April 15, 2015
Page 5
Historic Church to be Demolished
Residents say
goodbye to local
part of history
by
A group calling itself “Save PDX Diversity” tried to
fight a proposal to demolish this historic church at
Northeast Failing and Eighth Avenue in the King
Neighborhood and replace it with condos.
O livia O livia
T he P ortland O bserver
A northeast Portland church lo-
cated in the King neighborhood is
set for demolition despite the ob-
jections of hundreds of communi-
ty members.
St. Paul’s Evangelical and Re-
formed Church, located at the
corner of Northeast Failing and
Eighth Avenue should have been
subject to a mandatory 120-day
demolition delay because of its
age – the building was built in
1904 and was declared a historic
building in the 1984.
However, on the same day the
demolition application was turned
in to the city, the developer, Peter
Kusyk, requested the property be
removed from the Historic Re-
sources Inventory list. Removing
the property from the list could
mean that the building would no
longer require a 120-day delay, al-
lowing the building to be totaled
without much time for the com-
munity to object.
A group called Save PDX Di-
versity and History started a peti-
tion to stop the church from being
C ontinued on P age 13
demolished and taken off the His-
toric Resources Inventory list. The
developers plans, the group feels,
will “significantly change the
character” of the neighborhood.
“Your company intends to replace
this historic 111-year-old church
property with a two-story duplex
with a tuck-under garage for one
unit and a ‘parking pad’ for the
other,” reads the petition, pointing
out the discrepancy between what
currently exists and what could
take its place.
In the comments of those who
signed the petition, one neighbor
decries the new building plans,
“We need to keep our history alive
The Osman and Dilla families join together on the bench at Pacific
University that honors their daughters who passed away in a traffic
crash last year near the Forest Grove campus while they were en-
rolled at the university. Ayan Osman’s father is in the brown jacket
on the left. Ayan’s mother is in the head wrap in the middle. Kiden
Dilla’s father is on far right in the purple shirt.
Students Honored for
Making a Difference
Ceremony marks one year since fatal crash
Nearly 75 community members
joined the families of Kiden Dilla
and Ayan Osman to celebrate the
dedication of a memorial bench in
honor of the former Pacific Uni-
versity students on the one-year
anniversary of the fatal car acci-
dent that took their lives.
Dilla and Osman were traveling
to campus on April 7, 2014 when
as a people and continue to val-
ue and hole on to what little the
black community has left,” writes
Danialle James who now lives in
Gresham.
Another displaced resident
says, Angela Crow, writes, “I
lived in that neighborhood for 20
years-- before I was priced out
and had to leave - the demolition
of all the historic buildings in the
NE seems to be the goal of every
out of state developer. And you
would allow that-?! I should hope
not. We have a mighty thin histo-
ry of our black community in this
their passenger vehicle was struck
at the intersection of Highway 47
and Verboort Road north of Forest
Grove. Both were killed instantly.
The close friends from Portland
and Beaverton were founding
members of the university’s Black
Student Union in the fall of 2013
C ontinued on P age 13