L OST N EIGHBORHOODS
FROM THE
ARCHIVES
Jumptown
continued from page 5
race mixing. Whites were always welcome
in the clubs on Williams Avenue, both as
players and patrons. But the openness was-
n’t reciprocated in the Downtown clubs, at
least for Black patrons.
Why the Dude Ranch was singled out for
allowing race mixing could be due to any
number of reasons, but Dietsche said he
thinks it also had to do with the gambling.
“Portland was a pretty wide open town
except for mixed races,” Dietsche said.
Vice was everywhere – prostitutes made
their contacts at places such as the Dude
Ranch, and gambling occurred in-house, he
changing music styles, urban renewal, unre-
stricted housing, civil rights battles and
eventually gangs, brought about the end of
Williams Avenue’s jazz joints.
240 N. Broadway became the headquar-
ters of Mutual Wholesale Drugs during the
1950s. And in the 70s — after urban renew-
al, Interstate 5 and the Rose Quarter had
changed the neighborhood beyond recogni-
tion – Multicraft Plastics turned it into a
factory.
Developer Daniel Deutsch, a board mem-
ber of the arts group Disjecta, bought it in
February 2007. The building had been sit-
ting vacant for several years
and other developers bidding
on the project wanted to tear
it down. But Deutsch under-
stood its historic value and
longed to restore it – even if it
cost more.
Deutsch hired designer
Andy Powell to help him turn
the 66,000 square foot struc-
ture into a gathering place for
artists. Dubbed the “Leftbank Project” the
building will house studios for up-and-com-
ing artists, as well as larger spaces for
established firms. There will be enough
room for gallery shows and possibly a
music venue. The main ballroom will prob-
ably return to its original use as an eatery.
“In a big sense, it’s a great big experi-
ment,” says Powell, who also helped design
the interior of the Someday Lounge down-
town. “It can be a hub for creative,
progressive projects.”
Powell said Deutsch isn’t trying to maxi-
mize profits from the building. The plan is
Powell says they don’t want
240 N. Broadway to become
just another step toward
gentrification
said. Where there was jazz, he said, vice
was sure to be there too.
A New Era
When it was built in 1923 as the Hazel-
wood candy complex, 240 N. Broadway
featured an ice cream parlor and eatery on
the ground floor, with candy, donut and con-
fectionary rooms upstairs. As the Dude
Ranch, bands were featured on the ground
floor and at least one of the upper floors in
the original corner building was dedicated
to gambling.
All good things eventually come to an
end. For jazz, both Dietsche and Bogle say
Black History
v
Picket Line
Protesters bitterly picketed against the bulldozing of homes and buildings
to make way for the Emanuel Hospital expansion during the early 1970s;
Emanuel this month opened the Randall Children’s Hospital regional
medical facility on the land.
to create a sustainable model that balances
artists/firms who can afford to pay market
rate against those who need more affordable
space. In other words, Powell says, they
don’t want 240 N. Broadway to become just
another step toward gentrification.
In order to keep rents down, the building
won’t be retrofitted with a seismic upgrade,
which means the city will allow fewer ten-
ants.
The renovation will include repairing or
replacing warped, waterlogged floors, bro-
ken windows and a leaky roof. Yet, despite
years of neglect, the main ballroom has sur-
vived. Its original woodwork is intact, along
with a dumbwaiter, an antique walk-in safe
and a an enormous defunct boiler system.
Powell is shooting for high environmental
standards. Construction crews will use sus-
tainable building products; dozens of the
original windows are being restored; and
the heating unit is one of the more efficient
on the market.
“We believe the single greatest act of sus-
tainability is saving the building,” Powell
said. “Reusing is probably the least impact-
ful thing we can do.”
By next summer, when tenants should
begin moving into 240 N. Broadway, each
of the three buildings that make up the site
will be decorated to reflect the era and pur-
pose for which they were built. Plans aren’t
yet firm, but Powell wants to decorate the
outside walls with photographs that illus-
trate its journey from a confectionery and
industrial workplace to the hottest jazz
palace in town. Visible to everyone who
passes by, its contribution to Portland’s his-
tory will never be forgotten.
Map
continued from page 3
you made from Multnomah Avenue up to
Killingsworth, there’s over 100 locations.
But we want to choose — with the help of
local people that lived there – which are the
20 heirlooms, the pearls, the diamonds,
which ones have the most interesting stories
that could go along with a photograph. It
doesn’t have to be the most well-known
places, but the places that are more person-
al, a memory that somebody had that was
more sensual – a flavor of something they
ate there. I work with a lot of nontradition-
al learners, so the sensory details could be
used for classroom assignments. I once
made a smell map, where each place on the
map was a smell memory, ‘this was the
place where I smelled cinnamon rolls.’ A lot
of people do sound maps – it’s the same
idea. Just a map of your sense. I think that
could be a really valuable tool because for
me it always comes back to the point – the
educational point that I want it to be ulti-
mately used as a curriculum.
The other ‘ask’ is for geographically rele-
vant civil rights information.
Participate with Colburn’s map projects
by calling her at the McCoy Academy, 503-
281-9597
Page 14 The Portland and Seattle Skanner v BLACK HISTORY EDITION v February 22, 2012