Prior to 1849, the area that is now Reed Neighborhood was heavily forested except for some land cleared for farming. Its first tenants were early land grant holders. The area was eventually acquired by William Ladd, and later subdivided.
The coming of the railroad in 1869 to the Brooklyn lumber mills, and the building of the Steel Bridge, in 1888, expanding the Southern Pacific to the Brooklyn rail yards, provided jobs for German, English, and Dutch emigrants who were living along Holgate and Long Streets.
Introduction of a streetcar line on Gladstone (1890) motivated farmers to settle along Holgate and sell their produce to Portland markets. Records show a Chinese Farmer on the corner of 28th and Steele and a pig farmer where the north parking lot of Reed College is located. The land between 34th and 39th was a truck farm with raspberry and strawberry fields.
Italian emigrants bought small sections of land along Steele Street. Emilio Rivelli, who in 1918 emigrated from Italy and worked as a farm hand for William Ladd, eventually acquired land and a house of his own. The original house, once located on the 13th hole of the Eastmoreland Golf Course, is still standing on 28th Avenue, where, until recently, his family continued running his vegetable farm.
After the death of William Ladd, Reed College bought much of the Crystal Springs Farm. In 1912, the first college buildings were constructed. In 1925, Andrew Lambert purchased 250 acres north of Steele Street between 28th and 33rd Avenue for his
landscape business. Lambert Gardens, world renowned—with peacocks, flamingoes and cranes roaming about— attracted over two million visitors. The gardens closed in the 1960s, and apartment buildings were constructed on the site.
A few farmhouses still dot Reed Neighborhood; but most current houses date from the post-WWII 40’s. The area known as Reed College Heights was developed from 1947 to the early 50’s.
In 1950, those residents successful kept a forested area north of Steele Street at 35th Avenue from being developed as a shopping center. Soon after, the land was developed as “Reedwood” with “modern” ranchstyle, high quality homes, which today are revered by architectural historians for their “mid-century” design.
More recent housing development occurred in the 1980’s on an open site in Reedwood, previously designated for a neighborhood elementary school. Currently, new construction of modern row houses is taking place in the northeast corner of Reed Neighborhood.