by Geon, Bryan
Beaverton has a wealth of parks, community centers, aquatic centers, and recreation complexes, including natural areas like Tualatin Hills Nature Park. The city does not have a parks and recreation department; park facilities are managed by the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District, www.thprd.org. The Beaverton School District (www.beaverton.k12.or.us) is the third largest district in the state, and covers a large swath of unincorporated Washington County. School quality varies dramatically, and includes both underperformers and some of the best public schools in the area.
Beaverton traffic is legendarily congested. Both the Sunset Highway and Highway 217 can be horrible during rush hour, and 217 is often bumper-to-bumper even on Saturdays. Main through streets aren’t always much faster. Fortunately, Beaverton has excellent transit connections for a suburban community; buses run along the major streets, and the MAX line whisks commuters to downtown Portland in a little over 20 minutes. A new rush-hour commuter rail line to Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville has two stations in Beaverton. Many jobs in the area are in suburban office parks and industrial campuses that can be inconvenient to reach by transit, and the majority of Beaverton commuters drive to work. Still, the city has a decent network of bike lanes and trails, and the percentage of residents who commute by bike is not much lower than the (legendarily high) percentage in Portland proper.
The city’s website, and in particular its Map Center, is a useful resource for prospective residents.
Website: www.beavertonoregon.gov
ZIP Codes: 97003, 97005, 97006, 97007, 97008, 97225
Post Office: Beaverton Post Office, 4550 SW Betts Ave
Police Station: Beaverton Police Department, 4755 SW Griffith Dr, 503-526-2260 (general), 503-629-0111 (non-emergency dispatch), www.beavertonpolice.org
Emergency Hospitals: Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, 9205 SW Barnes Rd, 503-216-1234, www.providence.org; ; Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center, 2875 NW Stucki Ave, Hillsboro, 971-310-1000, www.kp.org
Library: Beaverton City Library: Main Library, 12375 SW 5th Ave, 503-644-2197; Murray Schools Branch, 11200 SW Murray Scholls Pl, 503-644-2197 (option 2); www.beavertonlibrary.org
Parks: More than 30 parks, open spaces, and recreational facilities, including Tualatin Hills Nature Park, Hyland Forest Park, Fanno Creek Park, and Greenway Park; Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District, 503-645-6433, www.thprd.org
Community Publication: Beaverton Valley Times, www.beavertonvalleytimes.com
Public Transportation: TriMet, 503-238-RIDE, www.trimet.org; bus service on main routes to Hillsboro, downtown Portland, Tigard, and Southwest Portland. MAX light rail service to Hillsboro and downtown Portland; rush-hour commuter train service (WES) to Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville
West Slope, Raleigh Hills, and Garden Home
Boundaries: North: Unincorporated Washington County; West: Beaverton; South: Tigard; Metzger (unincorporated Washington County); East: Portland; unincorporated Multnomah County; Area: 5.1 square miles; Population: Approximately 21,000
The three communities of West Slope, Raleigh Hills, and Garden Home lie in a narrow band between Beaverton and Portland, just west of the Multnomah County line. Residents of this mostly unincorporated area have Portland mailing addresses but generally enjoy lower Washington County property taxes. This odd (but advantageous) arrangement will change eventually, as the city of Beaverton is poised to annex the entire area in the next decade or so. All three neighborhoods are popular with families who appreciate living in a less dense suburban environment with abundant trees and recreational activities, but with easy access to Portland and Beaverton; the apartment complexes in Raleigh Hills are a common place for newcomers (including childless singles and couples) to land.
West Slope is aptly named, as it sprawls across the west slope of the West Hills south of the Sunset Highway. The main drag here is Canyon Road, a rather unattractive strip mall that gathers car dealerships as it descends toward the flatlands of Beaverton proper. Some apartment complexes stand on or close to Canyon Road, but the neighborhoods on either side are largely comprised of single-family houses in styles ranging from tidy ranches, split-levels, and Cape Cods to large contemporary and custom-designed homes. The newest homes tend to cluster near the ridgetops north of Canyon Road. Many homes in this part of West Slope have excellent sunset views west over Beaverton to the Coast Range. South of Canyon Road, in flatter terrain, lie a public library and a neighborhood swim center.
West Slope
Beaverton has already annexed much of West Slope, which is connected to the rest of the city by a narrow tendril of land that in some places is less than a block wide. To complicate matters, part of the neighborhood is in the Portland Public Schools district, and West Sylvan Middle School, which serves much of Portland’s Westside, is technically in Beaverton.
