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Renting an Apartment in Tigard
What You Should Know
Tigard is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States. The population
was 41,223 at the 2000 census. According to the 2003 Oregon Blue Book, Tigard is
the state's 11th largest city. It is part of the Portland metropolitan area and
is south of Beaverton, north of Tualatin.
Like many towns in the Willamette Valley, Tigard was originally settled by
several families, the most noteworthy of which was the Tigard family, headed by
Wilson M. Tigard. Arriving in the area known as "East Butte" in 1852, the family
settled and became involved in organizing and building the East Butte School, a
general store (which starting in 1886 housed the area's post office) and a
meeting hall, and renamed East Butte to "Tigardville". The Evangelical
organization built the Emanuel Evangelical Church at the foot of Bull Mountain,
south of the Tigard store in 1886. A blacksmith shop was opened in the 1890s by
John Gaarde across from the Tigard Store, and in 1896 a new E. Butte school was
opened to handle the growth the community was experiencing from an incoming wave
of German settlers.
The period between 1907 and 1910 marked a rapid acceleration in growth as Main
Street blossomed with the construction of several new commercial buildings,
Germania Hall (a two-story building featuring a restaurant, grocery store, dance
hall, and rooms to rent), a shop/post office, and a livery stable. Limited
telephone service began in 1908.
In 1910, the arrival of the Oregon Electric Railway triggered the development of
Main Street and pushed Tigardville from being merely a small farming community
into a period of growth which would lead to its incorporation as a city in 1961.
The town was renamed Tigard by the railroad to greater distinguish it from the
nearby Wilsonville, and the focus of the town reoriented northeast towards the
new rail stop as growth accelerated.
1911 marked the introduction of electricity, as the Tualatin Valley Electric
company joined Tigard to a service grid with Sherwood and Tualatin. William
Ariss built a blacksmith shop on Main Street in 1912 that eventually evolved
into a modern service station. In the 1930s the streets and walks of Main Street
were finally paved, and another school established to accommodate growth.
The John Tigard House, constructed by the son of Wilson M. Tigard in 1880 at the
corner of Pacific Highway and Gaarde Street, remains, having been saved from
demolition in the 1970s by the Tigard Area Historical and Preservation
Association. It became registered as a National Historic Place in 1979, and now
resides at the corner of SW Canterbury Lane and SW 103rd.
During the Portland Rose Festival every summer, the Tigard Festival of Balloons
is held at Cook Park near Tigard High School.
The city of Tigard falls mostly under the jurisdiction of the Tigard-Tualatin
School District, however some of the northwestern most part of the city falls
under the jurisdiction of the Beaverton School District. The Tigard-Tualatin
School District contains 10 elementary schools, 3 middle schools, and 2 high
schools. Tigard is home to Tigard High School, Fowler Middle School, Twality
Middle School, Alberta Rider Elementary, CF Tigard Elementary, Durham
Elementary, Mary Woodward Elementary and Templeton Elementary.