Setting a New Standard for Senior Living for Over 60 Years
Located in SW Portland, we are a single-site, nonprofit Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), offering a continuum of care that includes independent living, assisted living with 24/7 on-site licensed nurses and memory support services designed to meet the evolving needs of Members.
Our Mission
Terwilliger Plaza empowers Members to maintain active and engaged lives within a supportive residential community by providing a stimulating environment and embracing representative self-governance.
Representative Self-governance
A representative self-governance leadership structure means having a voice. As the only representative self-governed CCRC in the country, we offer a unique model to ensure that we are hearing from our Members and aligning with the community.
Accreditations
As the only SAGECare Platinum Credentialed CCRC and one of only two CCRCs with a CARF accreditation in Oregon, we are committed to protecting your investment, enhancing your quality of life and creating an atmosphere of respect for all Members.
Our History
A DREAM REALIZED
In 1950, members of the Oregon Retired Teachers Association were driven by a shared vision to form a senior living community for retired educators—a place for lifelong learners to live, connect, and thrive. Their dream took shape after acquiring a plot of land near Portland's vibrant downtown. Construction began in 1960, and two years later, Terwilliger Plaza proudly opened its doors to its first Members.
Duniway Park area as it appeared two years before construction began. City of Portland Archives, 1958.
A LEADER IN COMMUNITY-BASED CARE
In the 1990s, Terwilliger Plaza acquired an aging adjacent nursing home. Embracing the groundbreaking Community-Based Care model that emerged in Portland in the mid-1980s, it replaced the facility with The Terrace, an assisted living residence. This transformation made Terwilliger Plaza the first CCRC in Oregon—and likely the nation—to shift from traditional nursing home care to a person-centered care approach, prioritizing individualized support in a residential setting.
TERWILLIGER PLAZA FOUNDATION
Established in 1991, the Terwilliger Plaza Foundation works to enhance the quality of life for Members and staff. Through generous donations and support from the Lesta Hoel Memorial Trust, the Terwilliger Plaza Foundation funds initiatives that reflect the needs of the community and Members.
Belonging and Inclusion
Terwilliger Plaza is a community that celebrates great diversity in our Membership, lifestyles and apartment homes. At Terwilliger Plaza, our philosophy is that all Members, employees, and representatives always have a responsibility to treat others with equality, kindness, dignity, and respect. Terwilliger Plaza stands for belonging and inclusion, and we will continue to make Terwilliger Plaza a welcoming home for all those who choose to live here and a welcoming place of employment for those who choose to work here.
Terwilliger Plaza Members Land Acknowledgement:
We acknowledge the land on which we meet, live and work at Terwilliger Plaza. “The Portland metro areas rests on traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River creating communities and summer encampments to harvest and use the plentiful natural resources of the area”. (Portland Indian Leaders Roundtable, 2018). We offer gratitude for the land itself and thank those who have been stewards for generations.
