Courting the Old and New

 

Portland Railway Light & Power (1909)

Sometimes salvation for historic architecture occurs when successful new uses thrive within old walls.  Prime examples in the Portland area include renovations by the McMenamin brothers that turned a mortuary, erstwhile county poor farm and a vacant elementary school into vibrant venues for eating, drinking or lodging.

A new Portland example is equally unusual: a local government turning a former (dating to 1909) Portland Railway Light & Power substation into a courtroom that is backed on two sides by a new 17-story Multnomah County Courthouse.

The new tower is worthy of a visit itself.  Designed by the Portland firm SRG Partnership, the lobby is pleasantly filled with natural light.  Three-story pillars of reinforced concrete pull your eyes upward, all bearing natural images from the wood that helped form them.  One has to assume they are an interesting, even playful, reflection on the classic fluted columns commonly associated with Greek and Roman forms used in historic courthouses and public buildings.

For our purposes, the other must-see element is the Crane Room, (see below) located up the lobby stairs and then to the right down a hall.  The room is two-stories tall and shows the muscular reinforced concrete bones that once housed the heavy electrical equipment that served downtown buildings and part of the early Portland streetcar system.  The Crane room contains a courtroom for high-volume minor cases, and lots of spaces for people to wait and for attorneys to negotiate cases.

Crane Room 

The electrical station, believed to be the first example of reinforced concrete architecture in Downtown Portland, was converted to office and restaurant uses some 40 years ago.  Yet one historic element from its early days remains, and that is a large movable crane near the ceiling.  It is labelled “20 Ton Niles Crane,” likely a site gag based on the name of the character in an erstwhile popular television sitcom.

 In fact, the crane was manufactured by the Shepard Niles Crane & Hoist Corp., an Elmira, N.Y., firm that started producing heavy equipment in the 1880s.  The firm also made a similar crane capable of bearing 25 tons.

 The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.  The nomination form was written by the late George McMath, an architect who is considered the father of Portland’s efforts from the 1970s to recognize and attempt to preserve the city’s notable landmark buildings.  Oddly, the nomination form does not include any historic photographs of the building, which nowadays is a standard element in nomination applications.

McMath wrote, “The Jefferson Substation achieves architectural and engineering significance as a relatively rare extant example in Portland of an early electrical substation --it is the only remaining structure of its type in downtown Portland -- and as a very early local instance of a building with a reinforced concrete superstructure.” 

It was an industrial-style building erected for its practical use, not for architectural interest.  Yet its clearly-expressed structure and steel sash windows show a simplicity that a few decades later led to the “revolution” of modern architecture over historical styles.

Courthouse Tower

By 1980, the neighborhood had changed dramatically around the electrical station, with tall buildings and a seven-story parking garage.  “While partly surrounded by new high-rise construction, the simple unadorned structure of the Jefferson Substation fits well with its larger neighbors,” McMath concluded.

It now rests comfortably nestled on three sides by a 17-story courthouse, with a lifetime of many, many years to come.

------Fred Leeson

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