Two Important Preservation Updates

Victory for the Thompson Elk Fountain 

In an apparent huge victory for citizen participation and preservation, the Portland City Council on May 11 is expected to approve a resolution calling for restoration of the Thompson Elk Fountain at its original location on SW Main Street. 

 The council’s action follows months of lobbying and apparently thousands of emails to council members supporting restoration of the historic fountain that was partly damaged in political demonstrations and then removed by the city in 2020.

 Next week we will discuss in more detail how this welcome decision came to pass.  The outcome clearly is one of the few times in recent history when public expressions of concern made a difference.

 

(HPA Architecture)

New Future for First Church of Christ, Scientist

Perhaps the only surprise about the vote to sell the Northwest Neighborhood Community Center (originally the First Church of Christ, Scientist) was the margin in favor: Community “owners” voted 53 to 3 to sell the building for $4.75 million to a Nevada development firm.

 Founders Developments plans to convert the former church two become part of a two-building “high-end hospitality product” with 98 rooms, a bar restaurant and other amenities.  The exterior facades and roof of the Beaux-Arts style would be retained, but the interior fully transformed 18 guest rooms.  The other rooms would be in an adjacent new building.

 The sale, expected to close in the fall, ends a long, tortuous process about what to do with the historic but ailing building.  Its vulnerability to earthquakes made its restoration as a community center largely impossible.

 The community owners essentially no choice but to accept the sale since no other reasonable purchase offers were received.  The sale proceeds will be held in trust to fund civic-oriented projects in six nearby neighborhoods.

“This building needs to be saved and by somebody with the assets to do it,” Dan Anderson, president of the NNCC board, told the Goose Hollow Foothills League a few days before the vote.

 The building’s current tenant, a children’s theater, has a lease that expires in September.  Some neighborhood residents will miss the building as a venue for theater, music and community events.

 Regardless, finding successful new uses for old buildings is a vital element in modern architectural preservation.  The leading example in Portland may be the McMenamin brothers, who have adapted a vacant school, county poor farm, movie theater, mortuary and other old buildings into successful venues for beer, wine, food, movies and concerts.  A more recent example is Steeplejack Brewing, which “saved” a Northeast Portland church by turning it into an attractive brew pub, restaurant and meeting venue.

 Designing and building the new hotel likely will be a slow process.  Plans for the new building and any changes to the exterior of the 1909 former church will have to be analyzed and approved by the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission.

-----Fred Leeson 

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