Over the last decade, Restore Oregon has delivered the only statewide program dedicated to saving our unique and diverse historic resources through technical assistance.

Oregon’s Most Endangered Places program has assisted 56 individual places in 27 of our 36 counties, as well as settlement era homesteads in the Willamette Valley, and rural historic theaters statewide, in their struggles against neglect, demolition, poor public policy, encroaching development and hard times. With these threats ever-present and even more extreme during a worldwide pandemic, Restore Oregon’s role in advocating for the resources Oregon needs to save, reuse, and adapt our historic places is increasingly crucial.

Our Most Endangered Places program, generously supported in part by the Kinsman Foundation, works to raise public awareness of the cultural, economic, and environmental value of the places we love and call home. Just this year alone, we have answered and responsed to over 200 inquiries for historic preservation help for information and advice, traveled to 10 cities in seven counties for technical assistance (masked, of course), and provided over 100 Oregonians our free Preservation Toolkit, which provides a high level guide to the process and decisions to make when approaching the restoration and reuse of a historic building. We cannot do it alone. Help us help dedicated people throughout Oregon save the places that matter most by donating today at restoreoregon.org.

Your donations support our team’s ability to provide direct consultation, advocate for pro-preservation public policy, distribute seed grants, and help owners identify and leverage additional grants and private investment to support their efforts. Every hour of service we provide to the public is multiplied many times over when we connect our network of historic preservation consultants, planners, architects, engineers, advocates, and craftspeople to the people and projects that need their expertise. 

2021 Oregon’s Most Endangered Places Update

Santiam Pass Ski Lodge

Sisters vicinity, a 2018 Most Endangered Place

The Friends of Santiam Pass Ski Lodge (FSPSL), the non-profit restoring and working to fund the rebirth of the lodge, has had much success in 2021. Following a downturn in fundraising early in 2020 because of the pandemic and a devastating season of threats by wildfires, the FSPSL has secured a Most Endangered Places record for grant awards. 

For the second year, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department with the State Historic Preservation Office has awarded FSPSL a $20,000 Preserving Oregon Grant that will help pay for the installation of new cedar siding, wood that was salvaged from the devastating Holliday Farm Fire on the McKenzie River in September 2020. The result is a dramatic change to the exterior of the lodge and protection of the structure for many years to come.

The FSPSL was also contacted by the Roundhouse Foundation of Sisters, Oregon, which gave a generous gift of $5,000 and was eager to explore ways to help. They subsequently committed over $10,000 in support to pay for work performed at the lodge by crews from Heart of Oregon Corps whose workers are 16-20 year olds who take on projects that require intense labor and learning. FSPSL has also recently received two generous advised fund grants from the Oregon Community Foundation totaling $30,000. These grants are funding completion of the lodge’s first phase of restoration. 

Billy Webb Elks Lodge

Portland - a 2020 Most Endangered Place

Late in 2020, in a momentous step towards rectifying the racial inequity of our historical record, the National Park Service approved Billy Webb Elks Lodge (BWEL) along with a Multiple Property Documentation (MPD) of Portland’s African American historic properties for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Restore Oregon staff has worked with the BWEL and several volunteer consultants throughout the past year on preservation planning and potential grant funding. In September of this year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the lodge a planning grant to fund a feasibility study to explore self-sustaining uses for the property and outline steps to optimize the building and its operations for new income-producing uses.

Sadly, in the early morning hours of September 11th, 2021, the Billy Webb Elks Lodge suffered a devastating fire as a result of trespassers. The decking attached to the rear of the building caught fire, which in turn ignited two adjacent walls and the roof above the lodge’s ballroom. Thankfully, the fire was reported quickly enough that it was contained in time to save much of the building, but  the blaze left gaping holes in the building’s roof and burnt rafters throughout. Water has destroyed the walls and floor of the ballroom, as well as the basement below, and the entire interior has been damaged by smoke. 

Restore Oregon stepped in to assist with recovery and established a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds needed to cover lost revenue, preservation consulting, and emergency stabilization. Thanks to significant media coverage, the campaign has raised nearly $28,000 so far, exceeding its $25,000 goal. A team of architects has been assembled to produce a condition assessment and phased restoration plan, and a consultant has been contracted to pursue the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to increase the lodge’s capacity to oversee restoration work and implement a new business plan.  (Continued on next page.)

Oregon’s Rural Historic Theaters

Statewide - a 2020 Most Endangered Place Category 

Through our ongoing partnership with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), which includes the Oregon Main Street Network and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Restore Oregon has provided over 100 hours of technical assistance to rural historic theaters awarded grants by the National Park Service through their Historic Revitalization Subgrant Program. By the summer of 2022, the program will disperse $615,000 in matching grants ranging from $15,0000 to $100,000. After providing technical assistance with eligibility determinations for the National Register of Historic Places (listing is a requirement of the grant), the application process, and final scoring, Restore Oregon has worked with awardees to provide technical preservation support throughout the grant period and write a National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Alger Theater in Lakeview.

