August 23, 2017
Page 3
INSIDE
The
Week in Review
This page
Sponsored by:
page 2
page 9
M ETRO
photo courtesy of the a rchitectural h eritage c enter
The historical Rutherford House at 833 N.E. Shaver was built in 1920 and was first home of the
NAACP Credit Union. The NAACP Portland Chapter was founded in 1914.
Where History Happened
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
pages 7-11
Preserving
the African
American
experience
c hrista M c i ntyre
t he p ortland o bserver
Portland’s Architectural Heri-
tage Center, which has long been
engaged with preserving the histo-
ry of the African American expe-
rience in the city, has stepped up
its efforts to record and place im-
portant buildings on the National
Historic Registry.
It comes as interest in designat-
ing African American historical
resources has been on the rise in
recent years. Last October, for ex-
ample, one such designation was
made for the Vancouver Avenue
First Baptist Church, a majority
African-American congregation
that relocated to inner north Port-
land following the 1948 Vanport
Flood.
Now the city of Portland’s Bu-
reau of Planning and Sustainabili-
ty is partnering with the non-profit
to document potentially historic
black resources, giving proper-
ty owners a better opportunity to
more easily list their property in
the National Register.
Cathy Galbraith, the founding
executive director of the Archi-
by
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
page 16
F OOD
pages 12-13
pages 14
page 15
Cathy Galbraith, executive director of the Architectural Heritage
Center.
tectural Heritage Center, says that
with the rapid development that is
taking place today, documenting
historic buildings in Portland is
like “chasing moving targets.”
A recognized expert of Port-
land’s African American histo-
ry, she laments the loss of more
homes, buildings and churches
with historical black ties for new,
same looking, “mixed use” box
buildings.
In 1995, she worked with
Portland scholars and communi-
ty members to create the most in
depth documentation of African
American historic places with
a report called Cornerstones of
Community: Buildings of Port-
land’s African American History.
The late black historian and
newspaper columnist McKinley
Burt participated with Galbraith
in the effort, documenting African
American places in Portland for
the publication. Burt, who taught
in the Urban and Black Studies
department at Portland State Uni-
versity, and was a regular con-
tributor to the Portland Observer,
c ontinued on p age 6