Finally: Eastmoreland National Historic District

 

A six year fight that finally led to the acceptance of the Eastmoreland Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places is significant for two reasons.

 First, it likely will be the last such district proposed in Portland for many years to come.  Building a historical record that meets requirements managed by the federal Secretary of the Interior is a complex and expensive process.  The rules fall outside the scope of Portland’s own zoning rules, which have drawn the ire of local officials and some residents in the historic neighborhoods.

 Second, the process finally defeated fraudulent efforts by a handful of Eastmoreland residents that tried to create trusts with several thousand “members” who could vote against the designation.  Interestingly, no people were attached to these trusts; they simply were numbers on pages recorded at the county recorder’s office.  The rules later were amended so that only real parties who had the ability to sell a property could vote.  The later count was 70 percent to 30 percent in favor of the designation.

 Eastmoreland now joins Kings Hill, Ladd’s Addition, the Alphabet District, Irvington, and Laurelhurst as Portland residential neighborhoods qualifying for the national recognition.  For the preservation community, the primary benefit of these designations means that buildings identified as “contributing” elements cannot be torn down without a public hearing that weighs the reasons for and against demolition.  In essence, it prevents developers from picking off individual lots to tear down houses and build bigger, fancier ones. 

 The Eastmoreland district is composed of 475 acres containing more than 1,000 buildings that meet the era of being constructed between 1910 and 1961.  The district also includes the Eastmoreland Golf Course and the scenic Crystal Springs Garden.

The neighborhood’s general plan follows the early 20th Century City Beautiful planning movement, with a long grassy esplanade along S.E. Reed College Place and east-west streets following the gentle flow of the topography rather than being carved into rectangular blocks in an urban grid. 

Reed College Place 

As an early Portland suburb, Eastmoreland’s attractiveness drew several of the city’s most prominent architects.  Their designs fell mostly into the popular historical architectural revival styles of the early to mid-20th Century.

 Earlier this year, the Portland City Council revised its code for historic resources to include new incentives for specific landmarks and historic districts that could be designated by the City Council, exclusive of the federal rules.  While those rules were supported by preservationists, there so far has been no interest exhibited by the City Council or by the city Planning Commission for any new designations.

 Cities by their nature, of course, are in continual flux.  There is no way of predicting eventual success or failure of the city’s own new rules.

 ----Fred Leeson

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