World’s smallest designated city park

Mill Ends Park, Portland Oregon

Mill Ends Park is located in the middle of the traffic island at the intersection of SW Taylor Street and Naito Parkway (Front Avenue). At 24 inches in diameter, this is the world’s smallest dedicated city park. Construction disrupted the park for quite awhile but by March 2007 it was back — not in the same exact location but close enough.

Originally it was merely an ugly hole left over when a telephone pole was removed. Years ago Oregon Journal writer Donald Fagan was tired of looking at the utility pole hole every day from his office across the street. He decided to plant some flowers and name it Mill Ends Park after the column that he wrote. To generate some interest in this minuscule space, Fagan centered many imaginative newspaper stories on the park and the capers of a fictitious resident in many of his “Mill Ends” columns.

It is now an officially designated park maintained by the Portland Bureau of Parks. The park’s commemorative plaque provides a sad illustration of how easily history is forgotten. The plaque twice misspells Fagan’s name as “Fagen.” Two bollards (ship posts) protect the park.

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