61675 Woodriver Drive

Southern Crossing is one of the 13 neighborhood districts the City of Bend officially recognizes, established by Bend City Council on February 19, 2003, the fifth district to be formalized under that designation. It covers 882.9 acres and straddles the Deschutes River just south of downtown, bounded by the Bend Parkway (US-97) to the east, Simpson and Arizona Avenues to the north, Powers Road to the south, and Brookswood Boulevard and the river corridor to the west. The river runs through the middle of the neighborhood rather than along its edge, and the Old Mill District, Bend's largest concentration of shops, restaurants, and live entertainment, sits inside the same boundary instead of a drive away. There is no HOA here. Membership in the Southern Crossing Neighborhood Association is automatic for any resident 18 or older or business operator within the boundary, no dues required, with a volunteer board serving staggered two-year terms.

That retail core sits on an industrial site. Shevlin-Hixon Lumber Company built a mill on the river's west bank in 1916, and Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company built its own Mill A on the east bank the same year, later adding the larger Mill B upstream in 1922. At their peak the two mills ranked among the largest pine sawmills in the world and each employed more than 2,000 workers. Shevlin-Hixon closed in 1950, and Brooks-Scanlon bought the site and shut it down four months later. Brooks-Scanlon's own Mill A closed in 1983, and Mill B kept running in reduced form until 1993. Developer Bill Smith and William Smith Properties bought the abandoned mill site in 1993 and opened the first shops in 1994, keeping the three original mill smokestacks standing as landmarks rather than tearing them down. The Bend Parkway and what is now the Hayden Homes Amphitheater, an outdoor venue that holds about 8,000 people, opened in 2001 and closed out the shift from lumber town to riverfront district.