Moving southeast, Raleigh Hills centers on the busy commercial area where Scholls Ferry Road and Oleson Road intersect Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. The neighborhood was originally named Raleigh; the authors of Oregon Geographic Names observe that Raleigh Hills “sounds like a name coined by real estate operators.” (The neighborhood is rolling, but not remarkably hilly except in its northern reaches.) Traffic on the main roads can be painfully congested during rush hour, and the concentration of shops and services draws traffic from surrounding neighborhoods. (For example, there are four supermarkets—a Safeway, New Seasons, a Fred Meyer, and a Walmart Neighborhood Market—along a short stretch of Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.) On the plus side, the busy commercial strip along this road means that restaurants, shopping, and services are in easy reach. Many low-rise apartment complexes, quite a few with pools or other fairly upscale amenities, cluster along Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and nearby sections of Scholls Ferry and Oleson roads. Off these main roads, Raleigh Hills is mostly comprised of a series of quiet and attractive subdivisions, with many well-kept ranch homes and some newer contemporary houses. North of Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, there are some large, architect-designed homes on large wooded lots tucked into the hills. In the Vista Brook area, near the Portland Golf Club, east of Scholls Ferry Road, there is a high concentration of modernist post-and-beam “Rummer” homes, built by the Rummer Company in the 1960s essentially as design knockoffs of California Eichler homes. West of the golf club are some large new custom homes with Mount Hood views. As in West Slope, Beaverton has selectively annexed small portions of Raleigh Hills, although here only the width of a single street connects these areas to the rest of the city.
Raleigh Hills
Still farther south, almost to the Tigard border, Garden Home features homes that are similar to, although in many cases more modest than, those in Raleigh Hills. Most houses here date from the 1950s through the 1980s; one-level or daylight ranches are the predominant, but certainly not the only, style. The southern parts of the neighborhood tend to have the newest homes, including some recent infill development. Portland has pulled a Beaverton in Garden Home, and extended a couple of annexation tentacles into Washington County. Garden Home has a large and popular recreation center and several small neighborhood parks and wooded areas; the attractive campus of the private Oregon Episcopal School has its own wetland, and the paved Fanno Creek Greenway Trail winds through part of the neighborhood Although it is very close to the office complexes and mall at Washington Square, Garden Home itself remains primarily an area of single-family homes; unlike West Slope and Raleigh Hills, the neighborhood has few businesses, with the exception of a shopping area clustered around the Lamb’s supermarket at Oleson Road and Garden Home Road.
Garden Home
With the exception of parts of West Slope, most of this area is part of the Beaverton School District (www.beaverton.k12.or.us). The neighborhood is well connected by road to downtown Portland, Beaverton, and the Washington Square area, all of which are accessible if necessary without traveling on major highways. Be aware that it can be difficult to get around these neighborhoods without a car, although it is r
elatively easy to travel out of the neighborhoods by transit: bus service along the main east-west routes to Portland, Beaverton, or Tigard is adequate to good.
Websites: www.co.washington.or.us; www.beavertonoregon.gov
ZIP Codes: 97223, 97225
Post Office: West Slope Post Office, 3225 SW 87th Ave
Police Station: Washington County Sheriff’s Office, East Precinct, 3700 SW Murray Blvd, Beaverton, 503-846-5900 (non-emergency), www.co.washington.or.us/sheriff/; Beaverton Police Department, 4755 SW Griffith Dr, 503-629-0111 (non-emergency dispatch), www.beavertonpolice.org
Emergency Hospital: Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, 9205 SW Barnes Rd, 503-216-1234, www.providence.org
Libraries: Garden Home Community Library, 7475 SW Oleson Rd, 503-245-9932, www.gardenhomelibrary.org; West Slope Community Library, 3678 SW 78th Ave, 503-292-6416, www.westslopelibrary.org
Parks: Community parks include Raleigh Park, Garden Home Park; part of Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District, 503-645-6433, www.thprd.com
Community Publication: Beaverton Valley Times, www.beavertonvalleytimes.com
Public Transportation: TriMet, 503-238-RIDE, www.trimet.org; bus service to Portland, Beaverton, and Tigard
North of the Sunset Highway: West Haven, Cedar Mill, Oak Hills, Bethany, and Rock Creek
Boundaries: North: Unincorporated Washington County; West: Hillsboro; South: Sunset Highway (US 26); East: Portland; unincorporated Multnomah County; Area: approximately 10 square miles; Population: Approximately 43,000
The unincorporated neighborhoods west of the Multnomah County line and north of the Sunset Highway are generally residential and fairly affluent, with a highly educated population. These neighborhoods have become popular places for newcomers to settle, in large part because they offer relatively straightforward access to the major employment centers of Washington County and to downtown Portland (via the Sunset Highway or over the hills on Cornell Road or Barnes Road), because parks, shopping, and services are easily accessible, and because many new homes and apartments have been built here in recent years. Although it is densely developed, this area abuts the urban growth boundary, and rural landscapes are just a few minutes away. Home prices and rents are higher here than the metro area average, but the overall housing stock is in better condition than in some other suburban areas.
Just west of Portland and the Multnomah County line, West Haven is basically an extension of the Sylvan area in Portland’s West Hills. The main thoroughfare, Barnes Road, is a busy alternate route between Beaverton and Portland; besides shopping plazas, office parks, and a plethora of apartment complexes, the Barnes Road area is home to Providence St. Vincent Hospital, the exclusive Catlin Gabel School, and the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Away from Barnes Road, subdivisions of single-family houses are tucked back into the woods or draped across hillsides; some older houses are fairly ramshackle, and other houses are grand, architect-designed structures, but most homes here are relatively new, relatively middle-of-the-road, relatively large structures. The far western part of the neighborhood is a sea of new townhomes and single-family homes on relatively small lots. The Sunset Transit Center, an important stop on the Westside MAX light rail line, is adjacent to the Sunset Highway on the neighborhood’s southern boundary; the northern terminus of Highway 217, which runs south toward Tigard, is also here. Two bus lines serve the neighborhood, both of which connect to the Sunset Transit Center. The neighborhood in general is not well suited to walking, other than within subdivisions, and parts of it are very hilly.
