SOURCE FOUNTAIN
One of the smallest in the city and the first of a series of fountains/parks/plazas for the Portland Open Space Sequence depicting stages of a stream as they pass from the mountains to the lowlands. The Source Fountain also affectionately referred by locals as the Chimney because of the way in which the bricks are laid, is meant to represent an artesian spring. Located just north of SW Lincoln across the TriMet Lincoln Street/SW 3rd Ave Station - designed to celebrate the Fountain District – the Source Fountain is in a public pathway leading to Lovejoy Fountain Plaza and then on, through a leafy bosque, to Pettygrove Park and the Ira Keller Auditorium Forecourt Fountain. Completed in 1968, the Source Fountain was part of the South Auditorium, the Prosper Portland’s (Portland Development Commission) first urban renewal project.
What we now call Portland, Oregon were the traditional lands of the Multnomah, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Tualatin Kalapuya, Wasco, Molalla, and Watlala bands of the Chinook, and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River. Today, people from these bands have become part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, as well as the Chinook Nation and Cowlitz Nation in Washington State.
In 2001, the Lawrence Halprin Landscapes Conservancy was formed to preserve and safeguard Halprin’s Portland legacy. The Source Fountain/Portland Open Space Sequence was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in March 2013.
