River View Cemetery - OR

Established on roughly 350 acres in 1882 by some of Portland’s most influential community leaders, the cemetery is one of the region’s oldest. In 1879 the River View Cemetery Association hired E. O. Schwagerl to design the cemetery, with construction completed in 1882. Built on a wooded hillside overlooking the Willamette River, Schwagerl’s design retained much of the original topography and the mature evergreen and deciduous trees on the site, with access to individual plots via a series of meandering loop roads that wind uphill from the main entrance on Macadam Boulevard. The site rises steeply from this road, which parallels the river, and its perimeter is heavily buffered with evergreen trees and ornamental shrubs. Although Schwagerl designed a large building for the cemetery, the first building on the grounds was a Gothic cottage designed by Warren Williams. In 1913 that stone building was replaced by the Georgian Revival Superintendent’s House designed by Lawrence & Holford. In 2011 the River View Cemetery Association, which still manages the cemetery, agreed to sell 146 undeveloped acres on the southern half of the property to the City of Portland for use as recreational parkland.