Ladd's Circle & Squares

What a gem! Stop and smell the roses!

Throughout Ladd's Addition, a neighborhood built around several round-abouts that serve to slow down traffic and provide beauty for all those slowly driving or walking by. The roundabouts are filled rose gardens with roses of every color! Paths allow you to get up close to smell, admire, and of course photograph.

There are a few benches to rest and just soak in the solitude, scents and beauty. Late May is a perfect time to visit when roses are out for their first bloom but it's beautiful anytime.

The other day I was running errands on SE Division and needed to get to SE Hawthorne. As I passed one of the circles, the gorgeous roses stopped me in my tracks. Even though it was raining, I got out of my car and walked around. If the Pandemic has taught us anything, it's to slow down and appreciate nature and life. Ladd's Addition was ahead of the game in this regard! Surely my errands could wait.

I snapped so many pictures and then drove to another roundabout and wandered through there as well. The neighborhood is filled with older, some historical, homes all on well manicured yards with sidewalks. Reminds me of my previous hours on US Grant Place where kids are playing in the streets, neighbors chatting on their front lawns - so charming like the storybook version of Americana, but here it actually exists.

I've been here many times but not in recent years. So glad my travels took me this way and now it's on my radar once again.

This was a nice find and a great neighborhood for a walk after dinner. I came over to eat at Double Dragon and needed a stroll after filling up on coconut curry ramen.

This is a wonderful neighborhood with stately older homes, and the unique Ladd circle and square parks. The square parks have beautiful roses in bloom this time of year. Circle park was having an acoustic music meet-up with string players, kids running around happily, and parents relaxing and enjoying a fine NW summer evening. Serendipity.

William Ladd had a great idea. Make an area of town similar to a bicycle wheel. Drive into the center of the wheel and tour the garden and get yourself out of the maze! I love it! Keep Portland Weird

The only non-food/drink stop on Dana's Food Tour PDX.

And what a stop it was.

It was a photo-taking frenzy, for the roses were outstanding in late May 2015. Pink ones and purple ones. Red ones and white ones. Roses that were multi-colored. Roses that caused Hungry Friend and Hungry Me to stop and smell the roses. And to sit down by them. And to pet them.

Parking was easy, and access by bike or bus or foot would also be a breeze. I don't believe it's covered at all, so come by while the water is not falling from the sky.

Remember, it's the two small diamonds/squares that are full of flowers. And the giant circle in the middle is grassy, not flower-y.

I absolutely love Ladd's Addition, including the 5 wonderful parks that it includes. The most notorious is Ladd's Circle, which is a park that also serves as a traffic roundabout. Most people are scared to drive through Ladd's because of it, but that is why it is so great (it slows traffic, there is enough space to have banjo bands play, and there is also a great view of the city).

There are also 4 rose gardens associated with the cardinal directions that have over "3,000 roses of sixty varieties that were popular in the early 20th century" according to the Portland Parks and Recreation website.

Bonus: a city sponsored bike path runs through Ladd's, so there are always lots of bikers and people strolling through the elm lined streets.

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If you're from Portland, you probably know about the infamous Ladd's Circle, a little circle of grass in the middle of a tree-lined historical neighborhood set at angles instead of straight lines. It's a calming, relaxing neighborhood. It has At the middle, there's a little coffeeshop called Palio's that is famous for its cake and quiet working environment (many medical students, law students, grad students study there).

It's nice in the summer, especially (but what isn't?) And some summer nights, when it gets dark out, you might hear the sound of 20 or 40 fiddlers out in the circle, playing Bluegrass tunes (and most of them are pretty good!).

It is a Really cool place to bike through, like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

SE Ladd is my route through Ladd's Circle and Squares, (the main bike route for many bicyclists too). The trees create a beautiful archway over the streets, until it opens up to the center circle.

I find people usually have issues navigating traffic circles, but the traffic just flows nicely through this one in Ladd's. It's a big circle, wide enough drivers and cyclists can see each other coming; also well maintained with plants and flowers.

"Oh please, Alice in Wonderland, Really?!" but take a ride through it sometime, it does have a fairly tale feel to it. Calming and just sweet biking through too.

This is one of those places that, to me, makes Portland unique. An entire neighborhood centered around this strange five-piece park with a largeish circle at its center, surrounded by four squarish diamond rose parks at the four corners of the compass. The streets shoot off at 45 degree angles from the surrounding streets, forming all the parts of the park. Giant trees line every road in Ladd's Addition, creating a truly beautiful place to explore. People come and go from these parks easily, either by bike, by foot, or by car. It's a great place to just relax at and people watch. Maybe grab a cup of coffee from nearby Palio just across from the circle. All in all, it's a nice park in an even nicer neighborhood.

If you love older well cared for and well loved neighborhoods, the Ladd's Addition is the place for you. My favorite circle is the Rose Garden...summer's best, but there is charm year round. Plus factor...it's only a short Portland block from Palio's for Stumptown coffee, great pastries and specialty sandwiches, soups, and salads. The bus stop is at the door & bike rack slots too. Walking shoes are a must for stretching your legs, branching out from there and enjoying a visual smorgasbord of neighborhoods.