New Honors for Union Station

 

One of Portland’s most iconic historic buildings is earning new acclaim for its economic and cultural importance to Black residents in during a 75-year period ending in 1971.

 Union Station with its notable 144-foot-tall clock tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its transportation and architectural merit in 1975.  Now an amended nomination lists its major significance for Black history and commerce.

The amending information received glowing appreciation from the Portland Historical Landmarks Commission and will be forwarded what likely will be slam-dunk approval by a state preservation committee and then the National Park Service.

 In short, Union Station proved to be “the primary workplace and employer for the Black community in Portland, Oregon for the entirety of the 1896-1971 period.” Indeed, a 1941 study by the Portland Urban League concluded that 98 percent of working Black Portland residents worked in Union Station or for railroads that served it. 

 “The beginning of this date range (1896-1971) reflects the completion and first use of the station as a passenger terminal, with African Americans employed from the very beginning both at the station as well as on trains. The end of the period is when Black employment at Union Station began to decline precipitously” with the advent of Amtrak rail service.

 Researchers of the new historic material were Kristen Minor, a historic architecture consultant, and Zachary Stocks and Mariah Rocker, affiliated with the non-profit Oregon Black Pioneers organization.

 From Union Station’s earliest years, Blacks worked as Redcaps, Pullman porters, chair-car porters, baggage handlers, dining car cooks and waiters and car cleaners.  Given racial discrimination prevalent for several decades, Blacks were not selected for managerial positions.  Yet their jobs provided suitable income, for the most part, to support families and buy property. 

High Steppers, a band composed of railroad employees, 1923

“The significance of railroad jobs at Union Station to Portland’s African American community was not only economic; it held a cultural bond that shaped where families lived, provided the opportunity to earn a steady income without back-breaking labor, hosted Black union organization meetings, and fostered a sense of belonging that was unmatched by that of any other employer or commercial location in Portland,” the document states. .

“The arrival of the railroad represented a major gain for local Black employment, offering the chance to obtain jobs that were extremely limited otherwise. Railroad companies up and down the west coast sought Black labor for many customer-facing service jobs on trains beginning in the 1870s and 1880s. Railroads specifically sought Black workers for two reasons: first because they were cheaper than hiring white men, and second because African Americans especially from the South were considered proficient in customer service.”

 A. Philip Randolph, a New York labor activist who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,  visited Portland at least six times between 1927 and 1954 as part of his organizing efforts.   In 1937, the union became the first African American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major corporation, the Pullman Car Co.

In endorsing the national nomination, the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission called it “a strong example of how to look at important places through the lends of cultural significance.”

 ---Fred Leeson

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