Witch Hazel, Oregon

Witch Hazel, Oregon
Neighborhood
New Witch Hazel Elementary School
Country	United States
State	Oregon
Region	Washington County
Timezone	PST (UTC-8)
- summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
Postal code	97123
Part of:	Hillsboro

Witch Hazel is a neighborhood of the city of Hillsboro in Washington County, Oregon, United States. Formerly an unincorporated community, and considered a separate populated place by the United States Geological Survey, it is on the Tualatin Valley Highway and the Southern Pacific railroad line a mile (1.6 km) west of Reedville.

A small cemetery for the Stewart family dating to 1856 was discovered in Witch Hazel when the land was cleared for development. According to An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon by H. K. Hines, the Stewarts lived on "Hazelwitch farm" beginning in 1849. Former Portland mayor Van B. DeLashmutt had a farm there in the 1880s and supposedly named the place for one of his racehorses, however. But according to racehorse authority Governor Oswald West, he had never heard of a racehorse named "Witch Hazel". Mayor DeLashmutt did once own a building at Southwest Front and Madison streets in Portland that he called the "Witch Hazel Building". Apparently he liked the name, although the witch-hazel plant, Hamamelis virginiana, is not native to Oregon.

The Portland, Eugene and Eastern Railway had a station at Witch Hazel with the line later becoming part of the Southern Pacific.

DeLashmutt once had the finest string of racehorses in the Pacific Northwest and his racetrack at Witch Hazel was once one of the best racetracks in America. There were two tracks on his Witch Hazel Farm. The main track was a 1 mile (1.6 km) oval used for races. The second, a half-mile (0.80 km) oval was surrounded by sheds.

Witch Hazel post office was established in 1904 and closed in 1905. About 1921, 400 acres (1.6 km²) in Witch Hazel were subdivided for a development called Witch Hazel Little Farms. The property was divided into 24 tracts of up to 10 acres (40,000 m²), and by November 1921 ten tracts had been sold. By May 1922, the number of tracts had increased to 27, and 24 had been sold. By August 1924, however, the developer was reporting that eight tracts had been sold in the preceding week, and 75 acres (300,000 m²) remained unsold. At that time water, gas, and electricity were all available in the development and construction on three homes had begun. In 1927, dog racing began at a track in Witch Hazel featuring whippets.