Wilsonville, Oregon - Wikipedia

Alphonso Boone, the grandson of Daniel Boone, settled in what would later become Wilsonville in 1846 and established the Boones Ferry across the Willamette River in 1847.[6] The ferry gave rise to the community of Boones Landing, which eventually grew into Wilsonville.[6] Originally, the area was part of what became Yamhill County, but was transferred to the current Clackamas County in 1855.[7] The first post office was established in 1876 with the name Boones Ferry.[7]

Wilsonville became the name of the community on June 3, 1880,[8] named after the first postmaster, Charles Wilson.[9] That same year the first school, Wilsonville Grade School, was opened as a single-room building.[10] By 1890, the railroad had reached town and the community contained depot, several hotels, a saloon, a tavern, a bank, and several other commercial establishments.[7] In 1897, the twelve school districts in the vicinity of Wilsonville up to Lake Oswego merged to create a single district.[11] A railroad bridge was built across the river for the Oregon Electric Railway beginning in 1906.[7] The bridge was completed the next year and service from Wilsonville south to Salem began in 1908.[7]

A new Methodist church was built in the community in 1910, which was used until 1988 and is still standing.[12] Two years later, a new two-room school replaced the old one-room school, which in turn was replaced by a modern school in the mid 1900s, all on the same property.[10] In 1939, the wooden trestle part of the railroad bridge across the Willamette caught fire and burned.[7] Boones Ferry was decommissioned after the Boone Bridge opened in 1954 carrying what was then the Baldock Freeway, and is today Interstate 5.[6]

In 1961, the Dammasch State Hospital mental hospital opened on the west side of the community.[7] Gordon House, the only house in Oregon to be designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was built in 1963 near what became Charbonneau and moved to the Oregon Garden in 2001.[13] Wilsonville was flooded in 1964 and the first fire station was built in 1966.[7] Wilsonville was incorporated as a city on October 10, 1968, with a population of about 1,000.[14][15] In 1971, the planned community of Charbonneau on the south side of the river was annexed into the city the year after development began.[11][15]

Tektronix built a campus in the city beginning in 1973, which was later sold to Xerox.[15] The following year Wilsonville's city hall relocated from Tauchman House at what is now Boones Ferry Park to a trailer and the next year the first city manager was hired.[7] A standalone post office was built in 1976 at Boones Ferry and Wilsonville roads, with city police protection added in 1979.[7] In 1980, the city reached a population of 2,920, and in 1982 the library was opened. The next year, a new city hall was opened, replacing a trailer that had served as city hall since 1975.[15]

In 1988, the city opened their first library building, which replaced the one-room library located in space leased from the school district.[16] The population grew to 7,106 at the 1990 census, and in 1991 the Town Center Shopping Center along Wilsonville Road opened.[15][17] Due to growth in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the school board approved building a new high school to be located in Wilsonville in 1992.[11]

Author Walt Morey owned an estate in Wilsonville and after his death in 1992, his widow sold the property to a developer. The housing development built on that property, Morey's Landing, bears his name as does the children's section of the Wilsonville Public Library.[18] Walt Morey Park, a bear-themed park located in Morey's Landing, contains a life-size 8-foot-tall wooden statue of Morey's most famous literary creation, Gentle Ben.[19]

Living Enrichment Center, a New Thought Church with as many as 3,000 members, was headquartered in Wilsonville from 1992 until 2004.[20] The church closed that year after problems that including money laundering by the church leaders led to the bankrupting of the church.[21]

In 1995, Dammasch State Hospital was closed by the state of Oregon, and the site was then proposed as a location for what became the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, which opened in 2001 at a different site to the north of the old hospital grounds.[22] In protest of the construction of the prison, specifically the effect on property values, Larry Eaton began erecting school buses on his property.[23] The former grounds of the state hospital have been redeveloped as Villebois, a primarily residential planned community. Also in 1995, Wilsonville High School opened as part of the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the first high school in the city's history.[15] In 1998, lack of an adequate long-term water supply forced the city to suspend adding any new developments to the city.[15] A new water treatment plant on the Willamette River opened in 2002 to address this need.[15]

The Wilsonville Public Library was expanded to nearly four times the size of the 7,500-square-foot (700 m2) 1988 building with an expansion finished in 2002.[24] Wilsonville Primary School was closed in June 2001, and later sold with the property and turned into a shopping center, anchored by an Albertsons supermarket.[25][26] In September 2006, Wilsonville opened a new $9.9 million, two-story brick and steel city hall after a controversy concerning its location led to unsuccessful attempts to recall several elected officials in the city, including the mayor.[27] In 2007, the old city hall building was turned into a new public works and police department.[28]

During the Great Recession, Nike closed its distribution center in Wilsonville,[29][30] projector maker InFocus moved its headquarters from the city,[31] and retailer G.I. Joe's that was headquartered there went out of business.[32] In 2010, the Oregon Institute of Technology took over the InFocus building to house the school's Portland area campus.[33] A new shopping center named Old Town Square anchored by a Fred Meyer store opened in 2011 along Interstate 5 at Wilsonville Road, which also included a McMenamins location.[34]

Lowrie Primary School in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District opened in 2012 in the Villebois part of the city.[35] The Villebois Community Center in that area was completed in 2013.[36] A fire in March 2019 destroyed 20 homes that were being built in the Villebois area.[37] In 2021, Fry's Electronics closed its store that had opened as Incredible Universe in 1992, while museum World of Speed and the local bowling alley also closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[38] In June 2021, the city hit 116 °F (47 °C) on June 28, 2021, during a heatwave, Wilsonville's highest recorded temperature.[39] The only theater in town, a nine-screen Regal Cinemas, closed in July 2023.[40]