Laurelwood, Oregon
| Laurelwood, Oregon | |
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| Unincorporated community | |
View from the west with Chehalem Mountain in the background
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 Laurelwood, Oregon
Laurelwood, Oregon
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| Coordinates: 45°25′22″N 123°04′51″W / 45.42278°N 123.08083°WCoordinates: 45°25′22″N 123°04′51″W / 45.42278°N 123.08083°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Oregon |
| County | Washington |
| Elevation | 243 ft (74 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 503 |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 97119 |
| Area code(s) | 503 and 971 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1163093 |
Laurelwood is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. The community is located southwest of the Portland metropolitan area near Oregon Route 47 along Laurelwood Road, to the east of the city of Gaston and Wapato Lake. Laurelwood, a farming community, has a population of approximately 500 people. Settled in the 1860s, the community was home to Laurelwood Academy from 1904 until 2007. A large portion of the community is of the Seventh-day Adventist faith.
Laurelwood was settled circa 1860 in a small valley to the east of what is now Gaston. Most of the community is on the former Donation Land Claim of R. D. Walker. In 1904, the Laurelwood Academy was founded in the community as a Seventh-day Adventist school. Adventist-owned Harris Pine Mills opened a furniture plant and milling plant in the village in 1965, growing to a 60-employee operation. At one time, residents called each other villagers as opposed to the students of the academy.
In August 1977, four people were murdered in the community, shot execution-style. The victims—two seven-year-old girls, their 24-year-old mother, and the 19-year-old son of her boyfriend—were killed after the mother had testified against a leader of the Hells Angels. Robert G. McClure was convicted of the killings and Hells Angels leader Odis Garrett was convicted of ordering the murders, in 1994 and 1995 respectively.
Laurelwood Academy closed in 1985 and was sold to an alumni group, who re-opened the school in 1988.
In March 1986, the milling operations of the Harris Pine Mills was closed, followed by the furniture manufacturing facility in 1988. Laurelwood was one of sixteen places studied for a possible minimum security prison in 1988. The prison would have been at the former Laurelwood Academy after it shutdown in 1985, but there was local opposition and the prison was never built. Later that year the Adventist school re-opened.
In 1992, Marvin McDougal, a Laurelwood Academy alumnus, proposed developing 165 acres (0.67 km2) in the area into 54 homes to support the academy. Local residents formed an opposition group and fought the development. The county initially approved the development, but residents appealed the decision. Washington County eventually denied approval for the development. In 2007, Laurelwood Academy moved to a new campus near Eugene, Oregon.
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