After years of meetings, consultations, research, more meetings, paperwork and sweat, the Irvington Community Association (ICA) has submitted its nomination for the Irvington neighborhood to be designated as a Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places. If approved, it would be a significant step for local residents and history buffs, while giving the neighborhood more influence against re-development of historical structures.
"Designation as a National Register Historic District (NRHD) gives the neighborhood a level of 'protection' in that most proposed development and significant alterations to buildings in the neighborhood will be required to pass muster with the Portland Landmarks Commission," says Val Ballestrem, education manager, Portland-based Architectural Heritage Center / Bosco-Milligan Foundation.
Ballestrem adds:
This doesn't mean people won’t be able to remodel their kitchens to their liking, but should someone propose to add a large shed dormer to their home, for example, the landmarks commission would review and can approve/deny the plans. There is of course, always an appeal process through which a developer or property owner could get City Council to override a Landmarks decision. In general, interior changes to buildings do not need Landmarks’ approval.
Not included, says the ICA, will be the Lloyd District because it's been so modified and so many homes were torn down or moved from Broadway down to Halsey during the mall's construction in the late 1950s. According to the NRHD application, the historic district is roughly bound by Northeast Fremont, Northeast 27th Avenue, Northeast Broadway, and Northeast 7th Avenue.
Neighborhood Involvement Has Long History
Like many neighborhoods in Portland (and the rest of the country), Irvington has seen good times, a downslide in the 60s, and now a movement to its former glory.
Mary Piper from the ICA's Historic Preservation Committee, who bought her home in 2000, says at the time it was carved into 10 apartments. It was one of the many reasons she became involved in the preservation of her home as well as neighborhood. "This is a house that has a history and we should pay attention to that history. How was it built, why was it built that way, how were the rooms used and who built it."
In the late 1950s redlining (essentially chunks of neighborhoods with red lines literally drawn around them by banks that were deemed as blight or not suitable for development, with banks ultimately not to giving residents in these redlined neighborhoods loans) was an obvious issue and helped carve out "good" and "bad" parts of the neighborhoods.
If you've lived in Portland long enough, you know real estate mogul Joe Weston's name. Many Irvington residents say he—and other developers and developments—helped contribute to the neighborhood's urban downfall in the late 1950s.
"He'd purchase up whole blocks, tear down the old houses on those streets and build what I call Motel 6's: rod iron post and railing, exposed walkways where residents would walk along to get to their door and parking in the middle," says Piper.
The mowing down of city blocks, inattention from the City, and racial redlining might've been the final straw for many in Irvington. In 1962, residents had had enough and called a community meeting forming today's ICA. In the late 1960s, the ICA promoted their neighborhood with its "Escape Suburbia—Live in Irvington" campaign and went as far as to develop their own plan to the City Council. According to Carl Abbot in his seminal book, Portland. Planning, Politics and Growth in a Twentieth Century City, the ICA "wanted support for community activities, housing rehabilitation loans, and installation of bus shelters, drinking fountains and bulletin boards along the streets."
Though many know Irvington as the tony neighborhood it is today, the seeds were planted in that era by activists and residents who wanted a better place to live. It didn't happen by accident.
Wayback Machine
Irvington originated with an 1851 donation land claim of 644 acres to Captain William and Elizabeth Irving. The current Irvington being designated as an NRHD is 588 acres. At the same time of the land claim, Congress passed an act to encourage families to move to Oregon. What it also did was allow women in Oregon for the first time to own land here. A women owned a half of the land claim of her spouse in her own name so she could do with it as she wished—hence Elizabeth Irving owned half.
"Mrs. Irving is the one responsible for the way Irvington looks today. When she was widowed in 1872 she partnered with Portland businessmen, selling the captain's half to them and keeping her half," says Piper.
She developed her half as a residential community, which was considered the suburbs at the time, layed out the area as a grid pattern to match other neighborhoods to the north, and set up covenants in 1887—the first ones in Portland. "There was no zoning back then so you could do anything you wanted with the land. She decided there would be no stores, no businesses, no barns, no manufacturing [including no alcoholic beverages made or sold] and no churches," says Piper. The newly platted neighborhood also had streetcar service [at first horse-drawn] directly to downtown Portland, making it a popular destination with high-powered businessmen.
The other big impact, design wise, is that houses put on the lots had to cost at least $25,000 which was a fair amount of money in the 1890s. This in turn "attracted upper-middle class residents or what we now consider middle-class to have a home built or buy an existing one," says Piper.
Home Styles
If you've ever strolled through Irvington or taken the annual home tour, you've noticed the different styles and sizes of residences, originally designed by 27-30 different architects.
Homes built in the district tend to range from the years 1900-1920 which was when the bulk of homes were built. There are a total of 2811 structures and 99% of them are residential in the district. Some of the styles include Queen Anne Victorian, bungalow, Colonial revival, Tudor, Cape Cod and arts and craft.
According to Ballestrem:
Irvington is one of those neighborhoods, like Ladd’s Addition, that is really significant as a whole. There are a number of houses within the neighborhood that have architectural significance on their own. The first that comes to my mind is the Freiwald House on Northeast 15th. There are also some amazing churches in Irvington, including the Pietro Belluschi designed Central Lutheran.
"Many of Portland’s most notable architects designed houses/buildings in Irvington, which adds to the collective quality of the whole neighborhood," he adds. "The list of architects who worked in Irvington includes Ellis Lawrence, Joseph Jacobberger, A.E. Doyle, William Knighton, Emil Schacht and John Bennes."
Is Your Neighborhood Ready for Designation?
When a NRHD is proposed, those who develop the nomination determine (with advice from the State Historic Preservation Office) what the parameters of the district will be.
Ballestrem offers:
In general, the National Park Service doesn't approve nominations for buildings that are not at least 50 years old, but even that rule is not hard and fast, as was seen with the Coliseum last year, which was only 49 years old at the time. Basically those who are drafting a nomination must determine what it is that is historically significant about the proposed district. Examples: Is the architecture significant? Did something significant happen there? Some proposed NRHDs have well-defined borders, like Ladd’s Addition. Others do not due to years of redevelopment, so it is up to those doing the nomination to define a specific area that over all reflects the significance, like perhaps the New Chinatown/Japantown NRHD.
He also advises that homeowners should always seek the advice of the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) first, before undertaking an inventory. SHPO can be very helpful and they even can provide a base database (and training) for users to fill in the required information. "Keep in mind however, that an inventory does not mean much; it is the designation that carries weight in land-use/development issues," Ballestrem adds.
Besides the paperwork, research, and meetings, Piper is a bit philosophical on why she got involved in the process. One reason is she wants her home to be standing 100 years from now, as it is today, for her grandchildren to enjoy.
She adds:
I've talked to people from other neighborhoods and they wonder why we're doing this. Just watch. In ten years the City is going to start nibbling on the edges of beloved neighborhoods and someone is going to buy property, will be allowed to build a seven-story building and they will. People have their heads buried in the sand if they think nothing will happen to their neighborhoods. You can see it in Piedmont. I drive along through North Vancouver and look at the large lots where there were once grand old buildings that were destroyed for progress.
