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We’re Here: Portland’s LGBTQ+ Historic Resources
Come Out in 2023

By Cayla McGrail

June has recognized LGBTQ+ Pride since the 1970s, beginning with Christopher Street Liberation Day and other activities in New York City honoring the infamous 1969 Stonewall Inn Riots. These New York events quickly spread across the country, with marches, parades and festivals celebrating and honoring queer legacies, histories, and lives throughout the entire month. Oregon is no exception, with the earliest Pride festivities occurring in June 1971.

In Portland, an expansive list of LGBTQ+ historic resources are currently being identified, documented, and preserved through the LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project. Preservation of these resources – many of which are now 50 years old – is an emerging way to honor and cement the legacy of Pride. Portland’s project is funded by a 2021 Underrepresented Communities Grant, a National Park Service program intended to bring greater diversity to the National Register of Historic Places.The City of Portland’s Historic Resources Program is leading the project with the active involvement of community partners and individuals such as Donnie/Don Horn of Triangle Productions, Debra Porta of Pride Northwest, Anthony Hudson/Carla Rossi, and others. A team at Salazar Architect, Inc., comprised of Ernestina Fuenmayor, Kristen Minor, and Shayne Watson, is supporting the project with their combined decades of professional preservation expertise.

Storefront of Darcelle XV Showplace, 2022. (Photo Courtesy City of Portland)

Leveraging Oregon’s First LGBTQ National Register Landmark

Donnie/Don Horn and Kristen Minor’s 2020 National Register of Historic Places nomination of Darcelle XV Showplace successfully made the case for Oregon’s first LGBTQ site to receive local or national designation. The listing emphasizes the venue’s national significance as one of the oldest drag venues in the country, and a space that contributed to the cultural shift in gay acceptance and drag performances. The process and designation of Portland’s first LGBTQ National Register landmark illuminated the need and desire for a broader and deeper effort documenting the Rose City’s LGBTQ+ histories.

The LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project emerged out of that success. Throughout 2023, project staff will be completing several main deliverables: historic resource surveys, a context statement, and nominations. The survey of 100+ properties across Portland is underway, documenting bookstores, bars, parks, and other significant spaces associated with histories from the early 1900s through the 1990s. These properties will inform the historic context statement with summaries of significant LGBTQ+ themes. The National Register of Historic Places nominations uplift a range of resource typologies connected to diverse experiences.

 

Steeplejack: A Site of LGBTQ+ Community and History

One resource being documented by the LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project team is Steeplejack, a 2022 DeMuro Award winner. The building on NE Broadway is the previous location of Portland’s Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), an LGBTQ+- founded and affirming congregation originally formed in Los Angeles in 1968. MCC Portland had sporadic beginnings, utilizing spaces throughout the city from the Pythian Building on SW Yamhill to the Centenary-Wilbur Methodist Church on SE 9^th. By 1977, the congregation purchased the building at NE Broadway for their permanent location. According to community historian David Grant Kohl, MCC Portland is one of only a few MCCs to have purchased their own location.

Photo of church nearing its construction completion, May 1910. Image from Oregon Historical Society (OrHi 64465).

Beyond the church’s significance to the intersections of religion and LGBTQ+ communities, the building hosted several social and support groups. For example, Susie Shepherd, longtime Portland LGBTQ+ activist, remembers the first all-gay recovery groups held in the building. In the late 1980s, the building hosted a 50-hour HIV/AIDS vigil and became a location where ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) met. MCC was one of several churches active in the 1992 No on 9 campaign, fighting against Ballot Measure 9’s attempted amendment of the Oregon Constitution to “discourage homosexuality.”

Although the City of Portland’s 1984 Historic Resource Inventory briefly documented the building’s LGBTQ+ significance, the LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project is providing a deeper record of that history and significance. MCC is not being considered for designation at this time. However, documentation of LGBTQ+ historic sites such as MCC provides public information, solidifies LGBTQ+ history as an important aspect of local significance, and establishes eligibility for future landmark designation.

Members of the public are invited to share their memories and experiences associated with Steeplejack/ Metropolitan Community Church and other Portland LGBTQ+ spaces through the project’s online questionnaire. Responses can be shared anonymously and may be incorporated throughout the project and its various deliverables. The questionnaire is open through July.

