Free Walking Tour Portland: Plaza, River and Old Town

The Portland Walking Tour, Stop by Stop from Plaza to Shelves

1. 1

   Pioneer Courthouse Square

   

   Portlanders call this the city's living room, and once you stand in it you understand why. Pioneer Courthouse Square fills an entire downtown block, framed by Morrison Street, Yamhill Street, 6th Avenue and Broadway. Look across 6th Avenue to the east: the building facing you is the Pioneer Courthouse, a federal landmark from 1875 and one of the reasons this block always mattered.

   The site has had several lives. In 1856 the city bought the land for its Central School, and the district paid for the building by suspending classes for a whole year. Then, in 1879, the railroad investor Henry Villard arrived looking for backing for a grand hotel. Philip A. Marquam bought the school, moved it a few blocks away, refitted it and handed it back to the district, clearing the way for the Portland Hotel.

   Villard hired McKim, Mead & White, and their designer William M. Whidden drew an H-shaped hotel whose gated courtyard faced the courthouse. Building began in 1882, then stopped for five years when Villard's money ran out. Local leaders revived the project in 1888, and the hotel opened in 1890. For the next half century it was the center of Portland's social life.

   In 1951 the hotel was torn down for a two-story parking lot. When an 800-car garage was proposed in 1969, the Planning Commission said no and asked for a public plaza instead, and the square finally opened in 1984. Nothing here costs a thing, so take a few minutes to watch the city pass through.

   From here it is 630 m, about 10 minutes on foot, to the Portland Art Museum, where the city's own history of collecting begins.

   Hours

   Open daily 05:00–00:00 (public square)

   Price

   Free

   Website

   thesquarepdx.org ↗

   Location

   Pioneer Courthouse Square on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Portland Art Museum

   

   The Portland Art Museum is big: more than 42,000 works, with dedicated centers for Native American art, Northwest art and modern and contemporary art, permanent exhibitions of Asian art and an outdoor public sculpture garden. The Northwest Film Center belongs to the museum too.

   It started modestly. In 1892, when Portland had close to 50,000 residents, seven business and cultural leaders founded the Portland Art Association. A donation from Henry Corbett paid for the first collection: one hundred plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures, chosen in Europe by Winslow B. Ayer and his wife after curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts had advised them. The casts were first shown in the public library.

   By the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition the association had outgrown the library and moved into its own building. Its first show there, organized by curator Henrietta H. Failing with the New England artist Frank DuMond, featured watercolors and paintings that had come to town for the Exposition. In 1908 the museum bought its first original work: Childe Hassam's Afternoon Sky, Harney Desert, painted in Eastern Oregon, where Hassam often traveled with his friend C.E.S. Wood.

   Is it worth going in? If you care about art, yes, and give it about an hour and a half; the Native American and Northwest collections are the parts you won't find elsewhere. Admission is charged, but children and teens get in free. If you are short on time, a look at the outside is enough.

   The next leg is the longest so far: 1010 m, about 13 minutes, down to the river and Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00, Mon closed

   Price

   $27.50 adults, $24.50 seniors (65+), $22.50 college students (with ID), free children 17 and under

   Website

   portlandartmuseum.org ↗

   Location

   Portland Art Museum on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Tom McCall Waterfront Park

   

   Here you walk on what used to be a freeway. Harbor Drive ran along the Willamette until 1974, when the city removed it, a milestone for the movement against urban freeways. In its place came a park that opened in 1978 and now stretches along the west bank, from RiverPlace in the south to the Steel Bridge in the north, with Naito Parkway on its city side.

   In 1984 the park was renamed for Tom McCall, the Oregon governor who had backed making this riverbank beautiful again. His support echoed the City Beautiful plans from around 1900, which had already imagined parks and greenways along the river. In 2012 the American Planning Association named it one of America's ten greatest public spaces.

