Above: The comfort station at Deception Pass State Park in Washington was the location selected for the 2024 field school. Photo by Larissa Rudnicki

The Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School

by Allison Geary and Larissa Rudnicki

Big things are happening with the University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program (UO HP). For starters, the program has officially relocated back to Eugene and is presently accepting graduate student applications, beginning in the 2025 – 2026 academic year (yes, this Fall). If you’re looking for a Master of Science in Historic Preservation, look no further, we are back!

However, while the UO HP program was on hiatus, the program’s Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School (PNWFS) continued offering its signature hands-on training to students and professionals alike with the support of the University and PNWFS agency partnerships. The field school location alternates between Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Last year, the 2024 PNWFS packed up and hauled its tool trailer to Deception Pass State Park, Washington, to reactivate an abandoned 85-year-old park comfort station (restroom). With a bright future as employee housing or a seasonal rental unit, the three, week-long sessions focused on rehabilitating the comfort station through a series of maintenance and restoration projects, which included the repair of log purlin ends, restoration and reconstruction of original wood windows, and refurbishment of hand-forged metal fixtures throughout the building. 

The diverse needs of the building required participants to learn about a wide array of tools, techniques, procedures, and strategies. Participants worked alongside woodworkers, architects, blacksmiths, and other knowledgeable professionals on a variety of challenging tasks, including axe-chamfering log ends (removing edges with a 45° cut), using two-man crosscut saws, milling stock to match existing window components and profiles, hand-coping trim to reconstruct lost windows, and tool sharpening. 

This year, the 2025 PNWFS is excited to host its 30th annual program at Elk Rock Garden, a 10-acre historic estate and garden overlooking the Willamette River in Portland’s Dunthorpe Neighborhood, in collaboration with the Elk Rock Garden Foundation. The expansive cultivated landscape surrounds a 1916 manor house designed by Ellis Fuller Lawrence, the founding dean of the University of Oregon's School of Architecture, and his business partner William Holford. The grounds, originally designed by Peter Kerr, with later design input from John Charles Olmsted and Emanuel Tillman Mische, feature stone retaining walls and staircases, brick and gravel paths, native and ornamental plantings, and panoramic views of Mt. Hood.

The Elk Rock Garden Foundation was established in 1994 to protect, preserve, and perpetuate the garden for public use. The garden’s historic manor house is now being used as an office and meeting space for mission-aligned nonprofit organizations including the Elk Rock Garden Foundation, headed by Executive Director Stephanie Donovan-Brown, and the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Field School is excited for the opportunity to collaborate in the preservation mission of Elk Rock Garden, which serves a broad public.

Potential hands-on projects at Elk Rock Garden include stone masonry stair and wall repair, restoring The Cascades (the garden’s central water feature), cultural landscape analysis and restoration; garden and tree work; wood window and leaded-glass restoration; and tree limb bridge railing reconstruction. Additional workshops include wood pathology and identification, cultural landscape analysis, concrete condition assessment and repair, and photo-documentation.

As mentioned, this year is a year of celebration! Not only is the UO HP program welcoming new students, but the PNWFS has reached a major milestone! Established in 1995, this year celebrates 30 years of technical preservation and training students and professionals about preservation craft. And we feel like that is something worth celebrating.

Join us this year in Portland, and keep your eyes on our website for more information about the PNWFS’s 30th-anniversary program and celebration.

Allison Geary is the Field School Director and Larissa Rudnicki is the Co-Director for the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Oregon.