Share Your Sites Here!

Façade of Steeplejack, 2022. The contemporary stained-glass window, installed in 1988, is an artistic memorial piece in reference to HIV/AIDS.  (Photo courtesy of City of Portland)

Meet us at Pride!

The LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project team will be at Portland Pride Waterfront Park Festival, July 15-16. Look for us at Booth A75 to share information and connect over memories of LGBTQ+ Portland. Visit the LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project page and/or send your questions and feedback to Cayla McGrail at Cayla.mcgrail@portlandoregon.gov.

Cayla McGrail is an Associate Planner in Portland's Historic Resources Program. They hold a master's degree in Historic Preservation with a focus on Queer Preservation. Seeking to combine queer theories with preservation methods led them to become the Associate Project Manager of the LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project at the City of Portland.

MORE FOR PRIDE MONTH IN OREGON

Resources to explore during LGBTQ+ Pride Month
Courtesy of Oregon Heritage

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month at The Library of Congress 
• Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project (2020 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award winner, view award video here.) 
• 2020 Heritage Excellence award winner The Darcelle Project, Portland, a multi-dimensional project that preserves and honors the story of Walter Cole, also known as Darcelle, and his achievements as an entrepreneur, performer, Portland icon, and activist for the LGBTQ community. The work included National Register nominations. View award video here and the national register nomination here 
• Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN)
• Oregon Encyclopedia  is highlighting LGBTQ Pride Month on their monthly spotlight section on the home page
• Here is Oregon article -  Where to celebrate Pride in Oregon this summer 
• Just Out premiered on October 28, 1983. Printed bimonthly and distributed free around Portland, it provided a news platform and editorial voice for the region's LGBTQIA+ community at a time when traditional newsrooms were mostly unwelcoming to these stories. The Oregon Digital Newspaper Project have made editions from 1983 to 2011 freely available and keyword-searchable online here 
•  If you want to learn more about LGBTQ history in your community, don't forget to check out the local historical society and/or museum!

The post Portland’s LGBTQ+ Historic Resources appeared first on Restore Oregon.

In effort to tell an inclusive story of Oregon's past, Restore Oregon, Oregon’s only statewide nonprofit historic preservation organization is launching the Albina Preservation Initiative—a collaborative program dedicated to researching, celebrating and educating people about Black history and preservation in Oregon.

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It must be MAY!
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage
& All Things Historic Preservation!

 

Celebrate Our Stories

Join Lan Su to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month! In partnership with more than 20 local cultural organizations, performers, and artists, we explore the history, traditions, and arts that make up the rich cultural tapestry of AANHPI.

From May 6th - 28th, we highlight the stories, the culture, and the expressions of our AANHPI communities. Enjoy a display of traditional outfits, cultural performances, vendors from local AANHPI communities, educational talks and demonstrations, and learn all about these different cultures and traditions. We hope everyone will join us in celebrating our cultural diversity!

 

AANHPI Heritage Month Free Day at Oregon Historical Society

With performances by Shivani Joshi and Paradise of Samoa
Saturday, May 20, 2023, from 10am to 4pm, Free and open to the public

Celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month with free museum admission and special performances by Shivani Joshi at 11am and Paradise of Samoa at 1pm. This free family day is organized in partnership with Oregon Rises Above Hate. Oregon Rises Above Hate is the result of a coming together of AANHPI community leaders who want to defeat anti-Asian hate through targeted government action, broad educational programs, and by harnessing the power of the entire AANHPI community and all Oregonians statewide.

Learn More Here

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We need your bio! Please give us some history on your education, work background, affiliations, and involvement with Restore Oregon and/or historic preservation in Oregon:
Kimberly Stowers Moreland, MBA, MURP, is currently owner of Moreland Resource Consulting, LLC. She has over 25 years of public sector community development and urban planning experience. She was employed as an urban planner for the City of Portland, OR, City of Tacoma, WA and City of Salem, OR and worked as a project manager for Prosper Portland. She is the author of Arcadia Publishing, Images of America: African Americans of Portland.
She has dedicated much of her time to volunteer service with cultural and heritage nonprofit organizations.  and has been a two-time Diversity Scholar for the National Trust. She also serves as a governor-appointed member of the Oregon Heritage Commission and on the Board of Directors for Oregon Black Pioneers (OBP) and the Bosco-Milligan: Architectural Heritage Center. 
 
