Of all the reading I’ve done about rocky butte , I never learned about this academy..looks like they had it pretty good..horse racetrack, and looks to be a covered pool.
Such a great photo! As you may know, Rocky Butte is a gem in our city, a high place that many visit for the viewpoint. But Rocky Butte also has a narrative to tell about Portland’s coming of age story, from a wide frontierland to an industrialized urban hub. Many parts of these stories are still visible at this extinct volcano, especially at this Northeastern Cliff Corridor location such as a hunting grounds for the Chinook speaking band of the Cascade/Watlala the old quarry, a horse racing grounds, the crossroads of the City of Maywood Park and I205, and a WPA stonework pedestrian tunnel! Www.rockybuttepreservationsociety.org
Great photo of Rocky Butte! I’ve never seen it from this angle before. It loomed above our house on Tillamook St. when I was a little kid in the 1940s. In this photo it looks like Mt. Tabor, another extinct volcano, in the distance, and beyond that the West Hills on the other side of the Willamette in the far distance. BTW, how did the little community of Parkrose (out at the end of Sandy Blvd. become Maywood Park? Just curious.
Checkout the April 11, 2016 related above for several comments, and click on the link by John Killen to see more photos at Oregonlive.
My last house in Portland was off Beech Street, a five minute walk from here. This is before my house had even been built (1948). The photo looks so different than today, no I-205, I-80 junction seen here at the bottom of the cliffs.
The property went from a military school to a place of worship for “Christian soldiers.”
Judson Baptist was there on the old Hill Military Academy for awhile.
The large 100 X 200 foot armory building near the center of the photo was destroyed by fire on the afternoon August 8, 1965, and was started on the east side of the building by an arsonist setting fire in straw that was next to the building.
@robinthompson4: While Maywood Park sits within the area commonly referred to as Parkrose, it is only a small portion of Parkrose. Unlike Parkrose, Maywood Park is an incorporated City. It was incorporated in the late 1960’s as part of a failed attempt to stop the I-205 freeway from being built through Maywood Park. The freeway took out the most grand and beautiful homes in Maywood Park, which were located on Maywood Park Drive with backyards that ran to the base of Rocky Butte.
From this photo you can see that there was once a 360 degree view from the top. I remember that still being the case in the 1960s. Today, due to trees, there is only a limited view.
In the late 50s, I had an acquaintance about my age who was a Hill Military student. I remember a few things we did together, but mostly he boarded at the school, and my other friends attended the same school.
Is this the current location of the Portland Bible College?
that is one heck of a Flag Pole🇺🇸 🦅 / Radio Tower 📻⚡️
Oregonian October 7, 1931 — CADETS HOIST FLAGPOLE –Tallest Spire in Northwest Will Be Raised With Ceremonial
A flagpole 177 feet high and declared to be one of the tallest in the northwest will be erected at 11 o’clock this morning on the new site of Hill Military academy at Rocky Butte, it was announced last night by Joseph A. Hill, school principal. The giant pole is to be set in a cement base, Its erection will be supervised by Tom Keene, steel contractor, and will require about 30 minutes. The cost of securing and erecting the pole will amount to $1200, Mr. Hill said.
My new name for Rocky Butte is Hill Hill.
People are in formations on the field, maybe the military band as well. An event or daily drills perhaps.
This photo faces south, hovering above Sandy Boulevard, and today I-205’s sweeping S-turn between Airport Way and I-84W wraps around the lower, left and back left side of this view.
I assume that open cliff is a quarry; seems precariously close to the road above. I wonder how that big boulder got to the bottom.
…which makes me wonder, is that the quarry that provided the basalt to build Rocky Butte Prison in the early 1940’s? I always think of this jail driving by or at Horsetail Falls, where a plaque indicates how the stone walls were repurposed along the Columbia Scenic Highway…
And I found some interesting info, including an entire video of a prisoner being checked into the jail.
The Hill Military Academy was affiliated with the Episcopalian Church. It joined with the Sisters of the Holy Names to file a lawsuit against enforcement of the “Oregon Compulsory Education Act” The initiative, backed by Governor Pierce, the Masons and the KKK passed in 1922 and would have closed all religiously-affiliated schools in the state, starting in 1926.
That never happened as the US District Court ruled it unconstitutional. Governor Pierce then appealed to the US Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously (Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 1925) that the law was unconstitutional. This ruling is the basis of many parental choice laws concerning school attendance in the US.
Thank You Dennis for the history lesson 😊👍🏻. I suspected that there was something special about the height of that pole. Excellent !!
I know it is alot earlier,however the originial DLC owner was a guy by the name of Charles Schramm. he owned the lot of land from 82nd to 102nd and skidmore to fremont.
he and his wife raised 7 children in a cabin at the foot of Rocky butte.
He died in 1907 and is in lone fir.
Given the fact that the academy was moved here around the same time of his death it could kind of make sense to imagine some land then “becoming available”
Amazing history, being a former resident/homeowner in Maywood Park, it’s always good to know and understand more about the history.. respect for the past and the future..
Vintage Portland 
Of all the reading I’ve done about rocky butte , I never learned about this academy..looks like they had it pretty good..horse racetrack, and looks to be a covered pool.
