The Portland Rose Festival is one of the most well-known summer events in the city, but many attendees may not know that the origins of the festival (and the Portland Rose Society itself) began with Georgiana Pittock.

In 1889, Georgiana Pittock held the first, albeit unofficial, Rose Show in a large tent on a vacant corner of the Pittock Block in an effort to attract visitors and new residents to the quickly growing metropolis of Portland; charging ten cents for local neighbors and free admission for “strangers.”

That same year, Georgiana, along with Mrs. J.C. Card, Mrs. N.R. Cox, Mrs. W.W. Spaulding, Rose Hoyt, F.V. Holman, and W.S. Gibson, formed the Portland Rose Society. She would be elected president of the Society two years later. In 1904, the organization hosted what would become their annual Rose Show, this time accompanied by a parade and “fiesta.”

Leading up to the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Fair, the Portland Rose Society planted roses along the pathways leading to the Fair to hopefully entice visitors. The Society also encouraged Portlanders to cultivate roses in their own gardens and front lawns. To a crowd of fairgoers, Portland Mayor Harry Lane suggested that Portland needed a “festival of Roses.”

Two years later (1907), Mayor Lane’s request became a reality, and the Portland Rose Festival was born!