R.O.Why should Oregonians be advocates for historic preservation?
K.M. Oregonians should advocate for historic preservation because it is a powerful and impactful way of bringing awareness to the social, cultural, and building history of Oregon. Experiencing a historical place invokes a unique, personal encounter with the space and time. Preserving historical places brings honors to and connects us to special events, people and places that have transformed our state.  
 
R.O.Why does preserving the historic fabric of a community matter?
K.M. Preserving the historic fabric of a community matters because it allows us to experience social, cultural, natural and historic heritage. Urban renewal, demolition and deferred maintenance of historic buildings have severely damaged the historic fabric of many urban communities in Oregon. We have lost our connection to the cultural heritage and history of ethnic communities which has left gaps in understanding the context of where we have been.  
 
R.O.What is the future of the historic preservation movement, in general and/or specifically in Oregon?
K.M. Historic Preservation works best when everyone has access to the process, and everyone’s truth and story is valued, shared, and preserved. This will elevate the need to reexamine, and perhaps dismantle for some, the process for nominating historic landmarks. I am encouraged by the effort to streamline the historic places nomination process, the engagement of new stakeholders, and the examination of the inequity of rating architectural heritage significance as a primary threshold for nominating historic buildings. I think the movement in general is in an uncomfortable place, but the recent approval of the Multiple Property Documentation (MPD) for African American resources in Portland is a step in the right direction. Moreover, approval of the MPD will serve as a precedent for other communities and the upcoming Oregon statewide African American MPD, which will lead to the inclusion of other underrepresented groups in Oregon’s historic preservation efforts.  
 
R.O.How do you think historic preservation can be part of solving major issues we’re dealing with today like equity, climate change, affordability, and sustainability?
K.M. Historic preservation must embrace more innovative ways to tackle these important issues, including social justice. Historic preservation can be a major connector in fulfilling each of these major issues. For instance, as an opposition to new developments, the adaptive reuse of historic buildings utilizes less energy and reduces the carbon footprint. Rehabilitation of historic buildings can provide spaces for affordable housing and/or subsidized commercial tenanting. Equity can be accomplished by establishing historic or conservation districts illuminating existing and former African American communities in Portland that have experienced aggressive gentrification and displacement. 
  
R.O. Restore Oregon is working to bring preservation and its tools to more places and people of Oregon so that it can be used to preserve the cultural heritage of all Oregonians–not just the buildings. Do you have any thoughts on that?
K.M. Your efforts to preserve the cultural heritage of all Oregonians is particularly important. Traditional methods will not solve these complex issues. Collaborative and strong coalitions of new, diverse, interdisciplinary stakeholders is a must. The new players can bring forth innovations and/or use historic preservation tools in ways that have not been considered in the past. As an example, although MPDs focus on preserving historic buildings, the information presented in MPDs can be used to develop a heritage marker and oral history programs, tours of historic sites and historic districts, public art, pop-up exhibits, and photo exhibits.  
These are all good things to do, but there is no substitute for preserving the actual spaces and the value of “being there.” 
 
R.O. Any other thoughts? Words to live by?
K.M. Oregon history is an incredibly unique American story and if we truly embraced the full Oregon story, historic preservation could educate Oregonians and bring affirmation to ethnic communities whose presence and contributions have not been represented in previous historic preservation efforts.

The post People in Preservation – Kimberly S. Moreland appeared first on Restore Oregon.

B. A. Beierle

ADVOCATE.

EDUCATOR.

PRESERVATIONIST.

