Cornell Road

Cornell Road

Cornell Road in Cedar Mill
East end	NW Lovejoy Street in Portland
Major junctions	Murray Blvd in Washington County US 26 in Beaverton NW 185th Avenue in Hillsboro Cornelius Pass Road in Hillsboro Brookwood Parkway in Hillsboro
West end	E Main Street in Hillsboro

Cornell Road is an east–west street and traffic corridor in the Portland metropolitan area, in Multnomah and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. It crosses the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills) between the Willamette Valley and the city of Portland on the east and the Tualatin Valley and the city of Hillsboro on the west.

Cornell Road runs between the western end of Northwest Lovejoy Street in the Hillside neighborhood of Portland to East Main Street in Hillsboro, passing through unincorporated parts of Washington County and through Beaverton on the way. On the west side of NW 185th Ave, it is called Northeast Cornell Road, as it runs through the northeast quadrant of Hillsboro.

Although intended, on its section within the city of Portland, to be a neighborhood collector street with relatively low traffic volumes, it has often functioned as a major traffic street and commuter highway between downtown Portland and its western suburbs. It shares this role with more intensely busy traffic corridors along West Burnside Street and U.S. Route 26 (US 26). The road has at least two lanes in each direction the entire length while south of US 26, while those portions north of US 26 are largely one-lane in each direction.

The first section of the road was already in existence in the 1850s. It is named for William and Emily Cornell, who moved onto a donation land claim on what is now Cornell Road, just east of the present-day western boundary of Multnomah County, in 1852. William Cornell worked as a preacher and Sunday-school teacher in the Cedar Mill area, in nearby Washington County. Businessman John B. Yeon was the roadmaster as of 1915 for the Portland section, on what was described that year as "delightfully smooth" for the stretch in Portland. Plans for the Pacific Highway from 1917 show Cornell joining it near present-day 185th, with that highway then continuing to downtown Hillsboro. That highway was never built as such, but the alignment is similar to the route followed by U.S. 26 and Cornell's route from approximately 185th Avenue to its western terminus. The section between 185th and 173rd was widened to three lanes in 1981.