Beaverton History Trivia

June 9, 2016 11:41 pm Published by

By Beaverton Historical Society

  • – Beaverton became a county registered township on December 28th, 1868.
  • – Almost 90% of the native Atfalati’s who inhabited the area for thousands of years were gone by the time the first settlers arrived in the late 1840’s.
  • – Hall Blvd was the original Hwy 217 before the freeway was built in the 1970s.
  • – The Atfalati natives referred to the area we call Beaverton as Chikeipi, meaning ‘place of the beaver.’
  • – The land for the city park was donated by William Hocken, former mayor of Beaverton (1914-1917).
  • – Sunset Hwy (Hwy 26) got its name from Sunset Division of the US Army’s 41st Infantry in 1946.
  • – Allen Blvd is named after Orrin Sweet Allen who came to Beaverton in the 1870’s.
  • – Denney Rd is named after Thomas Denney who travelled the Oregon Trail in 1849 before settling in Beaverton in 1850.
  • – In 1896, Frank Livermore operated a sawmill on 280 acres off Wier Rd
  • – Before being platted Beaverton in 1868, this area consisting mainly of farmers was referred to as “Beaverdam”.
  • – Before homes in Murrayhill there were walnut groves.
  • – Peter Scholls came to Oregon in 1847 and built a Ferry to cross the Tualatin River.
  • – Murray Blvd, named after Owen Murray of Cedar Mill, used to be 145th Ave.
  • – The first settlers in Beaverton were Captain Lawrence Hall and Augustus Fanno in 1847.
  • – The first commercial building was a log cabin general store built by George Betts in 1868.
  • – Beaverton was established as a city on February 10th, 1893 (Population 400).
  • – Cedar Hills Crossing used to be the Charles Bernard Airport.
  • – As recent as 1971, Farmington Rd used to dead end at Hall Blvd.
  • – There is a Beaverton time capsule buried in the sidewalk near Beaverton Bakery on the corner of Hall Blvd and Broadway.
  • – The native Americans who lived in the Beaverton area were known as the Atfalati, a division of the area’s Kalapuya tribe.
  • – The Beaverton main post office is located on Betts Ave, a street named after our first post master, George Betts.
  • – Built in 1857, the Fanno Farmhouse is the oldest structure in Beaverton.
  • – Built in 1914, the Cady Building is the oldest brick structure in Beaverton.
  • – The railroad came to Beaverton in 1871.
  • – Premium Pictures Studio, located on Erickson Ave, was a very successful silent movie studio in the 1920’s producing over 30 films.
  • – Washington Square Mall was originally supposed to be located on the corner of Hall Blvd and Cedar Hills Blvd.
  • – Belle and Ralph Jenkins began work on their estate in 1912.
  • – Otto Erickson opened the first Ford dealership in the area and hired his step son, Guy Carr, to help build and teach the new owners how to drive.
  • – Many of the streets in Beaverton are named after the early settlers who arrived here in the 1800’s.
  • – The Sexton Mountain neighborhood was named after Edward and India
  • – Sexton who settled their land claim in 1853.
  • – A large part of the Red Tail Golf Course and most of the Progress area was settled by Henry Tucker in the 1850’s.
  • – Samual Stott’s land claim in 1851 encompassed most of present day old town Beaverton.
  • – Beaverton’s first school teacher, Mary Ann Spencer, taught out of the log cabin of Samual Stott.
  • – In 1851, Peter and Mary Ann Spencer travelled to Beaverton via ship around the Cape Horn of South America fighting numerous storms that pushed them off course into antarctic waters, escaping pirates and enduring endless days adrift with no wind.
  • – Many of Beaverton’s founding families are buried in Crescent Grove Cemetery on Greenburg Rd.
  • – Barnes Rd is named after Englishman William Barnes who worked as a gardener before opening a restaurant in 1880.
  • – The Beaverton Bakery operates out of the former historic home of Dr Francis Robinson, Beaverton’s first doctor in 1885.
  • – The population in 1950 was 2,912; by 1960 it doubled to 5,937.
  • – Sexton Mountain Road is named after Edward Sexton who settled his land claim in 1853 at the age of 31.
  • – Roy Rogers Rd was named after a former mayor of Tualatin.
  • – Population in Beaverton/Washington County by Decade
    1850: ~ / 2,652
    1860: ~ / 2,801
    1870: ~ / 4,261
    1880: ~ / 7,682
    1890: ~ / 11,972
    1900: 249 / 14,467
    1910: 586 / 21,522
    1920: 580 / 26,376
    1930: 863 / 30,275
    1940: 1,052 / 39,194
    1950: 2,512 / 61,269
    1960: 5,937 / 92,237
    1970: 18,577 / 157,920
    1980: 30,582 / 245,808
    1990: 53,307 / 311,554
    2000: 76,129 / 445,342

 

 

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This post was written by Michael Wong

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