Northwest Lovejoy Street

Northwest Lovejoy Street is named for Asa Lovejoy, a Massachusetts attorney who arrived in the Oregon territory in eighteen forty-three. He is remembered for a famous coin toss in eighteen forty-five against his business partner, Francis Pettygrove. The two men held a best-of-three flip to decide the name of the new settlement they were platting on their shared riverfront land claim. Pettygrove, who hailed from Portland, Maine, won the toss, and the city was named Portland instead of Boston.