Washington Park, the 410-acre West Hills green space you have climbed into above downtown, holds an unusual concentration of Portland cultural institutions: the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Japanese Garden, the International Rose Test Garden, the Portland Children's Museum, and the Hoyt Arboretum. The Oregon Zoo traces its origin to 1888, when a druggist named Richard Knight began keeping animals in the back of his pharmacy on the waterfront. The zoo moved to Washington Park in 1925 and has been one of the most visited attractions in Oregon ever since.
The International Rose Test Garden, established in 1917 as a site to test new hybrid rose varieties — including some sent from Europe during World War I for safekeeping from the war — is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States and the origin of Portland's Rose City nickname. The Rose Festival, which has taken place annually since 1907, includes a Grand Floral Parade through downtown that is one of the largest floral parades in the world. Washington Park itself is a legacy of the Olmsted Brothers plan of 1903, which recommended a system of parks connected by parkways.
The park is accessible by a MAX light rail station that is the deepest underground light rail station in North America, descending 260 feet below the West Hills surface.