Wandering Chopsticks: Vietnamese Food, Recipes, and More: Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden - Grant Park - Portland

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Do I really need to introduce Beverly Cleary? Surely everyone knows Ramona and Beezus? Henry and Ribsy? Emily's Runaway Imagination? Jean and Johnny?

So when I found myself in the neighborhood with Darlene of Blazing Hot Wok, we took a detour to stop at the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden at Grant Park. The statues, erected in 1995, are located beside the tennis courts. Ah, I remember several high school tennis matches on those courts. The statues went up after I had already left Portland. The books are set in this neighborhood because that's where she grew up and went to school. (Mr. Holland's Opus was also filmed at Grant High School.)

Ramona.

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Henry.

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And Ribsy.

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No Beezus though! I wonder why? Did they not fundraise enough?

Afterward, I snapped some photos of Klickitat Street. Yes, it's a real street.

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Except, it's been sooo many years since I've read the Ramona books, I wasn't sure where the Quimbys would have lived exactly. Turns out, I was a few blocks off. It's Klickitat and 28th. Oh well.

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This still gives you a good idea of the neighborhood though.

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And Fernwood Middle School has now been renamed Beverly Cleary School.

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2 comments:

caninecologneSeptember 2, 2010 at 5:05 PM
hi wc - awww, i wish i knew about the sculpture garden. we could have gone there last spring during our portland trip. we did, however, go to the multnomah public library in downtown portland (i think you blogged that before) and the children's section is named after beverly cleary. she is one of my favorite authors. tc was excited to see this post because i showed her the sign for 'klickitat' street! so cool!
Wandering ChopsticksSeptember 4, 2010 at 3:51 AM
CC,
I wish I had remembered to tell you about it! Just more reasons for you to go back and visit PDX again. :)

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden - Grant Park - Portland - Oregon

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