What are all these inscribed bricks at Pioneer Courthouse Square?

Published 5:30 am Thursday, March 6, 2025

Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland’s Living Room, The Square, whatever you call it, it’s brickin’ awesome.

But for those who’ve walked the 40,000-square-foot urban park might be wondering: What’re all these inscribed bricks doing here?

They beg walkers, strollers, runners, passersby to cock their heads down and crook their necks for a longer glance at the thousands of names, quotes and messages below.

Theresa Vetsch-Sandoval, of Pioneer Courthouse Square, has been involved with the beloved community space for more than 20 years.

“It feels like people are committed and connected to this space,” she said of those who buy the inscribed bricks. “People feel like they are welcome here and want to come and not only experience the events and everything that takes place here, but also have that connection of owning a piece of it.”

She bought her 95-year-old grandmother a custom brick before she passed away.

It’s been a longtime tradition in Portland — bricks were being made before The Square was even ready for the public’s use — and raises the question as to how it all started.

So, let’s take a trip down memory lane:

What was there

before The Square?

The city block hosts numerous annual events, draws an estimated annual millions of visitors and acts as a community gathering grounds. But it once housed a school, a hotel, a parking garage and more.

Here’s a timeline leading up to the installment of the bricks:

In 1894, Elijah Hill, a shoemaker, purchased the block for $24 and a pair of high boots. Seven years later, in 1856, the block was purchased by the local school board for $1,000, leading to the opening of Central School, Portland’s first real schoolhouse, in 1858.

The school moved to an adjourning street and the block was sold for $75,000 in 1883 for the installation of the Portland Hotel, which occupied the site from 1890 to 1951.

In 1951, Meier & Frank purchased the block, demolished the hotel and built a two-level parking structure which lived at the site for nearly 30 years. Much of the original stone foundation for the 326-room Portland Hotel remains under the sidewalks.

In 1972, the city spent about two years pitching its Portland Downtown Plan which set in motion the administrative and political negotiations that resulted in the purchase of the block by the city in 1979.

Meier & Frank had pitched for an 11-story parking garage in the late ‘60s, which in part prompted the city’s interest in purchasing the space.

With a longtime parking garage going out, and a community space coming in, the city hosted an international design competition in 1980 — ending up with a design scheme from architect Will Martin, an alumnus of University of Oregon — to develop what would become Pioneer Courthouse Square.

This year, Portland’s Living room is celebrating its 41st birthday.

Why the bricks?

The idea was coming to life, but with big projects often comes big price tags.

Vetsch-Sandoval said the project flaunted a roughly $7 million price tag.

Friends of Pioneer Courthouse Square, a citizens’ group, posed the option of selling bricks in efforts to raise money for the project. At the time, each brick was sold for $15 a pop, leading to about $1.5 million in profits to support The Square.

Vetsch-Sandoval said that her understanding was that those funds helped shore up the funding needed for the park’s completion outside of grants and funding from sources like the city itself.

April 6, 1984: The Square is born and Pioneer Courthouse Square officially opens.

More than 60,000 bricks that were installed leading up to the birth of Portland’s Living Room still reside on the floor of the park.

“Those bricks reside there and will reside their for the duration of The Square’s life,” Vetsch-Sandoval said.

Times are changing

The good ol’ days of unfolding an obnoxiously large paper map are over.

In the ‘90s, Vetsch-Sandoval said an intern was hired to put everything into the digital database so folks could easily search for their special inscription.

“It’s super easy to find now,” Vetsch-Sandoval said. “It says the location within a quadrant, so it gives you an idea of where, but you still have to look a little bit.”

That seems to be part of the fun. People get a hint to where their brick is, but still get a tease of scavenging for the right one.

Bricks also costs a bit more than they did in the ‘80s, making them $150 a pop now. All the proceeds still go toward funding Pioneer Courthouse Square in supporting its community efforts.

Even the technology of placing the bricks has changed. At one point, each inscribed brick was placed one by one, but now, the engraver comes to the site and sand-blast the existing bricks.

And for many, these special inscribed bricks have always been a part of The Square. Not having seen it built, they don’t know it’s something they, too, can be apart of still.

“They’re surprised, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s still around?’” Vetsch-Sandoval said of the custom brick program.

There are about 86,000 engraved bricks, but still around 50,000 left to inscribe.

“We won’t be out of them anytime soon,” Vetsch-Sandoval said.

Inscriptions are being added on the Southwest Morrison Street side of Pioneer Courthouse Square, though the sidewalks on Southwest Morrison Street and Yamhill Street have some inscribed bricks from 1995.

The next available place for custom bricks is the Southwest Broadway and Sixth Avenue sides.

Once the ground-level bricks are covered, Vetsch-Sandoval said they’ll just “go vertical,” working their way up the brick walls.

“We really created this community for people,” she said.

Many people come in and will request trash receptacles or anything blocking their brick to be removed because they feel attached to their special paver.

“It just helps keep the faith going,” Vetsch-Sandoval said of the program.

Notable figures

It’s no shock to see a handful of celebrity appearances, including Mickey Mouse, Martin Luther King Jr., William Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Elvis and John Lennon.

And for those questioning the timeline — or humanness — of some of these stars, and how they ended up with a custom brick, it’s because it wasn’t them.

Vetsch-Sandoval revealed the mystery that these celebrity bricks were purchased in the spirit of these icons, giving them a place in the City of Roses.

There are currently 38 celebrity-named bricks.

A map of these celebrity named bricks can be found at thesquarepdx.org..

“People feel like they are welcome here and want to come and not only experience the events and everything that takes place here, but also have that connection of owning a piece of it.”

Theresa Vetsch-Sandoval