Get a Virtual Phone Number for Gresham, Oregon

The area now known as Gresham was first settled in 1851 by the brothers Jackson and James Powell, who claimed land under the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850. They were soon joined by other pioneer families, and the area came to be known as Powell's Valley. In 1884, a local merchant petitioned the United States Post Office Department to get a post office in his store and offered to name it after the Postmaster General Walter Q. Gresham if his request was granted. At the same time, other members of the community secured a post office called "Campground," another name for the area, referencing the religious camp meeting ground located there and the valley's usefulness as a stop-off for travelers on their way to Portland. Once the Post Office Department realized their mistake, they revoked the Campground post office.

Gresham was incorporated in 1905, the year of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. Its population at the time was 365. Lewis Shattuck, son of a pioneer family, was the first mayor. The town's economy was fueled largely by farming, including berries, grapes, and vegetables. At the time, trains ran between Gresham and Portland on an hourly basis. Gresham's early settlers would go on to form the outlying communities of Boring, Sandy, Fairview, and Estacada. Gresham General Hospital opened in 1959 in downtown Gresham. In 1984, the hospital moved to Stark Street and became Mount Hood Medical Center.