The journey started with a mid-summer email: What do you know about Sunnyside School? The response added to a high-speed—at least in preservation terms—adventure in negotiations, fund-raising, and stick-to-it-iveness. Corvallis’ century-old Sunnyside School was historically known as Bryant School and Mudflat School due to the surrounding swampy area and muddy roads. Before 1897, a one-room […]
La Grande's Grand Staircase
Off a quiet residential street in the northeast Oregon town of La Grande lies what is possibly the most architecturally outstanding outdoor staircase in Oregon. The Italian Renaissance Revival Grand Staircase rises five tiers up a hillside on the campus of Eastern Oregon University. Unfortunately, it is forgotten and deteriorating, the victim of ground movement, […]
First of its Kind Pilot Program Would Allow Portlanders to Invest in Historic Property
Matt Froman’s passion and continued advocacy for the old Phoenix Pharmacy building has not gone unnoticed. He has invested years in finding a new owner to redevelop the 1922 structure – and as luck may have it a decision might be made within the week. Located at 6615 SE Foster Road in Portland, the vacant […]
Kanipe Park on the Road to Restoration
One of Southern Oregon’s best kept secrets is being discovered after a decade of concentrated restoration efforts by a local group of volunteers. Located near the Southern Oregon community of Oakland, Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park is a 1,100-acre park that was donated to the County after the passing of life-long resident Mildred Kanipe. Although most […]
What’s Next for Salem’s Dome Building?
One of Salem’s most prominent public buildings will be sold to a private developer if all goes according to a State-sponsored plan to divest the property later this year. Listed as a 2013 Most Endangered Place, the 1912 Dome Building was once part of the sprawling Oregon State Hospital campus in Salem, an institution made […]
Midlife Crisis: Will Eugene City Hall Survive Beyond 50?
Eugene City Hall, a full-block building at the heart of the city’s downtown, has become the most-recent epicenter of debate about the preservation of Oregon’s Mid-Century Modern architecture. Built in 1964 by the firm Stafford, Morin and Longwood, local leaders for the past several years have discussed options for rehabilitating or replacing the aging building. […]
AMCCO: Astoria’s New Maritime Historic District
One of Astoria’s most complex historic properties has found a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. The Astoria Marine Construction Company (AMMCO) is a 7-acre conglomerate of shipbuilding structures, objects, and relics largely dating to World War II and the Korean War. Although the complex is still in use as a commercial operation, […]
Next Stop LUBA: Lessons Learned from the Carman House
Since 2012, the Lake Oswego Preservation Society has spearheaded a community-wide effort to save the oldest and arguably most historically significant house in Lake Oswego, the 1855 territorial-era Carman House. Representing one of just a small handful of pre-statehood properties that still stand in the Willamette Valley, just a few weeks ago the local landmark […]
A Preservation Perspective on Portland’s Gas & Coke Building
In late October, Northwest Natural announced plans to demolish the venerable Gas & Coke Building, a century-old poured-in-place concrete building located just upriver from the St. Johns Bridge at 7900 NW St Helens Road. The 1913 building—a former gas manufacturing plant—has been the subject of ghost stories, speculative histories, and general intrigue since it was […]
Rediscovering Settlement-Era Homesteads in the Willamette Valley
Since the 1960s, Oregon’s state and local governments have conducted architectural field surveys of groupings of older buildings, each with varying levels of significance and importance, in order to document and understand Oregon’s historic places. One that was completed over the last year holds special significance to the history, people, and development of Oregon as […]