Goose Hollow is one of Portland’s oldest and most storied neighborhoods, with roots that stretch back before the city itself was officially incorporated in 1851. The area got its start in the 1840s, when pioneer Daniel Lownsdale established a home and tannery near what is now Providence Park. His land claim stretched across the northern part of present-day Goose Hollow, including King’s Hill and parts of Washington Park.
Around the same time, another settler, Thomas Carter, claimed land in the southern part of the neighborhood, building a home near where the First United Methodist Church now stands. That area was once known as Carter’s Hill—what we now call Vista Ridge.
Goose Hollow got its name in the late 1800s thanks to the flocks of geese raised by local women in the low-lying wetlands near Tanner Creek. The geese often roamed freely, leading to regular disputes over who owned which birds. One disagreement even made it to court in 1875, where a judge settled the fight by splitting the flock in half and warning the women not to stir up any more trouble. The Oregonian newspaper first used the term “Goose Hollow” a few years later in 1879.
Over the 20th century, the name faded from popular use as the neighborhood changed. But in the 1960s, former mayor Bud Clark helped bring it back into the spotlight by naming his pub the Goose Hollow Inn—a nod to the area's quirky past.
