Bridlemile Neighborhood

Bridlemile Neighborhood is bordered by Beaverton to the west, the SW Hills to the north, Healy Heights to the east and Hayhurst to the south. The street borders are approximately SW Scholls Ferry Rd to the West, SW Patton Rd to the North, SW Dosch Rd to the East and Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy to the South.
As you look from downtown, Bridlemile Neighborhood is just up and over the “West Hills”. It is just a short drive (5 min) up Hwy 26 to the Sylvan exit, and when you get off, you wind through the thickly forested south west hills. As you drive along, there are areas that are open where you can get a peek of the absolutely gorgeous views of the valley and coastal range. It is quiet and peaceful out here- I love just driving through there. The houses are beautiful and for the most part, spread out. Most are perched on the side of a hill but many have great yards with gorgeous gardens and incredible views. At the bottom of the hill on Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, you have all the conveniences you could want.

Bridlemile Neighborhood has good community spirit and prides itself on their gorgeous old growth trees and their community service. The neighborhood got together and started the Bridlemile Creek Stewards. They successfully carried out a number of restoration projects. They cleared over four acres, including more than 2000 feet of stream bank, and saved over 200 trees from ivy infestations. They planted 7,700 native plants, installed erosion control and held at least four annual SW Portland Neighborhood Stream Festivals. Because of the success of these projects, they received a community service award from SOLV and were nominated for the Tualatin Riverkeepers Green Heron Award in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Bridlemile Elementary

The Bridlemile neighborhood was voted one of the best elementary schools in the Portland District as judged by their annual report card The Bridlemile Elementary School has consistently received an “Exceptional”. The school grounds are huge with two baseball diamonds and serve as an extension to Hamilton Park, which is a 10 acre green space with a play structure, paths – paved, playground, soccer field, softball field, and tennis court – outdoor size.

Neighborhood Association Web Site Bridlemile has one of the best (if not the best) neighborhood Web sites in the Portland community.
Bridlemile’s location is perfect! It is close enough to downtown to commute easily- just a 10 minute drive- but it’s far enough out of Portland downtown area that it is very quiet and peaceful- very little traffic or noise. It takes just a little over 10 minutes to get into town. The lay of the land is gently rolling hills with lots of woodsey areas- a lot of the streets being windy and leading to a dead end- which helps keep the streets and neighborhoods quiet and peaceful and good for kids! As far as access to public transportation, there are 5 buslines that go right through the neighborhood- so the option of public transportation is great.  The population is 5,698- which averages to 6 persons per acre – and it has 955 acres. The type of people who live here are usually family oriented and very active in their community.

Schools
Elementary school – Bridlemile Middle school – West Sylvan Junior High school – Lincoln High School or Wilson High .
School Report Cards To check out how the schools are rated you can click on school report cards. Click here for more information These schools are very good.

Albert Kelly Creek Restoration is an interesting site showing the community involvement in planting and their restoring natural areas
There are a lot of cool old historic homes in this neighborhood. In fact, fifteen of them are on the Historic Resource Inventory of Portland. You can read some very interesting stories about some of these old homes by going to the Bridlemile Historic Buildings page.

Subdivisions of Bridlemile
Bridlemile is composed of many small sub neighborhoods- including Bridlemile, Bridlemile Place, Bridlewood, Brookford, Clarion, Doschdale, Hamilton Woods, Montmore, Raleighwood, Orchard Hill, Semler Park , Smoke Rise, Stonebrook, Tunnelwood Park, Wilcox Estates, Wilcox West.
At one time all of Bridlemile was covered by forest, when settlers came they cleared the land for farming, orchards, and dairy lands. As Portland grew, in the 1940’s and 1950’s the first housing developments were built. The people here are proud of the huge trees all over the neighborhood- In 2005 the Black Walnut tree on 48 th Pl. had its 100th birthday!
The architectural style in Bridlemile ranges from turn of the century to modern- there are especially a lot of the1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s- with hardwoods, coved ceilings, big yards, fireplaces and retro kitchens.

History of Bridlemile Neighborhood

Bridlemile Neighborhood includes the historical community of Glencullen, named after early settler Capt. John Winchell Cullen (1838–1939). The Glencullen Station was along the route of the Southern Pacific West Side Line, and it operated in Bridlemile from 1923 to 1925. The Powells were some of the first owners of the large tract of land now known as Bridlemile. They were originally going to use it as horse property, but instead, parceled off plots of land for a new neighborhood, and named the streets after their family! When you hear the name Bridlemile, think about what was the original plan for the neighborhood! To have trails for horses to ride all over the west hills on!
There is a historic tour of homes for Bridlemile