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He set out the poop bags first. Then the stick library. (It’s what it sounds like: a little free library stacked with sticks to fetch.) Soon he filled a jar with treats, and installed some artificial turf next to a fire hydrant. Around then, he came up with the idea for a photo booth, with an adjustable picture frame that slid up and down on pulleys. It was only a matter of time until he built a hot-water shower.
In short, once Larry Stone started working on Larry’s Mt. Tabor Dog Station (Southeast 64th Avenue and Grant Street, 503-516-4723, mttabordogs.com), he wasn’t stopping.
“People really love it,” Stone says. “There’s dogs that won’t let their owner walk any other way other than here, because they know they get their treat.”
Stone, 77, runs an environmental mitigation company that cleans drug-contaminated properties. So he had a work crew at the ready. And he lives some 600 feet from Mount Tabor’s dog park, so he had an eager clientele. He named his own boxer, Roxie, the station’s “quality control officer” and painted every part of the exhibit orange, his favorite color. The result is a roadside attraction for canines, 21st century Americana festooned with AI-generated cartoons.
Upkeep is simple, he says, if a bit expensive. Stone spends at least $400 a month on the project. He goes through 18 pounds of Milk Bones each week. (“I don’t work for donations,” Stone laughs. “But you can give me some toys.”) And he keeps thinking up new features: a waterfall and splash pool is in the works, but next up is a porta-potty, painted the signature orange, so people have their own relief station at Larry’s. “It’s going to say something like, ‘Because humans can’t use any old bush.’”
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2026 here!
