Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish is today being celebrated as the “Indiana Jones of Historic Preservation” after rediscovering the long-lost Jantzen Beach Carousel, a historic 1921 merry-go-round that has been shrouded in mystery since disappearing three years ago. Following the quest, Fish’s office announced Tuesday that the Carousel is being held at Jantzen Beach Center and […]
Oregon Main Street Update – July 2015
It is rewarding to see the amazing accomplishments of the Oregon Main Street Network communities over the past few years in breathing new life into their historic downtowns using the nationally recognized Main Street Approach® to preservation-based economic development. Main Street programs and communities have a vital role to play in ensuring that the historic […]
Calling All Endangered Places!
Is there a great historic building on your main street in need of rehabilitation, reuse, and community support? How about a landmark barn just waiting for a new purpose? Or maybe a house museum that struggles to keep its doors open? Well, your community is in luck! Restore Oregon is looking for properties from around […]
Preserving Portland’s Supply of Reservoir History
Water has been a hot topic on the West Coast as drought declarations have moved north from California into Southern and Eastern Oregon. With all of this talk, why not take a quick look back at Portland’s water history? Beginning in the mid-1800s, water was first supplied to the city of Portland from creeks in […]
Preservation Field School Comes to Portland
Have you ever wanted to experience preservation firsthand? Look no further! The University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program will be hosting the 2015 Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School in the Portland area later this summer. The two sites attendees will be working on are the Pioneer-era A.J. Masters House in Hillsboro and a log home […]
Mt. Hood’s Historic Cabins Receiving Recognition
Reminders of a special time in Oregon history when construction of privately owned “recreation residences” on federal land was used as a tool to encourage public use of the forest, the 550 highly desirable privately held cabins in and around Rhododendron, Oregon in the Mt. Hood National Forest are now recognized as excellent examples of rustic […]
State Supreme Court to Hear Preservation Case
The historic preservation field reached a new milestone on April 24th when Chief Justice Thomas Balmer ordered the State Supreme Court to review a law that jeopardizes the preservation of as many as 3,200 historic properties across Oregon. The case, Lake Oswego Preservation Society v. City of Lake Oswego, represents the first time that Oregon’s highest court has taken up a specifically historic preservation […]
Resolving Functional Obsolescence: Securing the Future of Pioneer Houses
The story of the Oregon Trail has been told in textbooks and in local lore since the close of the Pioneer period 150 years ago. But the tangible evidence of this early period of Euro-American settlement has almost entirely vanished from the landscape. Just 5% of the buildings that stood in the Willamette Valley in 1865 remain standing today. Many […]
Saving the Rayworth House: A Preservation Saga
It all started with a bottle of wine… Restore Oregon Board member Roy Fox and his wife Kim were gathered with friends in their home unwrapping bottles of wine they’d bought as part of the Architectural Heritage Center’s annual “Riches of a City” auction, when, as typically happens at the Fox’s annual “blind wine” parties […]
New Demolition Code to Take Effect April 20
The City of Portland announced today that new regulations governing the demolition of houses will take effect on April 20. The long-anticipated code change is the result of many months of negotiations and a vote of the City Council back in February. As the economy has rebounded in the Portland area, smaller, older homes have become targets […]