St Johns is located in North Portland on the tip of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.
St. Johns is named in honor of settler James John, who laid out the original eight block town site in 1865.
The site eventually became a rival to other Willamette River townsites vying to become the Head of Navigation on the upper Willamette. St. Johns was originally a separate incorporated city, annexed by Portland in 1915.
