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MOUNTAIN PARK HISTORY:
The area housing Mountain Park and Condolea HOA is perched on top of Mount Sylvania, one of five extinct shield volcanoes in the Portland area. The land's history stretches back centuries, as it was the home of indigenous people and later Euro-American settlements. Numerous land claims and sales resulted in the large parcel of land being owned by the Kerr Family. In 1939, the Kerr's offered the land to the City of Portland as a public park. The deal never materialized.

In the mid-1960s, developer Carl Halvorson drove through this area every day on his way to work. He began envisioning a thoughtfully designed community where families could live, work and play in close connection to nature. The tagline, "a neighborhood for joy", summarized the vision. In 1967, Mr. Halvorson acquired the land. He traveled extensively with an architect to U.S. and European cities in search of new ideas and approaches.

He got approval for an innovative Planned Unit Development (PUD) that allowed for a mix of apartments, condominiums, townhouses and single-family residents along with retail and services. The design allowed for 195 acres as open space out of the 600 acre parcel. The first buildings, a Clubhouse and Recreation Center, were finished in 1969. An equestrian center was built, but in the mid-1970s is became a non-denominational church.

CONDOLEA HISTORY:
Frank Evans, a local developer, began construction of Condolea in the early 1970s. These early units were built along with what is now Kala-How-Ya, a group that became its own condominium association because early residents didn't want to pay for the Clubhouse and swimming pool in their assessments. Evan's wife, Maureen, selected the name Condolea meaning "condo in the lea".

Forty-eight (48) units were built in the 1972-1973 timeframe. During the severe economic downtown in the 1973-1975 timeframe, Mr. Evans business went into bankrupty. He lived for a short while in Kala-How-Ya, and as Condolea units were finished he and his family lived in one of the new units. Another developer finished the last eight (8) units in the upper portion of the property in the 1978-1979 timeframe.

The units are built around a central Clubhouse, a swimming pool and four acres of gardens. This enclosed or gated area features five distinct garden types. Garden 1 with its lawns represents a meadow scene. Gardens 2 and 5 represent the Cascade foothills. And Gardens 3 and 4 give a feeling of mountains with outcroppings of rock and plantings of heather.