The Oregon Territory which part of it became the state of Oregon in 1857, was infamous for its "temptation towards immorality", mostly due to its overwhelmingly male population. For example the total population in Portland 1860 – 2,874 – only 631 women; 1870 8,293 – only 2,251 women; 1880 – 17,577 only 5,147. By 1900 the population grew to 90,426 jumping to 207,214 by 1910 and 301,815 by 1930. Many reasons for the male population being dominant in numbers mostly due to the growing sea, farming, and lumber industries. 

Oregon enacted its first law against same-sex relationships with the Statutes of Oregon of 1853. Every person who shall commit sodomy, or the crime against nature, either with mankind or any beast, shall on conviction, be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary, not more than five years nor less than one year. Oregon was following the 1838 state code of criminal laws for the State of Iowa which in turn used the criminal laws of Wisconsin that cited sodomy as a civil offense. 

Though engaging in same-sex was illegal, that has never stopped anyone to seek out others of like mind. It probably was easier at Lowndsale Park because it was ‘exclusive for men’, that said there of course were other places for men to find other men such as other parks, hotels, bus stations, alleys, trolley stations, under bridges, anywhere that one could ‘steal’ a minute or two. 

The park was centrally located close to City Hall, Lotus Card Room, Aero Bath House, and many other businesses where professional men worked and passed by the park. The restroom wasn’t cited much in the 1912 Vice Clique Scandal except cited in George Painter’s book The Vice Clique: Portland’s Great Sex Scandal, on page 140 per court transcripts of the State of Oregon v. McAllister (1913) to which Roy Kadel was called to the witness stand. His testimony reads, “I had met him at the park several times.” “And he told you there in the park?” “Yes.” “What park? “This park down here, Fourth Street Plaza [Lownsdale Square].” 

At this point, it is important in injecting that the park in question, Lownsdale Square, was cited as a gay [homosexual – gay was not used during this period] cruising area for more than a decade before McAllister's trial. Per the GLAPN website, “Harry Work, the hotel desk clerk talked about visiting the park (referred to then under the old street names as Fourth Street Plaza) where his friend Earl Van Hulen pointed out “Mother McAllister (Edward S. J. McAllister)” who was walking the park looking for tricks.” 

When Dorothy McCollugh Lee came into power as mayor in 1949 her sites were on cleaning up Portland. This included any places where ‘those types could be found such as burlesque houses, brothels, and places that hosted female impersonators.’ The vice squad started hosting entrapments throughout this time. But it didn’t stop when Ms. Lee left office. 

Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer mentioned Lownsdale Square, Lincoln High School, and the Circle Theatre in their book the U.S.A. Confidential published in 1952, on page 131 they write, “You’d hardly expect it in this supposed-to-be land of hairy chests, but Portland has a considerable homosexual population. Man aren’t mincing effeminates, either, as you soon realize when you see rugged loggers who prefer boys. There’s a fairy club in Lincoln High School, but most of the Portland queers hang out in Lownsdale Square or meet each other around the Circle Theatre.” 

Per the book The Queerest Places [A guide to Gay and Lesbian Historic sites] by Paula Martinac 1997, cites the following, “For help in compiling the Portland listings, many thanks to Tom Cook, president of the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. For more sites associated with gay Portland, see “From Silence to Celebration! A guide to Portland’s Historic Gay Sites,” a publication of GLAPN. Don Horn reached out to Tom Cook, and he states that the name of the document was changed to the GLAPN A Walking Tour of Downtown Portland: A Century of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Historic Sites June 1999. Per Paula’s book, she writes, “Oregon’s oldest tearoom was first mentioned as a “queer” meeting spot in 1909. The little square was originally known as Fourth Street Plaza. During the 1940s and 1950s, the tearoom in the park was the site of numerous police entrapments of gay men, whose names and addresses were subsequently printed in the local newspapers.” 

Some newspaper articles substantiate the claims that Lownsdale Square Oregonian, April 26, 1953

And in The Oregonian, September 23, 1955, two men were found guilty of making indecent overtures to a Portland policeman in the public restroom at Lowndsale Square.

Not verified but it has been cited that in 1961 when a man being arrested by a police officer in the restroom resisted so violently that the officer had to be hospitalized. 

In the September 1974 issue of The Northwest Gay Review page 15 under Politics and & Law 

Could be muggers 

Portland - A Local judge acquitted a Portland man of a charge of “public indecency” in an August 23 trial. The gay man Russ Howerton, is only one of many gays who have been arrested under the massive police harassment that has come since Mayor Niel Goldschmidt took office. The arrests have generally involved the use of heavy entrapment, enticement, and sometimes totally fabricated stories by vice cops. Howerton told the judge that he arrived at the Lownsdale Park restroom at about midnight on May 12 to urinate. The restroom was empty, but after Howerton had urinated two men entered. Afraid the men might be muggers, Howerton began to leave, only to be stopped by one of the men at the door and arrested. 

One of the vice officers, John Wren told the judge that Howerton had been masturbating and when Wren arrived, Howerton had ejaculated on Wren’s shoe!” Howerton’s trial marks one of the few cases in which a Portland judge has not taken the cp’s word over the gays. 

Wren, who does most of the enticing, is an attractive man about 5’7” with dark brown hair and mustache. Edward May, his partner, works closely with him, usually doing the arrests. May is taller with blonde hair. 

Page 4 – Northwest Gay Review March 1976 under The System

“Vice Squad on new rampage – gay men warned to watch out”

Per the website:https://www.chronline.com/stories/chapman-and-lownsdale-square-have-a-history-of-political-movements,152446  Chapman Square was named after Judge William Chapman, a founder of The Oregonian newspaper. To the north was designed with an all-female grove of ginkgo trees and to be used exclusively by women and children. 

Over the years there’s been much confusion about the separation of the two parks. For instance, Eugene Bradley a retired postal manager was interviewed about a misunderstanding in 1971 when he was visiting Portland before moving here permanently. “(My wife and I), We both sat down on a bench in the women’s park and a policeman came up and said no, no you can’t sit here, which confused me because I’m not from here. But then I wasn’t sure if my wife could sit with me in the men’s park either,” says Bradley.

An ordinance passed in 1990 repealed obsolete and unenforceable park codes and the present-day squares are no longer divided by sex. 

Between the two Plaza Blocks, Main Street curves around the second oldest sculpture in the Portland metro area - a huge elk fountain given to the city by Mayor David P. Thompson from 1879 to 1882.