 
Preservation is about people.
Our stories and connections to each other, our shared past and sense of place are embodied in the places where we live, work, and play. As it turns out, when we’re mindful of the irreplaceable value these places bring to our everyday lives, we learn we have a lot in common. Each year, we travel the state and meet people who are making a positive difference in the livability and sustainability of their communities through historic preservation. We think it’s time to recognize them. This series, People in Preservation, highlights the stories, views, and projects of Oregonians who are working to save and pass forward the places that matter to all of us. For this installment, we sat down with B.A. Beierle. Here’s her preservation story…
B.A. Beierle founded the local preservation education group Preservation WORKS in Corvallis, where she also serves on the City/County Heritage Tree Committee. Beierle, an educator by training, moved to Corvallis with her husband, Lenny, in 2002 after stops in New Jersey and Wyoming. She currently represents the Mid-Willamette Valley as an adviser to Restore Oregon, and helped coordinate Restore Oregon’s first Heritage Barn Workshop. As a private heritage consultant, B.A. works with individuals, groups, and communities preparing heritage plans, neighborhood advocacy, heritage tourism, and education programs. She and her husband are currently rebuilding an 1894 farmhouse that they rescued from a fire training exercise. 
 
In Wyoming, her former home state, Beierle:

• Served as the president of the statewide preservation organization
• Saved two 1880s Victorian houses from demolition and adapted them for new uses – one a 135-seat restaurant and the other as Section 8 housing
• Managed downtown Main Street redevelopment
• Advocated for the arts industry as a governor’s appointee and for heritage resources as Adviser to the National Trust for Historic Preservation

As a Field Representative for the National Trust’s Mountains/Plains Regional Office, B.A. worked hands-on with preservationists – and would-be preservationists – in over 108 communities in Colorado, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
R.O. Why should Oregonians be advocates for historic preservation?
B.B.: Oregon has compelling stories to tell. Our geology sculpted our land as the stage for complex themes: early migration of humanity to our continent; First Nations and their hunter/gatherer traditions and later their semi-permanent homes, early agriculture, and land management; early Europeans from Russia, England and France. Our roots reach deep into our democracy. Lewis and Clark’s Expedition of Discovery selected Fort Clatsop by an astonishing vote of white men, a Black enslaved person, and a Shoshone woman long before our Constitution enfranchised Black men, women, and Native People.
Our rich and diverse cultural heritage is rife with anguish. Oregon’s dreadful treatment of Native People, African Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Latinos, and others continues to teach critical lessons about inclusion, equality, and justice. As Lincoln told us: “The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched…by the better angels of our nature.” Preservation of sites tied to our regretful past will only teach us all to embrace our better angels.
From the early 1830s through 1869 about 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers, entrepreneurs and their families traveled the Oregon Trail. Their destination was the Eden at the end of the trail, the Willamette Valley. Once there were over 4,600 Euro-American homes and farmsteads throughout the Willamette Valley built with hand-technology by intrepid pioneers. Today less than 220 of those hand-made structures remain. Many are deteriorated or abandoned, and every year more are lost due to developmental pressures, economic challenges, functional obsolescence, weather, age, neglect and a lack of understanding of their cultural importance. These buildings represent the culmination of the Oregon Trail experience. In spite of the importance to Oregon – and American– history, little attention is given to the conservation and protection of these fragile historic properties.
 
R.O. Why does preserving the historic fabric of a community matter?
B.B. Preservation helps us define who we are in space and on the ribbon of time. For some of us, it is a visceral sensation. It conveys a deep sense of homecoming, comfort and belonging. These historic environments, moments and experiences define us. We belong to a place, a time, and our people. I believe these threads weave their way into the tapestry of our individual and collective identities.
 
R.O. What is the future of the historic preservation movement, in general and/or specifically in Oregon?
B.B. Like politics, all preservation is local. Strengthening local efforts and advocacy is key. That said, Restore Oregon must continue to work for statewide incentives and funding.
Unfortunately, historic preservation faces several challenges:

• Funding. COVID-19 will challenge funding in the foreseeable future on the local, state, and national levels. The unanticipated pandemic costs will devastate government budgets with direct and indirect results on preservation programs. Significant pres- sure will fall on philanthropy to fund critical health and well-being needs. Commercial underwriters – like program sponsors – face their own existential threats. Valued partners – particularly travel and arts institutions – already feel keen budget shortfalls. And we will all be competing with one another for scarce dollars

• Leadership. Our leaders are aging; fewer, younger leaders are ready to assume the mantle of leadership. We must actively look to our allies and partners for potential recruits who haven’t identified themselves as preservationists – yet.

• Perception. Like the arts, too often preservation is unfortunately perceived as fluff and dispensable. It falls on all of us to more effectively communicate preservation’s pivotal role in sustainability, economics, community development, community building and identity, livability, sense of place, education and creativity.

