Rockwood, Gresham, Oregon

Rockwood is a neighborhood in the northwest section of Gresham, Oregon. It is one of the most densely populated and diverse neighborhoods in Gresham, though it is also one of the poorest in the state.

History
In the late 1800s, a stone marker was placed every mile east of the courthouse in Portland, resulting in a road called Baseline Road (modern-day Stark Street) that ran along the Willamette Baseline. Rockwood developed at the ten mile mark at the intersection of Baseline Road and Rockwood Road (modern-day 181st and 182nd Street). The area was rocky and wooded, which inspired the name of the community. In the early 1900s, a school, a grange hall, a church, a grocery store, among other businesses were established.

On March 14, 1882, a man named Cyrus C. Lewis established the first post office in Rockwood.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Rockwood was mostly a small rural berry farming community with small business areas. During the Prohibition, Rockwood also had many speakeasies. After World War II, however, the area started rapidly developing, with many new commercial centers opening. In the 1950s, developers purchased much of the land and converted much of the area into apartments. By the 1960s, Rockwood had multiple large mobile home parks, and its growth continued throughout the 1970s.

In 1986, Portland's MAX Light Rail expanded into Gresham through Rockwood, and in 1987 the City of Gresham annexed Rockwood.

Demographics
The Rockwood neighborhood is situated in the zip codes 97233 and 97230, and based on estimates from census tracts, the population is approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people (though the wider area has a population of around 30,000). Around 40% of Rockwood residents earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level, 20-30% of the population does not have health insurance, and around 70% of children qualify for free or reduced lunch. Within Multnomah County, the areas in Rockwood are within the ten lowest income zip codes east of the Willamette River. The neighborhood also has a lower amount of high school and college graduates than the rest of the country.

However, Rockwood is very diverse, with over 80 languages being spoken at home and over 60% of Rockwood Community Health Center patients being people of color. 27.51% of its population is foreign-born, 48% of which are citizens.

Public services
Since 2003, a 1200 acre area of Rockwood has been included in a Gresham-Rockwood Urban Renewal Area.

Rockwood is served by the Rockwood / East 188th Avenue light-rail station on the MAX Blue Line. The neighborhood has been the site of a branch of the Multnomah County Library since 1963.

In April 2010, decades after a 1960s state law required Multnomah County to provide a court services in Gresham for residents east of 122nd Avenue, the county's Board of Commissioners approving a resolution that calls for the construction of a courthouse in Rockwood by 2012.