Pettygrove Park

Francis W. Pettygrove was one of the early owners and developers of the Portland townsite. He was the winner of the historic coin toss with Asa Lovejoy which determined the name of the city that they founded. Pettygrove, from Portland, Maine, was the owner of Portland's first house, wharf, warehouse, and store.

Pettygrove Park, along with Lovejoy Fountain Park, is in what was known in the 1960s as Portland's urban renewal area. Both Lovejoy and Pettygrove Parks were unnamed until the opening of the parks. The same coin that Mr. Lovejoy and Mr. Pettygrove used to determined whether our city would be named Portland or Boston was flipped to determine which park would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove. Pettygrove Park, 300 yards away from the crashing cascades of water in the Lovejoy Fountain, is composed of serene mounds of grass, trees, and stonework laid out among paths.

In 1979, the Portland Development Commission installed Manuel Izquierdo's muntz bronze sculpture of a reclining woman, The Dreamer. Izquierdo, professor emeritus of Pacific Northwest College of Art, said that his sculpture "speaks of hope, of beauty and serenity, of love, and for a better life in our midst." He filled the sculpture with foam so that falling rain would make a gentle sound like a kettledrum rather than the ringing it would make if hollow.