Consider the mayor who described her community as “charming,” but completely failed to understand that the pedestrian-scale neighborhoods she valued as “charming” were its historic districts.

• Language. We have a language problem. The term “Historic Preservation” has been weaponized as intrusive on personal freedoms. Suggested alternatives include “heritage conservation,” that may more accurately describe our activities. Are they historic resources or historic assets? Rehabilitation suggests recovery after misfortune. We need to reinvent our vocabulary to demonstrate that responsible stewardship and personal freedoms are not mutually exclusive.

 
R.O. How do you think historic preservation can be part of solving major issues we’re dealing with today like climate change, affordability, and sustainability?
B.B.: Preservation is the keystone to all the above issues. Responsible stewards of the built environment are also responsible stewards of the natural environment. Reduce, reuse, recycle applies not only to bags, bottles, and containers, but also buildings, neighborhoods, and entire communities. When we lose a historic resource in whole or in part, we waste not only the memory and culture housed in the resource, but also the materials used in the structure, the earth the landfill sits upon, and the structure’s embodied energy. Indeed, the greenest building is one that is already built.
Modest historic homes provide affordable housing; larger ones provide affordable congregate living. The Oregon challenge is that the land itself is the expensive component of affordable living. We have an opportunity to balance needed, sustainable, densification while respecting those historic resources we value as a community. The first step is to inventory what we have, decide what’s important, and protect those valued resources. We then steward our land thoughtfully and responsibly. COVID-19 has taught us that staying home and driving less is measurably good for global environmental health. Walkable neighborhoods with commercial amenities accomplish the same thing. Often these places are our existing historic neighborhoods. The return of the historic street car – mass transit in all its forms – accomplishes the same thing.
 
R.O. Restore Oregon is working to bring preservation and its tools to more places and people of Oregon so that it can be used to preserve the cultural heritage of all Oregonians, not just the buildings. Do you have any thoughts on that?
B.B.: Cultural heritage is manifested through tangible forms: buildings, landscapes, or artifacts, and intangible forms: traditional skills and technologies, religious ceremonies, performing arts, storytelling, and others. Our tangible and intangible heritage are inseparable, so we must preserve them together.

• First Nations. Climate/weather, agricultural practices, and land development impact the built cultural patrimony of the First Nations who lived in Oregon. It is our sacred responsibility to protect and celebrate the heritage of those who first called Oregon home.

• Place specific. The cultural landscape is where historic structures sit; context is everything for storytelling. Lighthouses need to stand on oceanside promontories, or their significance is lost. Bridges need to span waterways or their function is meaningless. The Oregon Trail corridor can only be valued where it is, much like the Columbia River Highway. But more modest resources like mill races and Witness Trees tell our story as well.

• Viewsheds. Oregon showcases spectacular vistas. These cultural landscapes combine human and natural systems. Climate change will impact these iconic viewsheds sooner rather than later. They also merit our attention and protection.

 
R.O. Any other thoughts? Words to live by?
B.B.: These quotes continue to inspire me:
“These old buildings do not belong to us only, they belong to our forefathers and they will belong to our descendants unless we play them false. They are not in any sense our own property to do as we like with them. We are only trustees for those that come after us.” -William Morris
 
“Here is your country. Do not let anyone take it or its glory away from you. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches, or its romance. The world, the future, and your children shall judge you accordingly as you deal with this sacred trust.” -President Theodore Roosevelt, Antiquities Act of 1906
 
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decision on the next seven generations.” -Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy
 
“A country with no regard for its past will have little worth remembering in the future. -Abraham Lincoln

The post People in Preservation: B.A. Beierle appeared first on Restore Oregon.

Denyse McGriff

OREGON CITY COMMISSIONER

NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION,

ADVISOR PORTLAND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, RETIRED

 
Preservation is about people.
At Restore Oregon, we believe not only in saving and rehabilitating the historic places that define our heritage as Oregonians, we believe in YOU. Each year, we travel the state and meet people who are making a positive difference in the livability and sustainability of their communities through historic preservation. We think it’s time to recognize them. This series, People in Preservation, will highlight the stories, views, and projects of Oregonians who are working to save and pass forward the places that matter to all of us.
 
