Planning and conservation › Natural areas, parks and trails › Planning future parks › Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery site design
Learn more about Metro's plans for a memorial and natural area at Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery.
Founded in 1855 on 10 acres of land far removed from Portland's city center, the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery contains some of Portland's most prominent first residents. Today, the 30-acre cemetery is a treasured historic resource with an extraordinary, multicultural past. The cemetery sustains the memory of military veterans, firefighters and asylum patients and is a final resting place for people of diverse ethnicities and nationalities including Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Ukrainians, Vietnamese and African Americans.
As part of a site design and master plan project for the cemetery, Metro has been working with partners and the surrounding community to recognize early Chinese immigrants and patients of Dr. Hawthorne, founder of Portland's first mental health hospital, interred at the southwest corner of the cemetery, referred to as Block 14. Download site design drawings below
In 1997 Multnomah County turned over all cemetery functions to Metro but retained the Morrison Building, located at the Block 14 property on the southeast side of the cemetery. Following discovery of the remains of Chinese immigrants buried near the building in 2004, city leaders proposed removing the government building and reuniting the property with the main cemetery. The Morrison property title was transferred to Metro in 2007.
In February 2008, Metro convened the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery work group to help shape the future of the cemetery and a site plan for Block 14. The committee included representatives from the Buckman Neighborhood, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Friends of Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery and Portland Fire and Rescue. The group worked with Metro staff and a consultant team led by Lango Hansen Landscape Architects to create a design that highlighted the cemetery's presence in the city as a historic, cultural and natural park. A preferred design was selected by the work group in October 2008.
The design includes a separate memorial for the early Chinese immigrants and the patients of Dr. Hawthorne, a community gathering space, a memorial garden and an interpretive kiosk. The cemetery entrance at Southwest 20th Avenue and Morrison Street will be permanently closed to vehicle access and replaced with a pedestrian/bicyclist path. Car access to the cemetery will be permanently relocated to Southeast 26th Street between Stark and Morrison streets.
Funding has been allocated to begin initial improvements and repairs at the cemetery, but the primary resources necessary to bring the Block 14 design to fruition will come from sponsorships and fundraising. Next steps will include the formation of a fundraising committee.
The discovery of the remains of Chinese workers at Block 14 sparked community interest in potential improvements at the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery. Metro partnered with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) to conduct a public involvement process involving the Chinese community. The goal was to elicit feedback on the aesthetics, cultural appropriateness and potential uses for Block 14 and the proposed Chinese memorial. Meetings were held at several Chinese community centers. Each meeting had a translator and a questionnaire in both English and Chinese. Comments received from the meetings helped shape the design of the Chinese memorial and open space.
Because of discrimination in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the remains of Chinese workers were not allowed in the cemetery proper and instead were interred at Block 14. The burials were often only temporary until family members could have the remains returned to relatives in mainland China. Women and children, however, were not disinterred. Block 14 had a central path leading to a traditional funerary burner. Input from public meetings encouraged project designers to design a symbolic funerary burner as part of the Chinese memorial and include the use of stone, plants typical in China and water features. A particularly important element of the design that was highlighted in the public meetings was the importance of telling the story of the early Chinese workers, both their hardships and their contributions. The preferred design incorporates these components as well as a contemplative garden with interpretive elements reflecting the cemetery's history and cultural diversity.
One of the most prominent Portland residents interred at the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery is Dr. James C. Hawthorne. Considered Oregon's first psychiatrist, Dr. Hawthorne founded the Oregon Hospital for the Insane in 1862. Dr. Hawthorne's legacy of providing compassionate care for mental health patients extended beyond their treatment at his facility. When hospital patients died and were unclaimed by relatives or were too poor to afford their own burial, Dr. Hawthorne arranged for them to be buried at Lone Fir. Hospital records list names of deceased patients buried at the cemetery but many graves have not been found. It is believed that some of the patients were interred under what is currently a paved access road on the edge of Block 14 and the wooden markers used to identify them eroded over time.
While looking for ways to memorialize the Chinese workers at Block 14, it became clear to Metro staff and project partners that the patients of Dr. Hawthorne also deserved a remembrance. Working with the mental health community, Metro extended the project's design period and formed an advisory committee to provide input on how the patients would be best represented. Metro also partnered with the Mental Health Association of Portland to hold meetings with clients and representatives of the mental health community and discuss how to best honor the lives of individual patients in addition to telling Dr. Hawthorne's story. An online questionnaire was also available for feedback from interested stakeholders who were unable to attend a meeting.
Comments from mental health consumers and professionals emphasized the desire to tell the story of the asylum patients with historically accurate information that is accessible to a variety of viewers. There was a shared sense that the patients should not remain anonymous. Feedback included the desire for a bell, once rung at Dr. Hawthorne's hospital, to be placed at the memorial. The community also expressed an interest in the memorial including a water feature, interpretive information telling the patients' stories and a reflective garden. The final design places the Hawthorne memorial on the easternmost portion of Block 14. Many of the ideas expressed during the outreach process are incorporated and, though the memorial will be a unique remembrance for the patients, it also merges with the rest of the design keeping the overall feel interconnected.
Janet Bebb
503-797-1876
janet.bebb@oregonmetro.gov
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Founded in 1855, Lone Fir is located at Southeast 20th Avenue and Morrison Street in Portland.
Metro's 14 pioneer cemeteries, managed as active facilities, offer scenic tranquility and a unique glimpse into the history of the region
