Like many neighborhoods east of the Willamette, the land that became Eastmoreland originally belonged to William S. Ladd, one of Portland's early entrepreneurs and its fifth mayor.  Ladd called this section of his holdings Crystal Springs Farm.  Ladd and later his son, William M. Ladd, wisely held on to property until they judged a particularly ripe time for residential development had come.

For Eastmoreland, that time arrived in 1910 when W. M. Ladd donated 40 acres to an old business partner of his father's to form Reed College.  The college, he felt, would draw homeowners interested in a stately community similar to those they may have recently left in Boston and parts East.  Ladd commissioned a plan for 1,270 home sites.  The name Eastmoreland distinguished the neighborhood and yet connected it to the new Westmoreland development lying across the railroad tracks.

Unfortunately, sales did not meet expectations.  Even the donation of 150 acres to the city to build a course for the new craze - golf - did not attract enough residents.  As a consequence, Eastmoreland homes show a wide range of architectural styles popular in the 1920's and 1930's, including Tudor, Colonial, stone, and stucco.  Today the neighborhood is well established and stable.  Of 1500 lots, only a few remain empty. 

But Eastmoreland residents do not consider their neighborhood done growing.  They participate annually in the Friends of Trees program to reforest urban areas, planting and maintaining hundreds of trees.  Residents are also deepening their ties with Reed College. The college has begun publishing events schedules to neighborhood residents and taking residents' advice on college development and building issues. Residents are also working with TriMet on its proposal to site a light rail station at the Bybee overpass dividing East and Westmoreland.

Credit: Glenda Garland, Doug Greenberg, Loreen Officer