Neighborhood

LOCATION

The Orchard District is located in the central northeast part of Bend, Oregon, part of the area often referred to as Midtown. Our boundaries are generally between Pilot Butte, the railroad and US 97 Parkway, Franklin Avenue, and Butler Market Rd.

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Our neighborhood sits on the ancestral territory of many different bands of indigenous peoples whose lives and cultures were tied to the seasons, wildlife, forests, deserts, and water since Time Immemorial.

Everything changed when white settlers arrived and imposed their regime on the land and its people. They colonized land and diverted resources for their own use. Eventually, the Warm Springs and Wasco Tribes entered into the Treaty of 1855, which established the Warm Springs Reservation on a small fraction of the tens of millions of acres that were ceded. Some years later, members of the Paiute Tribe who had been forced out of the area moved to the Warm Springs Reservation. Now the three tribes make up the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

The Tribes still have their rights to harvest fish, game and other foods in their ceded lands off the reservation in their usual and accustomed places.

The City of Bend was incorporated in 1905 as a logging town. It formed around what is now known as Drake Park, Downtown, Old Bend, and the Old Mill. The Midtown area was rural and largely undeveloped with large homesteads. Butler Market Road is one of several roads in the area named after the market route people used to bring goods for trade. Third Street or Business 97 was the main highway through town where auto-oriented development began to grow. 

Origin of the Orchard District’s name

In the 1930s the area behind what is now Wagner Mall was an apple orchard. The orchard was an agricultural experiment for a climate challenged area such as Central Oregon. Geographically, the area, being a short distance from the river, experienced banana belt like conditions. A banana belt refers to an area that has significantly warmer conditions than the surrounding territory, thus allowing certain plants to flourish while just miles away they may not. The orchard experiment ultimately failed, but left its mark on the history of Bend. 

Over the past century, homes filled out the gridded streets of the neighborhood. Remnants of the old orchard, including fruit trees and structures, still exist as a testament to the effort. The original orchard farm house and office are still standing and are currently in use as residences.

Forming the Neighborhood Association

Cheryl Howard founded the Orchard District Neighborhood Association and registered it as a nonprofit. The Bend City Council officially recognized it as Bend’s third neighborhood association on June 5th, 2002. During Cheryl’s tenure, the neighborhood spearheaded many important projects and collaborations, including: Laurel Pocket Park, Let’s Pull Together, and Franklin’s Corner Community Garden.

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