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Civic Stadium’s predecessor, Multnomah Field, was built in 1885 in a meadow with a stream running through it.
 The stream caused frequent flooding — it was not uncommon to see Portlanders rowing and canoeing on the site in the latter 1880s. In 1892, the creek was diverted underground, where it remains to this day.
In 1909, the Multnomah Athletic Club purchased Multnomah Field and built a clubhouse and grandstand on the site. In 1925, MAC members approved a new 28,000-seat stadium. Dedicated in 1926, Multnomah Stadium began its long history of service to the community.
Over the next 40 years, the MAC’s Stadium Association hosted professional baseball, football, military gatherings, greyhound racing, exhibition boxing, circuses, ski jumping and a variety of community events, including the winding of the May poles and the Rose Festival parade. Portland Family Entertainment’s own president, Harry Glickman, was events manager for Civic Stadium from 1957 to 1958 and then managed the stadium for the MAC from 1959 to 1960.
In 1967, Multnomah Stadium was purchased by the City of Portland and renamed Civic Stadium. In the ’60s and ’70s, teams like the Portland Beavers and the Portland Timbers played to spirited crowds here. More recently, the stadium has hosted a wide array of speakers, performers and international sporting events, from the Billy Graham Crusade to David Bowie to the sold out men’s and women’s World Cup soccer events of 1998 and 1999. Other sports figures and entertainers who have appeared at the stadium include Joe DiMaggio, Pete Rose, Norm Van Brocklin, Pele, Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan.
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