West Haven
To the northwest, abutting both West Haven and Portland’s Forest Heights neighborhood, Cedar Mill (www.cedarmill.org, not to be confused with Cedar Hills, a neighborhood south of the Sunset Highway) was named for a sawmill that operated here in the 19th century. Today, instead of forest, the neighborhood is mix of quiet, established culs-de-sac with older, nicely landscaped ranch-style or contemporary homes and large subdivisions of much newer townhomes and single-family homes, typically in a “Craftsman-inspired” style. There are also a few enormous custom homes on large lots. A commercial district along Cornell Road also includes some apartment complexes and a parade of merchants eager to meet all your everyday shopping needs; office complexes and other commercial facilities occupy the southern fringe of the neighborhood along the Sunset Highway. The northern part of the neighborhood is known as Bonny Slope, an area of new housing at the foot of the West Hills, close to the urban growth boundary. Many of the homes in Bonny Slope have lovely views to the Coast Range. Cedar Mill also has a Saturday morning farmers’ market (www.cmfmarket.org) from June through September, which takes place near Sunset High on Cornell Road. There is bus service along Cornell Road and Saltzman Road, but much of the neighborhood has no regular transit service; recreational walkability varies, but unless you are on a main transit corridor you’ll likely need a car to get around here. The Sunset Transit Center and MAX station is a short drive away just off Highway 26.
Bonny Slope
Cedar Mill
A bit farther to the northwest, Bethany is a sea of new housing developments. There are some high-density townhome and apartment developments, but the majority of the housing here consists of large, two-story homes in styles ranging from plain and boxy to “Craftsman-inspired” and somewhat adorned. Most lots are quite small, but open space is abundant and most streets have sidewalks; main routes have bike lanes. There is a small fishing pond (Bethany Pond) just off Northwest 185th Avenue. The neighborhood around Claremont Country Club is made up of custom, mainly single-story homes; nearby Bethany Village (www.bethanyvillage.com) on Bethany Boulevard is a huge mixed-use development featuring housing, retail, and office space. The commercial center of the “Village” is a shopping complex with a supermarket, bank, and other essentials. The neighborhood is also close to the Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College. The agricultural fields of North Bethany were recently brought into the urban growth boundary, and a wave of development that will bring thousands of new homes to the area is just beginning. For now, the north (largely rural) and south (built-up) sides of Northwest Springville Road exist in stark contrast. Bethany might be a good place to start if you’re looking for a brand-new home in Washington County.
Bethany
The area of Bethany west of Northwest 143rd Avenue and south of West Union Road is known as Oak Hills. The homes here are generally older than those in the rest of Bethany, and consist mainly of contemporaries, ranches, and split-levels dating from the 1950s to the 1980s. The core of the neighborhood was built in the 1960s, in an early example of a planned unit development, and this part of Oak Hills was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. The general vibe here is mid-century, including more than a score of Eichler-style homes built by the Rummer Company. Most streets have sidewalks, and some have bike lanes. Most homes in the neighborhood are situated on loops or dead-end streets off of Oak Hills Drive, which lazily circles a large community open space. The neighborhood association maintains a pool and gymnasium.
Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus is in the northwest fringes of Bethany, on the edge of the eponymous Rock Creek neighborhood (sometimes spelled Rockcreek). The community to the west is mainly residential, with winding streets and culs-de-sac centered on the Rock Creek Country Club. Most homes are two-story contemporary-style homes or one-level ranches, in many cases with cedar shake roofs; there are a few small-scale apartment buildings and duplexes in a similar style. In the southeast part of the neighborhood, where it blends into Oak Hills, there are a few streets lined with older ranch homes and split levels; an occasional forlorn old farmhouse reminds residents that these neighborhoods were once agricultural landscapes. Thanks to the presence of the community college, parts of both Bethany (including Oak Hills) and Rock Creek have decent bus service.
Rock Creek
All these neighborhoods have excellent access to parks and open spaces, although these undeveloped
parcels are not particularly large. Linear parks along stream or powerline corridors are especially common, and many homes back directly onto these greenspaces. Bethany in particular has a network of community trails. Homeowner associations maintain some parks; the remainder are part of the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (www.thprd.com). These neighborhoods belong to the Beaverton School District (www.beaverton.k12.or.us); the district’s Sunset High School is located in Cedar Mill, and Westview High School is in the Rock Creek area. The elementary schools in this part of the district are generally highly regarded, and include some of the best-rated schools in the Portland area.
Website: www.co.washington.or.us
ZIP Codes: 97006, 97225, 97229
Post Office: Cedar Mill Branch (contract post office), 12675 NW Cornell Rd, Suite B
