Public Space Wednesday(ish): Mill Ends Park

We’re going from the widest road in the world to the smallest park in the world. It’s like a public space freak show up in here. Mill Ends Park, in delightful Portland, Oregon, with an area of 452 square inches (a circle with a diameter of two feet).

The park’s creation story comes from Dick Fagan, a columnist for the Oregon Journal, and goes something like this:

He looked out the window and spotted a leprechaun digging in the hole. He ran down and grabbed the leprechaun, which meant that he had earned a wish. Fagan said he wished for a park of his own; but since he had not specified the size of the park in his wish, the leprechaun gave him the hole. Over the next two decades, Fagan often featured the park and its head leprechaun, named Patrick O’Toole, in his whimsical column.

The little bit o’median became a park in 1976. I’m not sure what lessons can be drawn from Mill Ends Park, but it’s nice to see medians getting some love.

Photo by atul666