History lesson

City fought preservation effort start to finish

Politicians ordinarily love appearing at ribbon cuttings, ground breakings and ceremonies honoring achievements in their realm. But no one from the city of Portland appeared—not even an aide or mid-level bureaucrat—at the installation of plaques recognizing the South Park Blocks’ entry on the National Register of Historic Places last month.

“I was disappointed that no one from the city showed up,” said Brooke Best, the primary writer of the National Register nomination, a project of the Downtown Neighborhood Association.

Disappointed but not surprised.

City officials have thwarted historic recognition at every juncture—from the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission to the State Historic Preservation Office—succeeding in watering it down to the point that statues of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, toppled by rioters in 2020, are not treated as protected resources.

In 2021, all five city commissioners signed a letter urging the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission “to reflect an accurate history of Portland in order to prevent the re-traumatization and symbolic violence inflicted upon native people by government institutions and white supremacy.”

Kirk Ranzetta, the former chair of the Landmarks Commission with a career spanning 26 years in historic preservation at the local, state and federal levels, found the letter extraordinary. Ranzetta volunteered on the landmark quest.

“The first inkling that things were going off the rails from within city government, was the letter,” he told the NW Examiner. “The signing of this letter as a reflection of a decision by City Council and the PHLC appears nowhere in any City Council agenda from that time period, making a decision without public notice a willful violation of state law (ORS 192.610).

“The Portland Historic Landmarks Commission and City Council both recommending that the SHPO not act on the nomination was an unparalleled decision, at least in the 21 years that I've been here in Oregon,” Ranzetta said.

“I became involved in the nomination after the DNA received these troubling correspondences,” he continued. “There were a lot of other troubling issues that arose … including the city attempting to foreclose on any future effort to reinstall the statues of Lincoln and Roosevelt by implying that even if they were re-erected they could not contribute to the significance of the South Park Blocks.”

At the 2021 landmarks hearing, PP&R Director Adena Long advised the commission that the statues would not be returning, eliminating a prerequisite for state certification of the statues as part of the historic resource.

“SHPO won’t allow features that aren’t there, and Parks and RACC (Regional Arts & Culture Council) have ensured that the statues aren’t there,” said Aubrey Russell, a member of the South Park Blocks preservation project. “Director Long is citing an outcome that she orchestrated as support for her own perspective. This is dishonest.”

Blocking in Salem

Long and the city of Portland also lobbied against the nomination at the state level. Renea Perry, a historic consultant hired by the city, testified before the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation.

Perry charged that Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, a Portland physician who commissioned and underwrote the Lincoln and Roosevelt statues in the 1920s, held Alaskan natives against their will in the Oregon Hospital for the Insane. She called Coe “a friend to racist and anti-indigenous presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt.”

(Coe was indeed a friend to Roosevelt, though Lincoln died when Coe was 7 years old.)

The criticism of Coe went too far for Stephen Dow Beckham, chair of the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation.

"The statements that we received in that letter are quite political …and contextually not fully accurate," Beckham said. "What we received is not quite all of the story, nor is it balanced."

The preservationists, at least, received a promise from SHPO that the nomination could be amended to include the statues if and when they are returned to their pedestals.

That possibility is in the hands of the City Council, which has been storing the statues in a warehouse for four years as it considers a policy regarding all city monuments. Lack of funding for restoring the Lincoln and Roosevelt statues was cited, causing DNA to propose a public fund drive to fill the gap, an effort stymied by the city’s failure to insure the statues, according to Russell.

Competing plan

While undercutting the neighborhood’s historic application, Portland Parks & Recreation produced a competing plan for the South Park Blocks that would keep the ex-presidents in storage.

In 2021, two years after the Downtown Neighborhood Association began working on the National Register nomination, PP&R brought a master plan to City Council that excluded the statues and would alter other historic features of the South Park Blocks. The plan would remove the central row of five rows of trees running the length of the blocks. It would also replace the outer rows of large trees over time with smaller varieties.

Paving would replace much of the grass, and bike lanes would further narrow the park.

Russell found it disturbing that the city pushed the master plan ahead of historic documentation.

“It is usual for the National Register nomination process to go before a master planning process,” Russell said, “so that the historic resources or contributing resources can be identified and given the attention that is due in the new master plan. But PP&R chose to not go through the National Resource historic preservation process.”

Tate White, a historic consultant hired by PP&R, explained to the Portland Landmarks Commission why the master plan needed to come first in this instance:

“Nomination, with its focus on the European characteristics, was traumatic … especially our Native American community members,” White said.

So Best was not shocked that city officials skipped the plaque installation ceremony. Her public remarks documented the series of obstacles that could have derailed the project.

“The road to National Register listing is a long one, with the first nomination prepared in 1985, but never forwarded by the city. In 2007, PP&R and the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability recommended the South Park Blocks as a top priority for listing, along with 25 other park properties.

“Later, the South Park Blocks nomination was included as part of a mitigation obligation for the Portland/Milwaukie Light Rail project. Instead, the Halprin Open Space Sequence was listed. PP&R assured the State Historic Preservation Office that, pending funding, they’d pursue listing within 10 years.

“One more attempt in 2016, with the Broadway Tower project, ended in inaction. PP&R even had an agreement in place with the SHPO to complete this by 2020. Still no action.”

The National Register listing does not force the city to return the statues, though it does prevent use of federal funds to change historic elements without a formal historic review. Meanwhile, the South Park Blocks Master Plan is stalled for lack of funding, creating a stalemate a new City Council may address.

But last month, neighbors celebrated their partial victory.

“We are the ones who saved it, not the city,” said Wendy Rahm, who chaired campaign for the Downtown Neighborhood Association. “It’s the people’s park.”

A set of historic plaques was commissioned by the Downtown Neighborhood Association at a cost of $1,780.

PP&R officials did not attend the event, but in a way they had the last word. Their press release included a link to a city website recapping the South Park Blocks history, a history not mentioning the National Register listing or the statues once prominent in separate plazas in the Park Blocks.