Historically, Kenton was home to Portland's main stockyards. The 1959 Oregon Centennial Celebrations were held in Kenton, and a large statue of Paul Bunyan was erected at the intersection of N. Interstate Avenue and N. Argyle Street (just north of Kenton's historic business district on Denver Avenue) as a reminder of those centennial festivities. The historical site of Vanport City, a public housing project built to provide homes for World War II shipbuilders (and later destroyed by a 1948 flood), is also located within the present boundaries of the Kenton neighborhood.

Kenton's northern border is formed by the channel of the Columbia River that separates this region of Portland from Hayden Island. Kenton's eastern boundary is the Interstate 5 freeway and the neighborhood's southern edge is defined by N. Lombard Street. The western border (traveling from north to south, respectively) follows N. Portland Road, N. Columbia Boulevard and N. Chautauqua Boulevard. The officially recognized neighborhoods sharing borders with Kenton are: Hayden Island to the north; Bridgeton, Sunderland and Piedmont to the east; Arbor Lodge to the south; University Park to the southwest; and both Portsmouth and St. Johns to the west. The Columbia Slough runs through the Kenton neighborhood.

There are many great photos and documents on Kenton history on the Columbia Slough section of the Center for Columbia River History.  Listen to President Truman's speech after the Vanport flood disaster.  See photos of the Swift meat packing plants and of Paul Bunyan when he was shiny and new.  They also have a great collection of historic Kenton photos.

Kenton had a theater with a Wurlitzer at Denver and Schofield.