Tidy Up! Avalon Sanctuary (SE 19th Ave. @ Division)

This is the second part of a community clean up of the public open space/dead end street at SE 19th Ave. and Division. Please join us in making it a place where you would like to picnic or play this summer!

We are planning on a few hours of digging in the dirt, raking rocks and sorting out the weeds from the flowers on this small spot. We may try also creating a few places for people to sit and ponder (donations welcome) and clean off/cover the graffiti on the back fence. Wear your work clothes, bring gloves, rakes for rocks, shovels, etc. Have any hardy plants to donate or old garden benches, please bring them!

More information contact: Amy - 503-475-3010, amy@handpdx.org or Suzanne - zoozanemurcielago@yahoo.com

In 1902, the City of Portland purchased this bit of land from the estate of Oregon Trail Pioneer Mary Fox Tibbetts for $1, to be used as a “street, called Avalon.” More than a hundred years later, it is a dead end street, public land, littered with garbage in the middle of a park-deprived, quickly growing inner-city neighborhood. Efforts over the last five years by neighborhood volunteers have sought to create a space that invites people in to rest or recreate. We hope with renewed public interest, City officials will consider adopting a formal plan for this public space so that it can be better utilized in our changing urban landscape.