Hollywood Library
The first stop on our tour is the Hollywood Library. A library is a great place to begin because not only did Beverly love libraries as a little girl, she eventually became a librarian! And while she never checked out books from this library (it opened in 2002) should would have approved.Go ahead and open the doors, walk in, and see if you can find a librarian who can help you find a map of the "Walking with Ramona" tour. Don't worry if you came after library hours - you can always ask your grown up to download it on the their phone.Make sure to look at the wall behind the check-out desk. That impressive map definitely won't fit in your pocket! Do you see any places you are interested in visiting?This is also a great place to fill water bottles, use the restroom, and make sure you are ready for the walk ahead. When you're all ready, grab your slowpoke grown up and let's find out what happens next!"Ramona was not a slowpoke grown-up. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.” - Ramona the Pesthttps://multcolib.org/sites/default/files/Beverly-Cleary_Walking-with-Ramona-Map_2016.pdf
Rite Aid or Colossal Market
The RiteAid across the street was once a sprawling grocery store opened by Portland grocer Fred G. Meyer in 1931. He remodeled an auto garage and built a giant storefront that took up an entire block! There was even parking on the roof. This massive Fred Meyer was not only the first store of its kind in Portland but in the entire United States. Meyer's friend Sam Walton was so inspired by this one-stop-shopping model, he would pattern his future Walmart stores after it. One might say the store was so big it was...colossal! Henry Huggins, his parents, and his entire neighborhood excitedly attend the Grand Opening of the Colossal Market in Henry and Beezus. Free samples! Free gardenias for the ladies! Free balloons for the kiddies! It was the event of the year!Thanks to some quick thinking, Henry sells off the beauty salon coupons he wins and finally earns enough money to buy his long wished after bicycle (a boy's bike, of course!) Do you remember how he gets the other kids (and especially Scooter McCarthy) to stop laughing at him? Would you be brave enough to try a spoonful of Woofies dog food? Click the links below to learn more about the delectable canine treat Henry would have sampled and to see what this storefront would have looked like in Beverly's childhood. Maybe she bought dog food there too!https://www.thefarmersdog.com/digest/the-history-of-commercial-pet-food-a-great-american-marketing-story/https://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/ne-sandy-41st-1934/
Hollywood Theatre
You don't even need to move your feet to see the next stop. Turn your head to the right and look past the busy traffic on Sandy Boulevard. You should see the beautiful and impressive Hollywood Theatre, built in 1925. Nearly 100 years of movie-lovers have walked past those impressive terra cotta carvings, including Beverly Cleary! Take a close look and see what you can find in the ornate facade. Maybe a bearded face or a ram's head or even a mermaid!This is also where Henry and his parents come to see a movie (a Western, Henry hopes) after an exhausting and successful paper drive in Henry and the Paper Route. Most remarkably, they go to the movies on a school night! That's how you know it was a special treat.Click the link below to see what's showing at The Hollywood today - though you'll probably pay more than the 10 cents Beverly paid. And you probably won't have seat warmers or luxury loungers!https://hollywoodtheatre.org/
Old Hollywood Library or Glenwood Library
You thought you were going to a library but you're looking at a bakery! The Fleur de Lis Bakery was once the home of the Hollywood Library from 1959 to 2002 before it moved to it's new location at the start of our tour. And before 1959, it was the Rose City library, a small brick building that was torn down and rebuilt as this building with its unique conical roof. It looks a little like a witch's hat, which Ramona probably loved.Beverly lived a few short blocks from here and spent many happy hours reading at the Rose City library. Maybe it even helped her decide to be a librarian when she grew up! This is also the same library that inspired the Glenwood Library, frequented by book-lover Beezus and her (pesty?) little sister Ramona. This is the same library where Ramona infamously defiles a copy of Big Steve the Steam Shovel with a crayon and Beezus pays for the damages. "You said people didn't buy books at the library and now you just bought one!" Ramona says. Poor Beezus! Take a look at the book that inspired Big Steve. Would you want to read it over and over again to your little sister?https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/30719954
Hancock Street walk
You are about to walk several blocks down Hancock Street to Beverly's childhood home. This is is also the neighborhood she patterned Klickitat Street after and where Ramona and Henry and all their friends lived.Beverly would have walked down these same sidewalks to pick up sugar from the grocery store or to return a book to the library or to visit a friend's house. She would have roller skated on sunny days or stomped her galoshes in puddles on rainy Portland days. Henry would have delivered papers from his bike along this street and Ramona would have played Brick Factory with Howie in one of the driveways.As you walk, imagine you are Beverly or Ramona or Henry. Depending on the season, they would have passed the same plants growing in the yards: towering rhododendron, shade-loving hostas, and flowering hydrangeas in pink or blue. You might scuff in autumn leaves or you might pass summery vegetable gardens growing right by the sidewalk.Close your eyes and listen for a minute. What do you hear? Possibly the distant rumble of traffic, children playing, lawn mowers, or rain on the pavement - and always the friendly cawing of crows, the soundtrack to life in the Pacific Northwest no matter what season.Keep your eyes open for a stained glass window in a fence, a garage that looks like a castle, and a face smiling down at you from a chimney. What other interesting things do you see?https://www.opb.org/article/2023/04/11/crows-took-over-downtown-portland-then-they-left-what-happened/
