Willamette National Cemetery (Portland, Oregon)
- Title
- Willamette National Cemetery (Portland, Oregon)
- LC Subject
- Architecture, American Architecture Cemeteries
- Photographer
- Edgington, Justin
- Description
- The 1950 Willamette National Cemetery is located approximately 10 miles southeast of Portland in Clackamas and Multnomah Counties, Oregon. Situated along Mt. Scott Boulevard, the 307-acre cemetery provides scenic views of four mountains, the City of Portland, and the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. The Willamette National Cemetery was the first national cemetery in the northwest United States, followed by the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Honolulu, HI) and Puerto Rico National Cemetery (Bayamon, PR). Though authorized by Congress in 1941, the cemetery’s development was delayed by the onset of World War II. After the war, the establishment of new national cemeteries was necessary to accommodate the growing veteran population. With burials beginning in 1951, Willamette National Cemetery contained 151,043 interments as of June 2012. The Willamette National Cemetery utilizes only flat granite markers, rather than upright marble markers. This modern aesthetic, influenced by the lawn and memorial park movements, takes advantage of the site’s natural scenic qualities, allowing native trees and uninterrupted views to define the cemetery. The National Park Service has stated that all National Cemeteries are to be considered eligible for listing in the National Register “as a result of their Congressional designation as nationally significant places of burial and commemoration.” Willamette National Cemetery is one of two in Oregon. The second cemetery, Eagle Point National Cemetery, is significant in part for its historic association with Camp White, a World War II-era military training center in Jackson County. The Eagle Point National Cemetery was recommended for listing in the National Register by the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation in their February 2016 meeting. Source: National Register nomination documentation.
- View
- View to north, Exedra
- Work Type
- complexes (buildings and sites) military cemeteries (veteran cemeteries) architecture (object genre) landscape architecture cemeteries
- Latitude
- 45.460875
- Longitude
- -122.546997
- Location
- Portland >> Multnomah County >> Oregon >> United States Willamette National Cemetery (United States >> Oregon)
- Street Address
- 11800 SE Mt. Scott Boulevard
- Date
- 1950
- View Date
- 2011
- Identifier
- 0R_ Clackamas _Multnomah_ WillametteNationalCemetery _ 00021. tif
- Rights
- In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
- Rights Holder
- This image was included in the documentation to support a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service. The image is provided here by the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office and the University of Oregon Libraries to facilitate scholarship, research, and teaching. For other uses, such as publication, contact the State Historic Preservation Office. Please credit the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office when using this image.
- Source
- National Register form prepared by David W. Moore, Jr./Project Director; Justin Edgington/Historian (with contributions by Jennifer Perunko, Historian, National Cemetery Administration)
- Type
- Image
- Format
- image/tiff
- Set
- Building Oregon
- Primary Set
- Building Oregon
- Institution
- University of Oregon
- Citation
- Oregon Historic Sites Database, http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/
- Note
- This image is included in Building Oregon: Architecture of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, a digital collection which provides documentation about the architectural heritage of the Pacific Northwest. National Register of Historic Places (Listed, 2016)
