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| Old Blanchet House, right |
With little warning, Portland’s hardy band of architectural
preservationists finds itself facing the nasty echo of a battle that was lost
on the same Portland block 11 years ago – involving the same cast of
characters.
The building at risk is the old Blanchet House of
Hospitality, which a leading preservation advocate admits is a “sad and ugly
little building that presents a great challenge.”
Unimpressive as it may be, the little three-story building
that dates to approximately 1906 is a contributing element in the New Chinatown-Japantown National
Historic District – and the last one remaining on the its block. If it is scraped away, the block could be
removed from the district and would be a potential blow to the viability of the whole
district’s historical designation.
The Blanchet House, a social service agency that provides
free meals to the impoverished and works with people trying to overcome drug or
alcohol addiction, moved into a new building on the same block in 2012. That was after the City Council in 2010
approved demolition of the old Kiernan Building – better known most recently as the
Dirty Duck Tavern – to make way the new Blanchet House.
It was clear in 2010 that the old Blanchet House was in
jeopardy. Now, still under Blanchet
House ownership, the non-profit agency has applied for permission to demolish
it.
Blanchet’s request is unusual. The usual procedure when the City Council is
asked to demolish a historic building is to compare the virtues of the
historic resource against the virtues of the proposed new use. That method was followed when the Dirty Duck
was demolished in favor of the new Blanchet House.
But this time, the Blanchet House has not proposed a new
use. It claims that demolition is
appropriate because the old building has no viable economic value.
During the past decade, Prosper Portland – the city
development agency known earlier as the Portland Development Commission – was
supposed to be considering new potential uses for the old Blanchet, since it
had put together a deal to obtain the new Blanchet site. Alas, nothing has happened.
Peggy Moretti, the former executive director of Restore
Oregon, said there is no desire to cast aspersions on Blanchet House, since its
human services are valued by the neighborhood and city.
But she said scraping the building does a disservice to its
historic value and importance. “It is
one of the rare buildings with great significance to the AAPI (Asian-American
Pacific Islander) community,” she said.
“It should be respected better than it has been.”
Given the recent surge in interest in America's multicultural heritage. Moretti said preservation needs to be about more than "pretty buildings" and reflect cultural history. As mentioned earlier, the old Blanchet House is not a special architectural gem.
The building was operated as the Yamaguchi Hotel until
1931, and later as another hotel with other ground-floor used. For many years it was used by a prominent
Japanese midwife.
Blanchet House acquired the building in 1952 and used it to serve meals and house some tenants undergoing drug and alcohol rehab. It was one of a few so-called “soup kitchens” in the neighborhood where eaters lined up around the block for free meals.
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| New Blanchet House, left; old Blanchet House, right |
In the meantime, Rick Michaelson, one of Portland’s foremost
preservation advocates and historic building renovators, has suggested asking
for a six month delay on the demolition request, and urging Prosper Portland to find creative
alternatives.
Moretti said the goal is not to prevent new development on
the block, but to find a way to reflect its cultural history.
------Fred Leeson
You can join Building on History's mailing list by sending "Add me" to fredleeson@hotmail.com
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