3340 NE Hancock Street
After they left the farm in Yamhill, Beverly's family rented several homes in Portland, moving into this one when Beverly was in 4th grade. She loved to rollerskate, bike, or walk up and down Hancock St. She also loved to sit on the little front porch to read or do needlework.Beverly was an only child and shared this house with just her parents. Do you think maybe this is why she gave Beezus a little sister? Ramona certainly made sure things were never too peaceful! You can almost hear the sound of her clomping up and down the sidewalk on her coffee can stilts. Or taking one bite out of each apple in the basement!If you stand on the sidewalk in front of the home and face the street, you will see the same view Beverly did as she sat peacefully on the porch. I wonder if that towering elm is the same one she would have seen.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URMIRlySCoo
Beverly Cleary School or Glenwood Elementary
Can you believe you are standing in front of Glenwood Elementary? So many of Beverly Cleary's best stories happened on the campus of this school! This is where Henry sold his boxes of ill-gotten bubblegum, where Ramona "boinged" Susan's curls, where Ribsy chases Ramona up the jungle gym during a PTA meeting (PTA does not spell potato chips, by the way.) Scrunched paper bag owls, worm engagement rings, and "dawnzer's lee lights" might be some of the stories that come to mind when you look at this brick school.Like the neighborhood kids on her Klickitat Street, Beverly would also have walked the short block to get to school, led across the street by a heroic crossing guard in a yellow slicker, just like Henry! In Beverly's day, the school was known as Fernwood School but it has since been renamed Beverly Cleary School. If you walk along Hancock you can see the old green double doors where Beverly would have entered every day. And if you turn around, you will see a CVS store, the site where the new supermarket was built (and where Ramona lost her beautiful rain boots in the mud.) Can you imagine the children leaning out of the windows to catch a glimpse of the soggy kindergartner?If you walk up the corner along 33rd Avenue, you will see the school's current entrance as well as a beautiful mosaic. Get close and you can see when the mosaic was created, who donated it, and even who is featured in ir. (Hint: she's not wearing her rainboots!)
Grant Park Statue Garden
You should have enjoyed a nice little walk through Grant Park, past the back of Grant High School (where teenage Beverly attended school), and are now standing in the Grant Park Statue Garden.A little history: the bronze sculptures were dedicated in 1995 and are the work of Portland artist Lee Hunt. Beverly and her husband Clarence attended the dedication!Take a close look at each of the sculptures. Go ahead and get up close! What do you see?What is in Henry's pockets? And what is he holding? Do you think he's smuggling any kittens under his jacket? And he might need to look at his laces before he gets very far.Not too far from his boy is Ribsy. He's facing Henry and looks like he's waiting for him to toss a ball at any moment! Why do you think the sculptor made Ribsy so large? And why do you think his back and the tips of his ears are shiny?And then there's Ramona. On a hot day, the sculpture park becomes a spray park and Ramona looks like she jumping gleefully in a big puddle. Take a close look at her rain jacket. Does it look like it fits her properly? Ramona detested hand-me-downs but right now it doesn't look like she minds too much. She's having much too good of a time to be worried about wearing Beezus' old coat.What else do you see in the ground of the sculpture park? Take a minute to look through all the titles and stand on your favorite one.When Beverly died in 2019 at the age of 104, visitors flocked to the statue park to leave flowers and notes at the statues. Click the link below to see a picture of Ramona covered in beautiful flowers. What would you have brought and where would you have left it?https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/travel/beverly-cleary-portland-oregon.html#:~:text=The%20author's%20own%20father%20lost,a%20library%20with%20a%20children's https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/beverly_cleary_sculpture_garden/
Grant Park lawn
Keep walking through Grant Park, past the playground that somehow still manages to have a metal slide. Take a minute to slide down it. Imagine how fast you'd go if you sat on wax paper like Henry and Beezus!Follow the trails through the park and you'll come to a grassy area at the back of the high school. This is where Beverly dug for nightcrawlers (aka worms!) one summer when she was in college to earn a little extra money. Henry does the same for his neighbor, earning one whole cent per worm to help him buy a new football.Look around the park. If you're here in summer, you'll see kids on the basketball court, hear the splash of kids playing in the community pool, and have to jump off the path for kids zooming by on bikes. If you look past the trees you should see an enormous grassy off-leash area full of frolicking dogs. How Ribsy would have loved to play here!It's been nearly 100 years since Beverly played at Grant Park, but it's still full of laughing children and happy dogs.
