Biohazard Cleanup Near Gresham Butte Gresham, OR

Gresham is a city in Multnomah County, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, and it is the second most populous city in the county and the fourth most populous city in Oregon.

The 2020 census counted 114,247 residents in Gresham, living in 41,333 households, up from 105,594 residents in 2010.

The area was first settled in 1851 by brothers Jackson and James Powell, who claimed land under the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 and called the settlement Powell's Valley.

The city was named after Walter Quintin Gresham, an American Civil War general and United States Secretary of State, after a local merchant petitioned for a post office in his store in 1884.

Gresham was incorporated on February 11, 1905, the year of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, when its population was just 365, and Lewis Shattuck served as its first mayor.

The early economy was driven by agriculture, especially berries, grapes, and vegetables from the 1910s to the 1960s, and the city boomed from about 4,000 residents in 1960 to more than 10,000 by 1970.

Gresham's library began as a small book collection in the town's general store and was officially established as the Gresham Branch Public Library in 1913 with a grant from the Andrew Carnegie library fund.

Gresham General Hospital opened downtown in 1959 and moved to Stark Street in 1984, becoming Mount Hood Medical Center.

Johnson Creek, which begins at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, runs westward through Gresham, and the city is divided into 16 recognized neighborhoods, including Central City, Rockwood, and Pleasant Valley.

The city's parks include Main City Park near downtown, with a Japanese garden and skatepark, and Hogan Butte Nature Park, and its trails include the Springwater Corridor, the 40-Mile Loop, and the Gresham-Fairview Trail.