Cycle Tour of Hillsboro

I can imagine a lifelong resident looking at that photo and howling in protest: this isn't historic Orenco. The train station has been here a long time (originally a stop on the Oregon Electric Railway) but the town predates the current TriMet station (and even the original OER line).

Orenco is a contraction of OREgon Nursery COmpany and was a company town founded in 1905 but the company and the municipality disincorporated during the Great Depression. The historic town is southeast of the station. The grided streets with no sidewalks betray it's age as a pre-war community.

After dissolution, not much happened for a while. Over the next 100 years, Hillsboro gradually grew until its boundaries swallowed the old Orenco. In just the last 20 years, there's been a lot of development near the original town site as Hillsboro transformed the area into its downtown-away-from-downtown.

The old general store now specializes in the occult. There's an impressive park that used to be a golf course.

Orenco Station was a case-study for New Urbanism, a pro-public transit, pedestrian movement in the early 2000s. We tend to think of it as an upstart neighborhood but it's over two decades old.

From Orenco Woods park (the old golf course), head south on Cornelius Pass Rd.

Reedville

Reedville is another former train stop that evolved into a neighborhood that got swallowed by Hillsboro city limits, this one on the Oregon & California rail that still runs along TV highway (now owned by Southern Pacific). Reedville was originally Simeon Reed's farm (also namesake of Reed College) and co-owned by William Ladd (of Ladd's Addition in Portland).

Today, Reedville is mostly homes. The Reedville Creek Park was the city's first skate park (top image). TV highway makes most of the commercial corridor and skirts the southern edge of Reedville. Harvey (above) and the Reedville Cafe are there. 

Take a look at a map and see how TV highway bumps out away from the tracks where Harvey and the Black Rock Coffee stand today. This marks the site of the old Reedville train station. These used to be additional tracks.

I prefer not to bike TV highway (the shoulder is periodically non-existent), so after photographing Harvey, I head south.

South Hillsboro

The population of Hillsboro grows more than 2% per year. This has been the case for longer than any living person has walked this earth. In 2026, 2% translates to 1000 new homes every year. SoHi is the latest massive planned development, a 3rd downtown Hillsboro (after Orenco). Parts are still under construction.

One of the challenges I've faced is articulating to non-cyclists is how one new neighborhood can be really great for pedestrians, and others can be terrible. SoHi is setting itself up as a premier walkability/bikeability place to live.

Compare to Area 93, another new-build, albeit one in an unincorporated urban growth boundary. Both have ZLL housing but SoHi has a major shopping center reachable on foot with continuous sidewalks & bike trails the whole way. SoHi has massive parks. The wild lands are accessible by pedestrian paths.

It's easy to criticise a new neighborhood as ruining the character of the town. The reality is that I'm covering five neighborhoods in this one trip, every one was a new build across a different decade. Growth is natural and continuous in the Tualatin Valley since at least the 1840's. As far as I can see, SoHi is getting built to high-quality urban design reflective of modern sensibilities.

From here, head west.

Witch Hazel

Today, Witch Hazel is a neighborhood of homes but this patch of land has reinvented itself over and over again. While most of the homes were built during the turn of the millenium, prior to that, it was platted for 10 acre hobby farms. There was also a OCR train station. And a dog racing track. Before that a horse farm. 

During housing construction, a pioneer cemetery dating to the 1850s was discovered and preserved.

The origin of the name is disputed. Witch Hazel plants are not native to Oregon, but an inaccurate name has never stopped us before (Hillsboro has no hills, Cherry Grove has no cherries, Pumpkin Ridge has no pumpkins). It may have also been the name of a race horse (probably not) or may have been the original farm name (possibly hazelwitch, still nonsensical).

From here, head to downtown Hillsboro. There are multiple paths; I recommend crossing TV highway on 32nd Ave, then head west on Main.

(Downtown) Hillsboro

Today, Hillsboro is huge, but the original town was limited to the grided streets on the western side of today's city limits. As the oldest part of town, as well as the county seat, most of the civic buildings are here. There's also WashCo, a great bike repair shop.

I doubt I need to extoll the virtues of Hillsboro any more. Note to cyclists that riding a bike on the sidewalk is illegal (walk it, please), yield to foot traffic (same as cars), and obey traffic signs. Note to drivers: in stop-and-go grids, an attentive cyclist is just as fast as a car (I am sometimes faster). Keep that in mind if you're trying to pass, especially if you plan to make a right-hand turn.

It's a short ride north to the final stop today.

Mahan