Ladd's Addition is one of the oldest residential districts in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is located in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood

Hosford-Abernethy, Portland, Oregon

Hosford-Abernethy is a neighborhood in the inner Southeast section of Portland, Oregon. It borders Buckman and Sunnyside on the north, Richmond on the east, Brooklyn and Creston-Kenilworth on the south, and Downtown Portland and South Portland on the west.Hosford-Abernethy was named in the 1970s...

 in the southeast part of the city. Roughly eight blocks (east-west) by ten blocks (north-south) in size (by reference to the external grid), Ladd's is bordered by SE Hawthorne

Hawthorne, Portland, Oregon

The Hawthorne District in Portland, Oregon is an area of Southeast Portland on SE Hawthorne Blvd., particularly between 30th and 42nd Avenues. The area has numerous retail stores, including clothing shops, restaurants, bars, brewpubs and microbreweries. Hawthorne district is known for its young,...

, Division, 12th, and 20th streets. The neighborhood is known in Portland for its diagonal street pattern, which contrasts markedly with the regular grid of the surrounding areas. This unconventional street layout can be disorienting to drivers.

Ladd's Addition is named after William S. Ladd

William S. Ladd

William Sargent Ladd was an American politician and businessman in Oregon. He twice served as Portland, Oregon’s mayor in the 1850s. A native of Vermont, he was a prominent figure in the early development of Portland, and co-founded the first bank in the state in 1859...

, a nineteenth-century Portland mayor who originally owned a 126-acre (500,000 m²) farm on the land. In 1891 (when the city of East Portland

East Portland, Oregon

East Portland was a city in the U.S. state of Oregon that was consolidated into Portland in 1891. It was founded on a land claim by James B. Stephens in 1846, who bought a land claim from John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company...

 was merged into Portland) Ladd decided to subdivide the land for residential use. Rather than adopt the standard orthogonal grid

Grid plan

The grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid...

 of the majority of Portland, Ladd followed the inspiration of Pierre L'Enfant

Pierre Charles L'Enfant

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a French-born American architect and civil engineer best known for designing the layout of the streets of Washington, D.C..-Early life:...

's plan for Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and created a diagonal "wagon wheel" arrangement, including four small diamond-shaped rose gardens and a central traffic circle surrounding a park.

The narrow streets of Ladd's Addition are lined with American Elm trees. The Save Our Elms organization inoculates the elm trees yearly for Dutch elm disease

Dutch elm disease

Dutch elm disease is a disease caused by a member of the sac fungi category, affecting elm trees which is spread by the elm bark beetle. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease has been accidentally introduced into America and Europe, where it has devastated native...

. Each of the four smaller, diamond-shaped "circles" to the east, west, north, and south contains one of Portland's test rose gardens. Friends of Ladd's Addition Gardens (FLAG), regularly solicits money and volunteers to maintain the rose gardens.

The entire Ladd's Addition neighborhood was designated a historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 by the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1988.

External links

• Illustrating Four Treatments in Oregon: Community History, Ladd's Addition, Portland from the National Park Service
  National Park Service
  The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
  
  
• Ladd's Circle and Squares from Portland Parks & Recreation
  Portland Parks & Recreation
  Portland Parks & Recreation is the bureau of the City of Portland which protects the parks, natural areas, recreational facilities, gardens, and trails of the city of Portland, Oregon....