Portland’s Mill Ends Park, the world’s second-smallest park, celebrates 50th anniversary on St. Patrick’s Day

Mill Ends Park sits in the middle of a busy four-lane thoroughfare, between downtown Portland and the Willamette River. Most people probably don’t even notice it while driving by. It’s literally just a frying-pan-sized hole with a shrub in it, surrounded by a curb, in the middle of a crosswalk.

But it holds a special place in the hearts of many Portlanders, because for years it held the title “Smallest Park in the World.”

This St. Patrick’s Day is the park’s 50th anniversary, though it lost its title in 2025 to an even smaller park in Nagaizumi, Japan.

Mill Ends Park was the brainchild of Dick Fagan, a reporter for the Oregon Journal. In 1946, his second-story office afforded him a view of the hole in the median on what was then called Front Street.

The hole was destined to house a light pole. But when that pole failed to arrive, Fagan planted flowers in the hole. And he started writing in his newspaper column, called “Mill Ends,” about the imaginary leprechauns who lived there.

The spot officially became a city park on St. Patrick’s Day in 1976 and it was named after Fagan’s column.

Over the years, the park has hosted a tiny swimming pool, a diving board for butterflies, several UFOs and even a miniature Ferris wheel, which was brought in by a regular-sized crane. Weddings have been held at the park, as well as a concert by Clan Macleay Pipe Band, and rose plantings by the Junior Rose Festival Court. It’s also been decorated for the holidays.

In 1971, before it was even designated an official city park, Guinness World Records granted Mill Ends recognition as the smallest park in the world. It measured only just 452 square inches or about 0.00007 acres.

But now Nagaizumi has claimed the title, with a park measuring 372 square inches, about 18% smaller. And their park has a tiny bench and a patch of grass.

Portlanders have been taking the news in stride.

“I do not think Portland has lost,” said Frantz Dorsainvil, who owns a moving business in Portland. “I think Portland was actually the leader in that kind of park.

“So congratulations to Japan on taking the title. But we had it first.”

Nagaizumi’s park came to be after a town hall staffer visited Mill Ends in 1988 and was inspired to construct a smaller park. Guinness World Records transferred the official title last year, after a professional surveyor confirmed the size.

Portland visitor Landis Clayton heard that news just recently, as he was walking past the park.

“Leave it to the Japanese to innovate constantly,” he said. “Pushing the envelope, challenging the rest of the world to keep up pace, with the smallest park in the world.”

Portland Parks & Recreation responded to the loss by saying, “If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, we are most flattered indeed.”

Mill Ends Park’s status has also been challenged in the past.

In 2013, Kevin Wilson, a British sports manager, disparaged it as a “glorified flowerpot.” He championed Prince’s Park in Burntwood, United Kingdom, as an alternative.

It is Britain’s smallest park, and it was created to commemorate a royal wedding in 1863, according to the city of Lichfield.

Unlike Mill Ends, people can actually sit down in Prince’s park. It has benches, three commemorative trees, named Faith, Hope and Charity, and it’s fenced — all features Wilson claimed were necessary for an actual park.

But the folks at Guinness World Records remained unconvinced by Wilson’s arguments. They let Mill Ends keep the title until Nagaizumi’s park took the prize.