North Williams Wish Tree

A second wish tree grew out of the phenomenon that started at NE 7th and Morris, on North Williams Avenue between Northeast Shaver and Mason Streets. People of all ages write their desires on tags and tie them to the tree, and the practice spills beyond the branches onto a small structure in a resident's front yard. Atlas Obscura's account of the site is the one most often quoted: the wishes are public and private, nearly all anonymous, and most of them are about love, wishing for new love or for longevity in the love the writer already has. That anonymity, the entry notes, makes it easy to write something down and walk away.

The tree sits on one of Portland's busiest bicycle and pedestrian corridors, so it is read as much as it is approached: commuters and neighbors pass a wall of small handwriting from people they will never meet. It shows how a wish tree becomes civic furniture, a place where a neighborhood's interior life accumulates in public with no organization minding it.

Visiting

Along North Williams Avenue near Shaver Street, Portland, Oregon, in a residential block. Visit any time. Write a wish if the tags are stocked, tie it gently, and leave the tags of others untouched.