In 1909 (or 1912 depending on the source you read) the city of Portland officially changed the name of this park from “City Park,” to “Washington Park.” That begs the question, Why Washington? Not Oregon? Not Portland? After some research it seems it’s because the park’s main entrance is on a street that used to be called SW Washington Street.
But regardless of where the name came from, it’s a nice park! It’s 410 acres just west of downtown Portland and has a turn-of-the-century feel like the statues and walkways were installed 100 years ago.
It’s also home to the International Rose Test Garden.
There’s 10,000 individual rose plants that make up 610 different rose varieties. They still use the garden to develop new rose varieties (hence the “Test” part of the name).
Looking down SW Park to downtown Portland.

By