Meet Denyse McGriff
Denyse McGriff grew up in a military family and gained an appreciation for the small older communities adjacent to the bases. She arrived in Oregon in 1975 to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon and went on to graduate with degrees in Political Science (MS) and Urban and Regional Planning (MURP).
 
She’s had a life-long interest in preservation and has worked for a number of local governments, including the Lane Council of Governments, Columbia County, City of Tillamook City, Deschutes County, City of Oregon City and rounded out her career at the Portland Development Commission. Her public service career was multifaceted with an emphasis on historic preservation/conservation, adaptive reuse and land use planning. Denyse is active in several preservation organizations and efforts in the Portland metro area including the Bosco-Milligan Foundation, the McLoughlin Memorial Association, Restore Oregon, Canby Historical Society, and the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation.
 
Denyse was appointed to join the Board of Advisors with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2009, representing the State of Oregon (along with Restore Oregon’s Ex Officio Rick Michaelson and advisor George Kramer). Her work with the Trust includes two National Treasures: the Willamette Falls Locks and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
 
In 2013, she was awarded the Ruth McBride Powers Memorial Award for Service. The award notes the following: “Denyse’s passion for preservation and love for her community is very evident. No matter what hat Denyse has worn over the years, she continuously pushes everybody she meets to try a little harder and aim a little higher”- Vicki Yates, Oregon City Historic Review Board member. In addition, in 2018, she was a member of the Rose Farm Management Committee who received the Ruth McBride Powers Memorial Award for their service.
 
Her civic activities include eight years of service on the Oregon City Planning Commission, as well as a member of her neighborhood association. Earlier this year, Denyse became the first person of color to serve as an Oregon City City Commissioner.
 
For the last twenty years she and her family have been restoring their circa 1912 home in Oregon City…walking the talk! Let’s find out what she has to say about historic preservation in Oregon. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
 
R.O. Why should Oregonians be advocates for historic preservation?
 
D.M. Our historic built and unbuilt environment gives us a sense of our past and our identity. Whether it is a building, a site, or a landscape, we should all be advocates for preservation. It is a part of and reinforces community pride and produces tangible economic benefits, as well. Our places, buildings, and sites not only connect us to our past but also provide a catalyst to our future.
We must be and continue to be advocates for our historic places because if we allow them to be neglected, or demolished, we lose the unique character of those places and we lose the sense of ourselves and our past.
 
R.O. Why does preserving the historic fabric of a community matter?
 
D.M. Older buildings, places, and sites should be preserved, not just because they are old, but because they are a part of who we are and where we come from. Our future is linked firmly to our past. For example, I may be the owner of my 1912 bungalow, but really I am just a caretaker–maintaining it and telling its stories. I am preserving it for the next caretaker.
 
R.O. What is the future of the historic preservation movement, in general and/or specifically in Oregon?
 
D.M. What preservation means to Oregonians has evolved from one of mainly saving buildings that have architectural significance to a broader view of telling the stories of the people who inhabited those places. This “new” approach has reached out to many more people who never thought they were preservationists. Those stores were always there, just waiting to be told.
 
R.O. How do you think historic preservation can be part of solving major issues we’re dealing with today like climate change, affordability, and sustainability?
 
D.M. Historic preservation is definitely a part of the solution to our sustainability issues. Our society also has to change its lifestyle. Our current way of life is not sustainable because it is predicated on endless growth. This growth has led to a disposable society where everything that is consumed is generally thrown away, including our built environment. This cannot be sustained. Older buildings can be upgraded to be more efficient (funding is needed) using less resources. Older neighborhoods are generally more dense than suburban areas. New construction uses a great deal of embodied energy – preserving an older building saves all of that embodied energy. The greenest building is the one that is already there.
 
R.O. Restore Oregon is working to bring preservation and its tools to more places and people of Oregon so that it can be used to preserve the cultural heritage of all Oregonians–not just the buildings. Do you have any thoughts on that?
 
D.M. There are many more stories to be told about the places that matter to us. These stories deserve to be and need to be told. I look forward to discovering and sharing these stories with my fellow Oregonians.

The post People in Preservation: Denyse McGriff appeared first on Restore Oregon.