Mayo House

Portland - a 2020 Endangered Place

Early this year, weatherization needed to protect the Mayo House from damage was paid for through a Most Endangered Places seed grant made possible by the Kinsman Foundation. Locally-owned Albina Construction, LLC covered basement openings, trimmed back arborvitae on the property, added new downspouts and clean gutters, cleared the roof of moss and  treated it with an EPA-approved moss killer. Restore Oregon thanks Albina Construction, LLC, who graciously provided materials at-cost, and deeply discounted their labor in order to provide this much-needed service to their Albina-community neighbor. Now prepared to withstand future rainy Portland winters, the building is one step closer to housing Cleo and Kayin Davis’ ARTchive vision. An additional Restore Oregon seed grant distributed this summer paid for the Davis Family to consult with experts to plan the business structure of the future ARTchive and associated family businesses. 

Cumberland Church

Albany - a 2019 Most Endangered Place

Efforts to save the church and turn it into a community center began in earnest in 2018 with the formation of the Save Our Cumberland Association, now Cumberland Community Events Center (CCEC). Last year, the CCEC engaged a multi-disciplined design team to develop detailed plans for the move, paid for in part by a Restore Oregon seed grant. Led by Varitone Architecture, the team includes K&D Engineering (civil engineers), FEI Testing & Inspection (geotechnical engineers), and McGee Engineering (structural engineers). Gerding Builders is providing pre-construction services as the construction manager on the project. 

Through preservation planning and fundraising, the CCEC was able to work out a deal with the City of Albany to purchase the new property, move the building, and ultimately purchase it outright. On October 17 and 18, Emmert International, with Restore Oregon in

attendance at the kick-off, moved the church down the block to its new location at Santiam Road and Pine Street, next to the Albany Skate Park. Immediate next steps include a new roof, exterior painting, and repairs to the bell tower and wood windows. Fundraising continues in hopes of turning the building into a community center for weddings and other gatherings.

Oregon’s State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation will meet via Zoom this month on October 21st and October 22nd! Items up for discussion include properties from the African American Resources in Portland, Oregon, from 1851 to 1973 Multiple Property Documentation (MPD), including Dean’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop (the oldest African American salon in Oregon).

Here’s what is on the agenda:

October 21st - Review of six properties for proposed listing in the National Register. The six properties are:

Mt. Olivet Baptist Church

Dean’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop

Golden West Hotel

The Architecture of Donald J. Stewart in Washington and Oregon

Burford-Stanley House

South Park Blocks

October 22nd - Review of six properties for proposed listing in the National Register. The six properties are:

Historic Residential Resources of Redmond, Oregon MPD

Norman and Frances Swanson House

Dallas Cinema

Rex Theater

Oregon New Deal Resources from the PWA and WPA

State Library of Oregon

Tune in via Zoom on October 21st and 22nd and view the full agenda here.

Albany’s historic Cumberland Church, also known as the Cumberland Community Center, will finally take its long-awaited trip down the street to its new location on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021.

Efforts to save the church and turn it into a community center began in earnest in 2018 with the formation of the Save Our Cumberland Association. In 2019, the church was added to Restore Oregon’s Most Endangered Places list and since then the project has made significant progress. Through fundraising, the group was able to work out a deal with the City of Albany to purchase the new property, move the building, and ultimately purchase it outright. Fundraising continues in hopes of turning the building into a community center for weddings and other gatherings.

The structure, built in 1892, is Albany’s second-oldest church and the only church in Albany built in the Queen Anne Style. The Church’s steeple was removed on Sept. 1 and is being refurbished separately and replaced, along with the church’s original bell, which also is being restored.

Emmert International Moving Company of Portland will be moving the building, which will be transported about 1,200 feet from the corner of Main Street down Santiam Road to its new location on Pine Street, near Eleanor Hackleman Park. The move is scheduled to begin at approximately 8 a.m., and could take 6 to 7 hours.

The public is welcome to attend the move but is asked to remain a safe distance from the site. Activity can be viewed early in the day near the northwest end of the Carriage House Plaza Shopping Mall as the building is lifted from its foundation, or later from Eleanor Hackleman Park as the church approaches its destination. Spectators are asked to walk to the site, as parking is limited in the area. 

For those not able to witness the event, the Cumberland Community Center will hold a short celebration at 6:30 p.m. later that day in the parking lot of the nearby Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 1225 6^th Avenue SE.

For more information about the Cumberland Community Center and their fundraising efforts, please visit: https://restoreoregon.org/most-endangered-places-2018/cumberland-church/