'Seeing History Everywhere'
A 10-week course couldn't possibly cover all of Portland's hundreds of parks, so McNeur carefully selected parks that were both accessible from campus and anchored in distinct historical moments. In any given class, she can cover a century of history, but the course is structured to move chronologically from the Park Blocks — among the city's oldest parks — through an overview of more recent parks.
"I did a lot of research on so many parks to narrow it down," said McNeur, who logged more hikes than she can count, often bringing her dog along for the ride. "Trying to make a walking tour that geographically makes sense and walkable in a class but also covers the chronological history is complicated."
Weekly class walking tours include Washington Park; Mt. Tabor; Lownsdale & Chapman Squares and North Park Blocks; Laurelhurst; Forest Park; Irving, Dawson and Two Plum parks; Duniway, Lair Hill and the Portland Open Space Sequence; and Tom McCall Waterfront Park and Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade.
On the class' visit to Laurelhurst, McNeur's three-hour walking lecture started in front of the Old Laurelhurst Church and ended near the park's edge by SE Oak Street. Topics ranged from neighborhood zoning and restrictive housing covenants to Emanuel Mische's Olmsted-inspired park design, Chinese botanical history, the evolution of the pond, neighborhood children advocating for a playground and more recent tensions that cleared tent encampments for pickleball courts and skate ramps.
McNeur says park goers can pass by the blooming Rhodendrons or the Dawn redwoods without a second thought, but the class helps "bring things that we take for granted alive, so that suddenly you see history everywhere."
Parks History Gone Viral
McNeur has been bringing that history to broader audiences, sharing snippets of her research in short videos on TikTok and Instagram. What began as a way to promote the new course has turned into unexpected local attention, with videos garnering thousands — even hundreds of thousands — of views.
"It took off, not just with PSU students but with people across the city who got really enthusiastic about it," she said. "I didn't know there was such a hunger for history on social media."
She's now occasionally stopped on the street and even a parks maintenance crew was excited to see her class on a recent visit. People reach out to her with questions, leads, maps and more.
McNeur says the popularity of her videos has changed her own approach to research. Previously, she'd hold off until a book came out before sharing more broadly, but now she's sharing as she's learning. The research she's done for the course has inspired her next book project on Portland's history as told through its parks.
"There are people who want to know the history of cities, and this is an accessible way to do it," she said.
McNeur now hopes to use her platform to amplify some of her students' work. All term, they've been visiting and researching a park of their choice — one not covered in the course — while digging through maps, newspaper archives and historic photographs. For their final project, they'll create a short-form video documentary, much like the dozens their professor has made, to tell a story about their park.
"My dream is that the students will not only become good historians in the process, but also good consumers of media," she said. "They'll now know how to do the research to check people's work."
Some students chose parks close to campus, like Marquam Nature Park or Council Crest Park, while others focused on spaces near where they live, like Holladay Park by Lloyd Center, Pier Park in St. John's or Couch Park in the Alphabet District.
Max Bykowski, a math major, says he was drawn to Council Crest because of its interesting history as an amusement park.
"I've kind of diverted from that route and I'm just finding weird local stories like a statue being stolen and found in a house in northeast Portland," he said. "There's also a time capsule buried there I'm intrigued by."
What McNeur's enjoyed most about the class has been talking with students in between stops — something she's able to do more organically than in a classroom.
"It's kind of like walking office hours," she said. "We'll talk about their other classes, brainstorm solutions to their research problems, celebrate their research wins and talk through different stories they're considering for their videos."
And the students are finding their own community, too.
"In the same way that I get to talk with these students in between stops, they're talking with each other and I'm seeing friendships take off," she said. "I have a feeling this is going to be a community that lasts beyond the class."