Cash Mob takes history tour: Five things you might not know about Forest Grove

Dillon Pilorget | The Oregonian/OregonLive By Dillon Pilorget | The Oregonian/OregonLive The Oregonian
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on August 22, 2014 at 4:30 PM, updated August 28, 2014 at 11:12 AM

Most of the 16 people who showed up for the Forest Grove Cash Mob Thursday night were surprised to find they would not be shopping at a local business. Instead, they would be walking with a local business.

Mary Jo Morelli, who operates Sojourn Forest Grove and gives historic tours of the city, was there to lead the group through Pacific University's campus and the Clark Historic District. Here are five things Morelli mentioned about Forest Grove's history that you might not know.

1. Forest Grove has had three sets of street names that changed as the population grew. The city's first streets were all named for trees, and there was no particular order to them. The second set was all numeric, so one might have visited a friend on the corner of Second Street and Second Avenue. Today's street names represent the third set, and include streets with alphabetically ordered tree names crossed by numeric streets.

2. Two competing electric train companies used to serve the city, bringing students into town on what could be compared to TriMet's MAX light-rail system. Oregon Electric Train Depot and Southern Pacific Train Depot both had stops in town, one of which sat on the grassy mound at Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street that now holds the Pacific University sign.

3. East Coast missionaries founded what would later be named Forest Grove in 1841, cementing religion's relevance to the town's history. About 50 years ago, Forest Grove had the nation's highest concentration of churches per capita. In the winter, when leaves have fallen, seven churches can be seen from the corner of Cedar Street and 17th Avenue.

4. Old College Hall, which is Forest Grove's oldest surviving building and the oldest functional academic building west of the Mississippi, has been moved three times on Pacific University's campus. It first stood as the university's only building where Marsh Hall is now. It was later moved to the Washburne University Center's current location, then to where the new library stands. Finally, it moved to its current resting place where it lives on as the university's museum.

5. The Reverend Harvey Clark, one of Forest Grove's earliest settlers, donated a portion of his land on which to build the university. He broke up much of the rest of his property into blocks of four one-acre plots, giving the money he made from their sale to the university as well. The plots were broken up further over time and more houses were built, but they still form the city's block structure today.

--Dillon Pilorget