Pettygrove

Francis W. Pettygrove was a 19th-century American trader and real estate developer best known for his role in founding Portland, Oregon. In the mid-1840s he partnered with Asa Lovejoy to establish a settlement at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Their efforts laid out early streets and plots, attracting settlers and investment and creating the foundations of what would become Portland.

A widely told episode in Portland history concerns the city’s name. According to tradition, Pettygrove and Lovejoy debated possible names for the fledgling settlement. The story goes that they conducted a coin toss, with Pettygrove reportedly winning and naming the town Portland, while Lovejoy favored Boston. The anecdote has endured as a colorful part of the city’s lore and is often cited to illustrate the early rivalries and compromises that shaped Portland.

Pettygrove continued to be involved in real estate and development as Portland grew in the following decades. His efforts, alongside Lovejoy’s, helped establish Portland’s commercial core and the landholding patterns that influenced the city’s early growth. He died in the late 19th century, leaving a lasting, if sometimes contested, imprint on Oregon’s urban history.