Willamette Week, Jan 2025
