Tanasbourne, Oregon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tanasbourne, Oregon
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Neighborhood
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185th Avenue looking south from Sunset Highway
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| Country | United States |
| State | Oregon |
| Region | Washington County |
| Time zone | Pacific |
| Postal code |
97124
97006 |
| Part of: | Hillsboro Beaverton |
Tanasbourne, Oregon, is a busy neighborhood in Washington County, Oregon. It's located where NW 185th Avenue and the Sunset Highway (which is part of U.S. Highway 26) meet. This area is part of the larger Portland metropolitan area. Tanasbourne includes parts of both Beaverton and Hillsboro. It is known for its many shopping areas and was once home to a large indoor mall.
History of Tanasbourne
The story of Tanasbourne began in the 1970s. A company called Standard Insurance Company started developing a big piece of land near the Sunset Highway. The name "Tanasbourne" comes from two old words. "Tenas" is from a language called Chinook Jargon, and it means "small." "Bourn" is an old English word for "creek." So, Tanasbourne means "small, pretty creeks."
Standard Insurance built an indoor shopping mall there, which opened in 1975. A library also opened in the community in 1976. The city of Hillsboro took over the library in 1990. This branch stayed open until 2007, when a new main library for Hillsboro opened further west.
In 1983, the county approved a plan to develop about 850 acres (340 ha) in Tanasbourne. Hillsboro officially added much of the Tanasbourne area to its city limits in 1987. The next year, there were plans to make the old mall bigger and build new stores. However, the mall was never expanded.
In 1996, Hillsboro started working to make Tanasbourne a special "town center" in the region's plans. A new outdoor shopping center called The Streets of Tanasbourne opened in October 2004. This center is located along Cornell Road. Hillsboro is still planning big changes and improvements for the Tanasbourne area.
The Tanasbourne Mall
Construction on a $6 million shopping mall began in 1974. It was named Tanasbourne Town Center and was located next to the Sunset Highway. This two-story mall was 152,000-square-foot (14,100 m2) and opened in 1975. It had a library, a day care, offices, and a movie theater with three screens.
A TriMet park-and-ride lot was built next to the mall, where people could park their cars and take public transportation. The mall was also commonly known as Tanasbourne Mall.
In 1988, there were plans to build a huge shopping area around the mall, covering more than 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2). This plan also included updating the mall itself. Many of the mall's main stores, like Safeway and PayLess Drug (now Rite Aid), moved to a new outdoor shopping center that opened in 1990 across 185th Avenue. This left many empty spaces in the old indoor mall.
The old mall building was torn down in 1993. In its place, a new outdoor shopping center was built, which includes a Target store. One of the first big stores in this new center was a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) Mervyn's. It closed in 2006, and its space was divided into two smaller stores.
What You Can Find in Tanasbourne
Tanasbourne is about 236 feet (72 m) above sea level. Most of the community is part of Hillsboro, and the Hillsboro Police have a station nearby. Hillsboro also has several parks in the area, including Evergreen Park, Orchard Park, and Magnolia Park. Students in Tanasbourne go to schools in either the Hillsboro School District or the Beaverton School District.
Tanasbourne is a major shopping area with places like Tanasbourne Town Center, Tanasbourne Village, and The Streets of Tanasbourne. Besides shopping, Tanasbourne has many apartment buildings, business parks, and medical centers. Kaiser Permanente opened a new hospital, Kaiser Westside Medical Center, in the community in August 2013.
The area is also part of Oregon's "Silicon Forest," which is home to many technology companies. You can find EPSON's Portland office, a Netflix call center, a loan processing center for Bank of America, and OHSU's West Campus here.
