The world’s smallest park returns to Naito Parkway, new and improved

By HANIN NAJJAR

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — Mill Ends park, the world’s smallest park, returned to Naito Parkway, Wednesday, after the completion of the Better Naito Forever project.

As part of the improvements, the City removed the entire, tiny, Mill Ends Park, and returned it a full six inches west from its previous location. The park, home to a colony of leprechauns according to legend, got a fresh look.

Mill Ends Park is once again located in the median strip of SW Naito Parkway in downtown Portland. The park is about 2 feet across, with a total area of 452 square inches.

It is the smallest park in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records, which first granted it this recognition in 1971. Mill Ends Park is an iconic Portland destination with its own weeding and watering schedule, under the purview of Portland Parks & Recreation’s downtown maintenance team.

“In Portland, we’ve long embraced the quirky, creative spirit that drives our city,” says Portland Parks Commissioner Carmen Rubio. “Mill Ends Park embodies that spirit. Bike and pedestrian safety improvements in the Better Naito Forever project will now allow more Portlanders to safely visit this iconic park and the leprechauns living there.”

The park came into existence in 1946, when journalist Dick Fagan planted flowers in an unused hole in the median on what is now Naito Parkway. Fagan wrote a popular column called Mill Ends where he talked about the World’s Smallest Park and the leprechauns, “the only leprechaun colony west of Ireland,” that live there. He claimed to be the only person who could see the head leprechaun, Patrick O’Toole.

An Irishman, Fagan continued to write about the activities in the park until he died in 1969. Mill Ends became an official city park on St. Patrick’s Day in 1976 and continues to be a site of St. Patrick Day festivities.

The park had to be moved temporarily once before, in 2006, for construction on Naito Parkway. It was replaced on March 16, 2007, in true St. Patrick’s Day style with the Royal Rosarians, bagpipers, and the Fagan family, including Dick’s wife Katherine, in attendance.

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