Grant High School
You should now be standing on 36th Avenue in front of Grant High School where Beverly attended high school. She wrote several stories during her time here and even co-wrote a play that was performed at the school.This is a good moment to pause and have a rest. You've walked pretty far already! The next portion of the tour will take you several blocks up toward Alameda Ridge to see the original Klickitat Street and another one of Beverly's childhood homes. Grownups, right now you are pretty close to your car if you parked by the Hollywood Library. If you are worried about the feet and enthusiasm of your smaller tourists giving out, you may want to consider walking back to your car and driving the next section of the tour.If it's a beautiful day, however, and everyone is feeling good, proceed with the walk! You will pass many beautiful homes on peaceful tree-lined states and will experience the same neighborhood walks that Beverly did after her family moved to the home on 37th Avenue.
Beverly Cleary home - 2924 NE 37th Ave
Whether you walked or drove, you hopefully enjoyed seeing the beautiful trees and homes in this neighborhood of northeast Portland. And right now you should be standing in front of Beverly's home on 37th Ave. (Just a reminder, this is someone's residence so please be respectful and admire the home from the sidewalk.)Beverly's family bought this home when she was in the 7th grade. Her parents gave her a used bike to ride to and from Fernwood school, though I bet the ride to school was a little easier than the ride home!Beverly's mother was especially fond of the large plate glass windows at the front of the house. If you look closely, you might see a fun surprise placed in the front window by the current owners of the home. Do you see Ribsy smiling back at you from the front window? There are a few other things to look for in the neighborhood. Do you see any iron rings set in the conrete along the curb? Those are remnants from the days when horse drawn carts used to make neighborhood deliveries and the horses needed to be tied up. There should be one not too far from Beverly's house! What do you think her family had delivered to their home?One of the items they had delivered was milk. If you look at the side of the house by the driveway, you may see a small door halfway up the wall. That is where the milkman would leave full glass bottles of milk and take away the empty ones. It's also where a young Beverly wiggled through one day when her family was locked out of the house! At the beginning of the tour, I said you may want to bring a book with you to leave somewhere along the route. Well, now is your chance! A few houses down, you should see a Little Free Library. Open up the libarary and slip your book inside for the next Beverly Cleary tourist or neighborhood walker to find. And feel free to take a book for yourself! I think Beverly would not only have approved of a library on her very street but also taking a book as a souvenir.When I was last there, I saw one of Ramona's very favorite books in the little library. Can you guess which one? I'll give you a hint - I still want to know how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom!
Klickitat Street
Walk a few blocks up the hill and you'll find yourself standing underneath the sign to Klickitat Street. Isn't it great to see it up close and in person? While Beverly borrowed characters from kids she knew on Hancock Street, she changed the name of the neighborhood to Klickitat because she liked the sound of it better. She thought it sounded like knitting needles clicking together.If this is the "real" Klickitat Street, you might find yourself wondering where Ramona really lived. Did she live on the leafy streets of Hancock or enjoy the view from Klickitat? Because Beverly lived in both the Hancock and Klickitat neighborhoods, you might say that Ramona lived in both too. Wherever mischevious, creative, sensitive, imaginative Beverly was, Ramona is sure to be found as well.Maybe you even live a little bit on Klickitat Street yourself! Maybe you have thrown papers with Henry or played chess with Beezus or made a great big noisy fuss with Ramona. That is the best part about reading and especially about reading Beverly Cleary's books. You would have fit right in with the kids on Hancock Street and I'm sure Beverly would have wanted you there.Thanks for coming along today! Enjoy a beautiful walk back along 38th Ave to your parking spot or hop in your car for your drive home. Maybe you can talk your grownups into a Western at the Hollywood! Especially if it's a school night...“Quite often somebody will say, 'What year do your books take place?' and the only answer I can give is, in childhood.” - Beverly Cleary
