UP is North Portland's largest corporation and has an annual economic impact on Portland of $170 million. More than 17,000 alumni live in the Portland metropolitan area.
== History ==
The first institution located on Waud's Bluff was Portland University, which was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1891. Amid financial setbacks following the Panic of 1893, Portland University vacated the Bluff Campus to hold classes from 1896 to 1897 in East Portland, where it was joined temporarily by the recently insolvent College of Puget Sound.
According to University of Portland tradition, Archbishop Alexander Christie, the head of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, saw a large building on the bluff from aboard a ship on the nearby Willamette River. He learned that it was called West Hall and had been unoccupied for several years since the closure of Portland University.
The Archdiocese purchased West Hall (renamed Waldschmidt Hall in 1992) and the surrounding campus with financial assistance from …