   Watch how people use it: joggers, cyclists, skateboarders, kids in the fountain, office workers eating lunch, people watching the boats. Lunchtime is the busiest moment, and in the late afternoon commuters on foot and by bike use the park as a quiet route away from the traffic. On festival days it fills up for the Waterfront Blues Festival, the Oregon Brewers Festival, Pride, the Bite of Oregon and many Rose Festival events.

   The park is free and open, so stay as long as the river holds you. Then follow it north for 780 m, about 10 minutes, to the Portland Saturday Market.

   Hours

   Daily 05:00–00:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   portlandoregon.gov ↗

   Location

   Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Portland Saturday Market

   

   The Portland Saturday Market sets up in Waterfront Park, under and just south of the Burnside Bridge, and its sister, the Skidmore Market, fills the plaza across Naito Parkway toward the Skidmore Fountain. Together they count over 400 members and draw an estimated 750,000 visitors a year, which makes them an economic engine for Old Town Chinatown. It is the largest continuously operated outdoor market in the United States.

   Two craftspeople, Sheri Teasdale and Andrea Scharf, founded it in 1974, modeled on the Saturday Market in Eugene. It still runs the way they set it up: the members own it, share the costs, vote on decisions and keep their own profits.

   The rule that makes it special is simple. Everything sold here must be handmade by the person selling it, and a committee of members judges every new item against a quality standard. So when you ask about a piece, you are talking to the person who made it.

   Entry is free, and if you spend above a set amount you can get a free transit ticket or validated parking. Come while the market is running to see the stalls; at other times you walk through the open space they use. Voodoo Doughnut is only 280 m away, about 4 minutes.

   Hours

   Sat 10:00–17:00 (March through December), Sun–Fri closed

   Price

   Free

   Website

   portlandsaturdaymarket.com ↗

   Location

   Portland Saturday Market on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Voodoo Doughnut

   

   Look for the pink boxes and the logo: it shows Baron Samedi, a figure from Haitian Vodou. Voodoo Doughnut was founded in May 2003 by Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson and Richard "Tres" Shannon, with its first shop on Southwest Third Avenue in Old Town. Pogson borrowed the pink boxes after seeing them used for doughnuts in California, and the slogan followed: "Good things come in pink boxes."

   Until 2006 the shop opened only at night. In 2007 Anthony Bourdain featured it on No Reservations, and in 2008 the founders opened a second Portland shop, Voodoo Doughnut Too, celebrating with a parade from the old shop to the new one. That same year the City Council made the Portland Crème the city's Official City Doughnut, on a resolution by Mayor Tom Potter.

   The stories keep coming. The Portland shops hosted legal weddings and commitment ceremonies. In 2011 staff built a giant box and filled it with doughnuts until it weighed 666 pounds, matching the voodoo theme, and set a Guinness World Record for the largest box of doughnuts. The shop and its bacon maple doughnuts also appeared in Portlandia.

   Walking in costs nothing; you only pay for what you order. Then it is 450 m, about 7 minutes, to the walls of Lan Su Chinese Garden.

   Hours

   Daily 06:00–03:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   voodoodoughnut.com ↗

   Location

   Voodoo Doughnut on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Lan Su Chinese Garden

   

   Behind these walls lies a classical Chinese garden covering a full city block in Chinatown, inspired by the famous gardens of Suzhou. Portland and Suzhou became sister cities in 1988, after an effort to build a garden here had begun earlier in the decade. Mayor Vera Katz carried the idea through the 1990s and helped find the site, land donated by NW Natural on a 99-year lease.

   The garden was designed by Kuang Zhen and built by 65 artisans from Suzhou. Work began in July 1999 and finished 14 months later; the garden opened on September 14, 2000. Five hundred tons of rock came from China, among them scholar's rocks from Lake Tai, the twisted Taihu stones you will see set like sculptures. The central lake has had its troubles: it has leaked at times, and once three visitors fell into it.

