November 2, 2016
Page 15
Preserving Black Portland
C ontinued froM f ront
ly since its purchase in 1949 and
remains an important piece of the
family’s history. Gordly and Burch
recall a time when the neighbor-
hood was the center of African
American culture and predomi-
nately populated by black people
– a history that newly developed
condos, brew pubs and boutiques
have seemingly erased.
“I remember walking down the
street and stopping in all of the
black businesses. They all knew
us and knew our family,” says
Burch. “It was very much home
for us and we miss all of that be-
ing on Williams Avenue. We miss
this generation being able to expe-
rience that as we did.”
The seed to make the home
a community space happened
during a bus tour organized two
years ago to showcase the con-
tinual changes to the historically
black neighborhoods along the
Williams and North Vancouver
Avenue corridors.
Burch and Gordly shared the
nostalgia for the old black belt of
the city with an array of Portland
leaders at the time who would
echo their concerns, including
representatives from Portland De-
velopment Commission, the may-
or’s office, Portland Bureau of
Planning and Sustainability, Tony
Hopson of Self Enhancement Inc.,
the Urban League of Portland,
Maxine Fitzpatrick of Portland
Community Reinvestment Initia-
tives and longtime black business
leader Paul Knauls, the unofficial
“Mayor of Northeast Portland.”
“We didn’t want to be a part
of this change; we wanted to do
something to support the commu-
nity that’s there,” says Burch. “We
had no interest in selling out to the
highest bidder who would turn it
into a doggie daycare or an ice
cream shop,” adds Gordly.
After discussions with the PDC
and other potential partnering orga-
nizations on the possibility of their
former home becoming an African
American cultural center, the sis-
ters’ idea eventually worked its way
to Mayor Hales, who expressed full
support of their concept.
“We were looking at ways to
keep this an integrated communi-
ty. You’re not going to find a lot
of people of color living in those
condos,” says Burch. “We’re very
supportive of keeping some sem-
blance of history.”
Such support, along with the
obvious need to appreciate and
preserve Portland’s black culture,
led the PDC to approve by a 5-0
vote last month to bring the center
to life. The project is backed by
three nonprofits, SEI, the Portland
African American Leadership Fo-
rum and the Oregon Historical So-
ciety. SEI and PAALF will serve
as the legal buyers of the house,
located at 4511 N. Williams Ave.
According to a report drafted
by PDC Executive Director Kim-
berly Branam, PDC will provide
a $495,000 commercial property
redevelopment loan for purchas-
ing and converting the home into
a cultural center. The commission
will also provide an additional
$82,000 grant to support PAALF’s
preparation of a business and re-
development plan, obtaining per-
mits, maintenance, utilities, etc.
“It’s a really unique circum-
stance and the PDC felt that giv-
en the uniqueness of the situation
and the interest of the communi-
ty, OHS and the partnership with
PAALF that it was important
enough for us to support,” says
Branam.
It was previously reported by
the Willamette Week that PDC’s
financial involvement “violates”
PDC’s loan guidelines. While
Branam acknowledges the some-
what unorthodox investment, she
says no violations technically oc-
curred.
The decision was more so a
slight bending of rules; a bending
deemed necessary by all parties
involved to fight back against the
state’s known trouble with race
relations. Branam is confident in
PDC’s decision and insists that the
money the commission has pro-
vided could be paid back by sell-
ing the home, if it comes to that.
“There are no violations, there
were some exceptions to PDC
rules for granting this kind of in-
vestment, but those were excep-
tions they chose to make due to
their valuing of the project,” says
Gordly. “It was wrong for anyone
else in the community to pick up
that verbiage and say this violates
anything. It’s disrespectful.”
Gordly and Burch have been
strong proponents of using allot-
ted public resources to build more
affordable housing to address a
housing crisis that impacts people
of color and other disadvantaged
residents and fight the displace-
ment caused by gentrification.
“We certainly have done our
part to ensure there is additional
housing, more housing that black
people can return to. The cultural
center is a mark of our place in
history and of black people’s place
in Oregon history,” says Gordly. “I
reject the notion of backlash. It’s a
misunderstanding of appreciating
who we are as activists and people
who live here.”
Examples of housing and cul-
tural preservation exist nationally,
like the Mayme A. Clayton Li-
brary and Museum that contains
over two million artifacts mainly
focusing on African American
culture in Southern California and
the West Coast.
The Gordly House as a cultural
center is in its very early stages so
it’s undecided when it will open,
how it will be ran and exactly
what will be featured in it. Branam
says the ideal outcome would be
to have the center open in the next
three to four years, but is leaving
the ultimate plans to PAALF.
PAALF imagines it as a general
meeting space for black organiza-
tions, a home base for them and
their PAALF Leadership Academy
and a resource space for artifacts
specific to black history in Ore-
gon, like church records, books,
articles and photos. The advocates
envision members of the black
community being trained as com-
munity archivists and docents,
opening African American relics
to the public and giving informa-
tive guided tours of center.
Gordly and Burch wish to re-
main involved in the project but
from a supportive distance, seek-
ing above all else to be sure that
the African American history of
north and northeast Portland is
truly remembered.
“The history I think we’re con-
cerned about preserving is more
than the house -- it’s the street,
the neighborhood and the corri-
dor and making sure that those
stories are not lost,” says Gordly.
“It’s significant for a black-owned
property to have been in its fami-
ly hands for that long. We would
hope that black people that have
remaining properties on Williams
or anywhere else be thinking in-
tentionally about how to hold on
to and transfer that wealth to make
sure it stays in that family and in
that community.”
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C alendar
November 2016
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
1
2
3
National Author’s
Day
Electric Light Bulb
Patented (1879)
National Family
Literacy Day
7
Hug-a-Bear Day
Scientist Marie Cu-
rie born in 1867
8
Young Reader’s
Day
X-Ray Day, discov-
ered on this day in
1895
Daniel Boone born,
1734
International Space
Station Opened in
2000
9
Capital Punishment
abolished in the
U.K. in 1998
Great Boston Fire
1872
R
National Sandwich
Day
FRIDAY SATURDAY
4
5
Gail Haley born,
1939
First Wagon Train
Reached California
(1841)
10
Sesame Street De-
buted in 1969
First iPod Sold in
2001
11
Remembrance Day
In Canada
Veteran’s Day
Guy Fawkes Day
12
Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Women’s
Rights Leader, was
born in 1815
SUNDAY
6
Daylight Savings
Time Ends
National Nachos
Day
13
Mom’s and Dad’s
Day
Vietnam Veterans
Memorial was dedi-
cated in 1982