CENTENNIAL · PORTLAND

Centennial

East Portland Coalition of Neighborhoods

11 spots to discover in this neighborhood 25,000 residents · 4.2 sq mi

“Portland's eastern edge — diverse, resilient, and anchored by Powell Butte's panoramic trails.”

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NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY

What Centennial Is Known For

“Portland's eastern edge — diverse, resilient, and anchored by Powell Butte's panoramic trails.”

— Centennial, Portland

About

Centennial

Centennial sits at the far eastern edge of SE Portland, straddling the border with Gresham along SE Division and SE Powell — two of the city's most important east-west commercial streets. The neighborhood wraps Powell Butte Nature Park on its western and southern flanks: 611 acres of meadow and second-growth forest that offer some of the finest panoramic views of Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens in the metro area. With roughly 25,000 residents, Centennial is one of outer Portland's largest and most densely populated neighborhoods.

Like much of outer East Portland, Centennial is diverse and working-class, home to immigrant families from Latin America, Southeast Asia, Russia, and Ukraine alongside multigenerational Portland households. Powell Blvd and Division St carry a steady mix of taqueries, teriyaki shops, Chinese restaurants, and neighborhood service businesses. The Centennial Community Association (CCA) is a recognized City neighborhood organization that meets bimonthly; it also hosts the Centennial Community Resilience Network (CCRN), a coalition working to establish a neighborhood resilience hub for emergency preparedness. The Centennial Commons website (centennialcommons.info) serves as the community's digital front door.

Boundaries: Bordered roughly by SE 122nd Ave (west), Gresham city limits (east), SE Division St (north), SE Foster Rd / Powell Butte (south). Adjacent: Pleasant Valley (south), Glenfair (north), Hazelwood (northwest).

Neighborhood Association

The Vibe

What Centennial Feels Like

Diverse, sprawling east-edge community

Centennial is a sprawling, residential neighborhood with a quiet, suburban character and a strongly diverse community. Single-family homes, apartment complexes, and pockets of open land are spread across a wide area shaped more by arterial roads than by a central main street.

It has a practical, lived-in feel, with daily life oriented around the larger commercial corridors and the schools that give the neighborhood its name and identity.

History

How Centennial Came To Be

Centennial is a large neighborhood in far East Portland, straddling the city's eastern edge near the boundary with Gresham. The neighborhood takes its name from the Centennial School District, and like much of the area east of 82nd Avenue it spent much of the twentieth century as unincorporated Multnomah County before being annexed into Portland during the major annexations of the 1980s and 1990s.

Because it developed largely outside the city's early planning, Centennial grew with a patchwork of housing built across different eras, from postwar homes to later apartment complexes and infill. Infrastructure such as sidewalks, stormwater systems, and parks lagged behind the inner neighborhoods, a legacy that east Portland communities have worked to address in the decades since annexation.

Today Centennial is among Portland's most diverse neighborhoods, home to a broad mix of working-class, immigrant, and first-generation families, with a population that reflects the cultural breadth of the city's east side.

Character

What Defines Centennial

Cultural diversity

Centennial is one of Portland's most diverse neighborhoods, home to many immigrant and first-generation families.

Schools at the center

The neighborhood is named for and anchored by the Centennial School District, which serves as a community focal point.

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Categories in Centennial

Auto

6 Services

4 Beauty

Auto 6 Services 4 Beauty 1

Landmarks

Notable Places in Centennial

Powell Butte Nature Park

16160 SE Powell Blvd, Portland OR 97236

611-acre park with meadow and forest trails, offering panoramic Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens views.

Centennial Plaza

18071 SE Division St, Portland OR 97236

Neighborhood retail plaza anchoring the Division St commercial corridor near the Gresham border.

Centennial Community Association

centennialcommons.info

City-recognized neighborhood association serving ~25,000 residents; hosts the Community Resilience Network.

Getting Around

Centennial

Schools

Centennial High School

The Centennial School District's comprehensive high school in outer Southeast Portland.
Centennial Middle School

A Centennial School District middle school serving the area.

Real Estate