   The name is a small poem. Lan comes from the Chinese name for Portland and Su from Suzhou, so both cities are present. Lan also means orchid and Su means to awaken, giving you the Garden of Awakening Orchids. It was called Portland's Classical Chinese Garden until 2010, when it was renamed for its tenth anniversary. In 2024 the city put up a security fence around it after repeated vandalism and hate crimes.

   Going in costs admission and is worth it if you want a quiet contrast to the street; give it about 45 minutes. From the garden, the last leg runs 990 m, about 14 minutes, to Powell's City of Books.

   Hours

   Daily 10:00–17:30 (March–October, last entry 17:00); Daily 10:00–16:30 (October–March, last entry 16:00)

   Price

   USD 18 adult; USD 17 senior; USD 17 student; USD 15 child

   Website

   lansugarden.org ↗

   Location

   Lan Su Chinese Garden on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Powell's City of Books

   

   You finish in a bookstore that fills a whole building. Powell's City of Books claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world, and it is the flagship of a small Portland chain that also runs a store at the airport.

   It is a father and son story. Walter Powell founded the shop in 1971. His son Michael had opened his own bookstore in Chicago in 1970, selling used, rare and discounted academic books. In 1979, when Walter's lease was not renewed, Michael came to Portland to join him, and within a year they found the location that is still the headquarters. Michael bought the business from his father in 1982.

   Powell's grew from here. It opened branch stores from 1984, and in 1985 a travel bookstore on Pioneer Courthouse Square, where you started this walk; that shop closed in 2005. Powell's was also early online: its website launched in 1994, before Amazon.com.

   Browsing is free, and this is the place to end without a clock. Pick a section, lose half an hour or more, and take a book home as your souvenir of Portland.

   Hours

   Daily 10:00–21:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   powells.com ↗

   Location

   Powell's City of Books on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk Portland

Not every day has room for the full route. These three versions keep the order and cut either the stops or the tickets.

Downtown culture and the river

Stops: 1, 2, 3

For art lovers with a morning to spare. You walk 1.6 km in 23 minutes from the square to the waterfront, and the only ticket is for the Portland Art Museum, where you will spend most of your time.

Old Town, garden and books

Stops: 4, 5, 6, 7

For anyone who wants Portland's quirkier side. The walk from the market to Powell's takes 25 minutes over about 1.7 km; Lan Su Chinese Garden is the only stop with admission, and Powell's is free to browse.

The whole route without tickets

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For a tight budget. You walk all 4.1 km in 58 minutes, look at the Portland Art Museum and the walls of Lan Su Chinese Garden from outside, and pay only for what you eat or buy.

How Long the Portland Tour Takes, With and Without Interiors

The pure walking time is 58 minutes. Add about ten minutes in the square, an hour and a half in the Art Museum, twenty minutes by the river, half an hour at the market, a quarter of an hour at Voodoo Doughnut, three quarters of an hour each in Lan Su and at Powell's, and you arrive at roughly five and a quarter hours.

The downtown culture variant fits into about two hours and twenty minutes, most of it in the museum. The Old Town variant takes around two hours and forty minutes. Walking everything without tickets, with short looks at the museum and the garden from outside, comes to about three and a half hours, depending on how long Powell's keeps you.

Before You Set Off from Pioneer Courthouse Square

• Start and finish: The recommended start is Pioneer Courthouse Square and the walk ends at Powell's City of Books, but you can join at any stop and follow the order from there.
• Best day: Saturday Market lives up to its name and is seasonal, so a Saturday in market season gives you the stalls; on other days you still walk through the waterfront space it uses.
• Time of day: Walk it during the day: the Art Museum and Lan Su Chinese Garden both keep daytime hours, and the Art Museum is closed on one weekday, so check before you go.
• Tickets: Only the Portland Art Museum and Lan Su Chinese Garden charge admission. Everything else, including browsing Powell's, is free; at Voodoo Doughnut you pay just for what you order.

Common Questions About Walking Downtown Portland