Wilsonville is a city in Clackamas and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded with the name Boones Landing for the Boones Ferry that crossed the Willamette River, the community became Wilsonville in 1880. The city was incorporated in 1969 with a population of approximately 1,000. The population was 26,664 at the 2020 census and was estimated to be 27,895 in 2024. The ferry gave rise to the community of Boones Landing, which eventually grew into Wilsonville. The first post office was established in 1876 with the name Boones Ferry. named after the first postmaster, Charles Wilson. That same year the first school, Wilsonville Grade School, was opened as a single-room building. By 1890, the railroad had reached town and the community contained depot, several hotels, a saloon, a tavern, a bank, and several other commercial establishments. A railroad bridge was built across the river for the Oregon Electric Railway beginning in 1906. Two years later, a new two-room school replaced the old one-room school, which in turn was replaced by a modern school in the mid 1900s, all on the same property. Wilsonville was flooded in 1964 and the first fire station was built in 1966. In 1971, the planned community of Charbonneau on the south side of the river was annexed into the city the year after development began. The population grew to 7,106 at the 1990 census, and in 1991 the Town Center Shopping Center along Wilsonville Road opened. Due to growth in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the school board approved building a new high school to be located in Wilsonville in 1992. Walt Morey Park, a bear-themed park located in Morey's Landing, contains a life-size 8-foot-tall wooden statue of Morey's most famous literary creation, Gentle Ben.

Living Enrichment Center, a New Thought Church with as many as 3,000 members, was headquartered in Wilsonville from 1992 until 2004. The church closed that year after problems that including money laundering by the church leaders led to the bankrupting of the church.

In 1995, Dammasch State Hospital was closed by the state of Oregon, and the site was then proposed as a location for what became the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, which opened in 2001 at a different site to the north of the old hospital grounds. In protest of the construction of the prison, specifically the effect on property values, Larry Eaton began erecting school buses on his property. The former grounds of the state hospital have been redeveloped as Villebois, a primarily residential planned community. Also in 1995, Wilsonville High School opened as part of the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the first high school in the city's history. Wilsonville Primary School was closed in June 2001, and later sold with the property and turned into a shopping center, anchored by an Albertsons supermarket. In September 2006, Wilsonville opened a new $9.9 million, two-story brick and steel city hall after a controversy concerning its location led to unsuccessful attempts to recall several elected officials in the city, including the mayor. In 2007, the old city hall building was turned into a new public works and police department.

During the Great Recession, Nike closed its distribution center in Wilsonville, projector maker InFocus moved its headquarters from the city, and retailer G.I. Joe's that was headquartered there went out of business. In 2010, the Oregon Institute of Technology took over the InFocus building to house the school's Portland area campus. A new shopping center named Old Town Square anchored by a Fred Meyer store opened in 2011 along Interstate 5 at Wilsonville Road, which also included a McMenamins location.

Lowrie Primary School in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District opened in 2012 in the Villebois part of the city. The Villebois Community Center in that area was completed in 2013. A fire in March 2019 destroyed 20 homes that were being built in the Villebois area. In 2021, Fry's Electronics closed its store that had opened as Incredible Universe in 1992, while museum World of Speed and the local bowling alley also closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2021, the city hit on June 28, 2021, during a heatwave, Wilsonville's highest recorded temperature. The only theater in town, a nine-screen Regal Cinemas, closed in July 2023.

Geography

thumb|Boeckman Creek in Memorial Park

Wilsonville is located on the southern edge of the Portland metropolitan area, sitting at an elevation of above sea level. It is located on the north side of the Willamette River around where Alphonse Boone established the Boones Ferry. The Boeckman and Coffee Lake creeks account for 85% of the runoff in Wilsonville. Coffee Lake Creek is on the west side of the city and includes the Coffee Lake Wetlands. The foothills of the Chehalem Mountains lie to the west of Wilsonville, with most land within the city on level ground.

Wilsonville divides the city into 16 neighborhood groups, designated A through P. Within each of these planning areas are individual neighborhoods, and occasionally a neighborhood spans several of these groups.

Climate

Wilsonville, as part of the Willamette Valley is within the Marine west coast climate zone. Summers in Wilsonville are generally warm, but temperatures year-round are moderated by a marine influence from the Pacific Ocean. Wilsonville receives most of its precipitation during the mild to cool winter months, with the wettest period from November through March. December is also on average the wettest month with . Wilsonville's lowest recorded temperature was on December 23, 1998.