Such a great photo! As you may know, Rocky Butte is a gem in our city, a high place that many visit for the viewpoint. But Rocky Butte also has a narrative to tell about Portland’s coming of age story, from a wide frontierland to an industrialized urban hub. Many parts of these stories are still visible at this extinct volcano, especially at this Northeastern Cliff Corridor location such as a hunting grounds for the Chinook speaking band of the Cascade/Watlala the old quarry, a horse racing grounds, the crossroads of the City of Maywood Park and I205, and a WPA stonework pedestrian tunnel! Www.rockybuttepreservationsociety.org
Great photo of Rocky Butte! I’ve never seen it from this angle before. It loomed above our house on Tillamook St. when I was a little kid in the 1940s. In this photo it looks like Mt. Tabor, another extinct volcano, in the distance, and beyond that the West Hills on the other side of the Willamette in the far distance. BTW, how did the little community of Parkrose (out at the end of Sandy Blvd. become Maywood Park? Just curious.
Checkout the April 11, 2016 related above for several comments, and click on the link by John Killen to see more photos at Oregonlive.
My last house in Portland was off Beech Street, a five minute walk from here. This is before my house had even been built (1948). The photo looks so different than today, no I-205, I-80 junction seen here at the bottom of the cliffs.
The property went from a military school to a place of worship for “Christian soldiers.”
Judson Baptist was there on the old Hill Military Academy for awhile.
The large 100 X 200 foot armory building near the center of the photo was destroyed by fire on the afternoon August 8, 1965, and was started on the east side of the building by an arsonist setting fire in straw that was next to the building.
@robinthompson4: While Maywood Park sits within the area commonly referred to as Parkrose, it is only a small portion of Parkrose. Unlike Parkrose, Maywood Park is an incorporated City. It was incorporated in the late 1960’s as part of a failed attempt to stop the I-205 freeway from being built through Maywood Park. The freeway took out the most grand and beautiful homes in Maywood Park, which were located on Maywood Park Drive with backyards that ran to the base of Rocky Butte.
From this photo you can see that there was once a 360 degree view from the top. I remember that still being the case in the 1960s. Today, due to trees, there is only a limited view.
In the late 50s, I had an acquaintance about my age who was a Hill Military student. I remember a few things we did together, but mostly he boarded at the school, and my other friends attended the same school.
Is this the current location of the Portland Bible College?
that is one heck of a Flag Pole🇺🇸 🦅 / Radio Tower 📻⚡️
Oregonian October 7, 1931 — CADETS HOIST FLAGPOLE –Tallest Spire in Northwest Will Be Raised With Ceremonial
A flagpole 177 feet high and declared to be one of the tallest in the northwest will be erected at 11 o’clock this morning on the new site of Hill Military academy at Rocky Butte, it was announced last night by Joseph A. Hill, school principal. The giant pole is to be set in a cement base, Its erection will be supervised by Tom Keene, steel contractor, and will require about 30 minutes. The cost of securing and erecting the pole will amount to $1200, Mr. Hill said.
My new name for Rocky Butte is Hill Hill.
People are in formations on the field, maybe the military band as well. An event or daily drills perhaps.
This photo faces south, hovering above Sandy Boulevard, and today I-205’s sweeping S-turn between Airport Way and I-84W wraps around the lower, left and back left side of this view.
I assume that open cliff is a quarry; seems precariously close to the road above. I wonder how that big boulder got to the bottom.
…which makes me wonder, is that the quarry that provided the basalt to build Rocky Butte Prison in the early 1940’s? I always think of this jail driving by or at Horsetail Falls, where a plaque indicates how the stone walls were repurposed along the Columbia Scenic Highway…
And I found some interesting info, including an entire video of a prisoner being checked into the jail.
MultCoArchives RBPrisoner Intake
And a famous jail break…
https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2020/02/portland-jailbreak-60-years-ago-led-to-riot-accusation-that-guards-sought-revenge-by-beating-inmates.html
The Hill Military Academy was affiliated with the Episcopalian Church. It joined with the Sisters of the Holy Names to file a lawsuit against enforcement of the “Oregon Compulsory Education Act” The initiative, backed by Governor Pierce, the Masons and the KKK passed in 1922 and would have closed all religiously-affiliated schools in the state, starting in 1926.
That never happened as the US District Court ruled it unconstitutional. Governor Pierce then appealed to the US Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously (Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 1925) that the law was unconstitutional. This ruling is the basis of many parental choice laws concerning school attendance in the US.
Thank You Dennis for the history lesson 😊👍🏻. I suspected that there was something special about the height of that pole. Excellent !!
I know it is alot earlier,however the originial DLC owner was a guy by the name of Charles Schramm. he owned the lot of land from 82nd to 102nd and skidmore to fremont.
he and his wife raised 7 children in a cabin at the foot of Rocky butte.
He died in 1907 and is in lone fir.
Given the fact that the academy was moved here around the same time of his death it could kind of make sense to imagine some land then “becoming available”
Amazing history, being a former resident/homeowner in Maywood Park, it’s always good to know and understand more about the history.. respect for the past and the future..