We Advocate

We work to ensure that heritage places are acknowledged for their substantial economic and social contributions. Preservation drives the rebirth of rural Main Streets, employs highly skilled artisans and contractors, passes forward our diverse cultural heritage, and measurably responds to issues like housing affordability or our climate crises through adaptive reuse and preservation of our existing resources.  

In addition to offering a direct and meaningful response to the most critical challenges facing Oregon today, historic preservation resonates with people in a personal way. Every Oregonian from every socioeconomic station, ethnicity, or community knows of a gathering place, corner store, theater, barn, or park that speaks to them because of their association with it. Grassroots organizing around these places can unify people, bridging differences and overcoming our past year of isolation. 

In the past, historic preservation often focused on the legacy of well-to-do European-Americans. But the Oregon Story is so much more than that. For every John McLaughlin House or Jackson County Courthouse, there is an equally important Billy Webb Elks Lodge or Kam Wah Chung that embodies the dreams, hardships, flaws, nobility, persecutions, and accomplishments of the diverse people and cultures who have shaped this place we all love. All historic places are essential to telling the complete and equitable story of our state and rebuilding after these most trying of times.

Restore Oregon advocates in everything we do with our educational programs, our technical support to those who need assistance, direct intervention with our Most Endangered Places program, and our policy and legislative work at state and federal level.

Restore Oregon’s Policy & Advocacy Committee (PAC) specifically works to address policies, land use, and funding resources needed to support historic preservation.  Specifically working at the State legislature and with our federal Congressional delegation on financial incentives and policies that maximize impact and save our collective cultural heritage.