Oregon Historic Sites Database

Search Menu

Site Information small logo

Oregon Historic Sites Database

Scanned Document Links

Inventory Document
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:3138 N Vancouver Ave historic name:Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church
Portland, Multnomah County current/other names:Central Methodist Episcopal Church
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:building height (stories):2.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1909 second date:1956 date indiv listed:09/06/2016
primary orig use: RELIGION: General orig use comments:
second orig use:
primary style: Gothic Revival prim style comments:
secondary style: Late 20th Century: Other sec style comments:
primary siding: Vertical Board siding comments:
secondary siding: Brick:Other/Undefined
plan type: architect:Richard H. Martin Jr.(original design 1909), Hubert Athling Williams (1956 remodel), Marks, Raymond O., (office 1973)
builder:
comments/notes:
1-15-2016 - Property assessed as eligible in HRR, response sent to Raymond Burell, church historian. DJP
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   African Americans in Oregon, 2014 Thematic Grouping
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 09/06/2016
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 01/15/2016
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The 1909 Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church is a two-story, contemporary Gothic Revival church – one story on a raised basement – with a mezzanine overlooking the sanctuary from the west. The church consists of three primary parts. The main volume, which represents the original church and main sanctuary, is located in the northwest corner of the block. On the east side of the main volume is the 1958 addition that was constructed to accommodate the new pulpit and choir. The primary ridgeline on the original portion of the building is oriented east-west, with a north and south-facing gable on the sides of the original building and two towers, one in the northwest corner and one in the southwest corner. In the southwest corner of the church is the former parsonage, a 1907, two-story, Foursquare residence on a raised, ground level basement which once contained a two-car garage. In the southeast corner of the building is a 1973, one-story addition that houses an office and pastor’s study. The building is wood-frame with corrugated metal and aluminum siding in a clapboard pattern and brick veneer; a concrete foundation; and composition shingle roof. The church retains good integrity to the date of its primary remodel in 1958, which was undertaken to accommodate the church’s growing congregation, not long after the building was purchased. Noteworthy features include – but are not limited to – the overall form of the main church building; the overall form of the parsonage; the Povey stained glass windows; the original interior furnishings, including the pews on the mezzanine and light fixtures in the sanctuary; and circulation elements that are remaining from the original church and the 1958 renovation. In the following description, each part of the church will be described separately for clarity, even though the sections are interrelated, with multiple access points.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon, is a prominent ethnic landmark located at the southeast corner of Vancouver Avenue and Fargo Street. For more than 72 years, the church has endured as an important pairing of faith and community service in the Albina neighborhood of Portland. The church is one of the oldest mid-twentieth century African American congregations established in Portland, launched in 1944 in the housing projects in Vancouver, Washington. It was the fifth African American Baptist Church organized in Portland, and for many years maintained the status of having the largest membership of any African-American church founded in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. Throughout its history, the church has played an important spiritual and civic role in the urban center. It is where a grassroots movement of like-minded people from the post-war era came together in support of inclusion and community. As a local foundation, the church contributed to galvanizing social and political action by bringing people together from all walks of life, by creating social bonds when social conditions made efforts difficult and even dangerous. The church itself was all important in motivating people of color during the local Civil Rights movement by actively engaging a populous individually and collectively, by confronting the prevailing political powers within the city, the state and throughout the region. Its structure, culture and its ecumenical platform of education were all fundamental to helping a community sustain the protest actions with few resources and little permanent power. It was also a spiritual refuge for the countless men and women who devoted their lives to the cause of change. The stories of this church are of real men and women of different faiths, backgrounds and cultures reaching out to reconcile with others. The Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, in the areas Social History and Ethnic Heritage/Black, for its role in changing the lives of its congregation through its promotion of improved social conditions in the post-war and Civil Rights eras. It is also eligible under Criterion B, in the area of Ethnic Heritage/Black, for its association with the Dr. Reverend O.B. Williams and his wife Willia Ida Williams. Reverend Williams was an early founder of the church and grew its membership and influence dramatically. Over nearly fifty years of leadership, Reverent Williams, along with his wife, made a significant difference in the lives of the congregation and ultimately in the social consciousness of the city of Portland across racial lines. The property is significant at the state level, for the church’s leadership role, which played out at the city, state, and national levels.
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society:Oregon Historical Society Other Respository:Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church archives
Bibliography:
Anderson, Martha, Black Pioneers of the Northwest: 1800 – 1980, 1980. Ancestry, http://www.ancestry.com/, 1983 [Genealogy Database]. Article XVIII, Oregon State Constitution, 1857. On file, Oregon Historical Society Research Library. Berardi, Gayle K. and Thomas W. Segady. "The Development of African-American Newspapers in the American West: A Sociohistorical Perspective." Journal of Negro History, 75, 3/4. (Summer - Autumn, 1990), 96-111. Berwanger, Eugene H., The Frontier Against Slavery: Western Anti-Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension Controversy. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1967. _____, The West and Reconstruction. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981. Betts, Robert B., In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific with Lewis and Clark. Boulder, CO: Colorado Associated University Press; Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, 2000. Billington, Monroe Lee and Roger D. Hardaway, African Americans on the Western Frontier. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1998. Bishop, Sue. “Negro Housing in Portland.” B.A. Honors Thesis, University of Oregon, School of Journalism, 1958. Blog, Joanne Wagner. “Black People in the Territory of Washington, 1860-1880.” M.A. Thesis, University of Washington, 1970. Bogle, Kathryn Hall. "Kathryn Hall Bogle on the African-American Experience in Wartime Portland," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 93, 4, (Winter 1992-93) [Oral history interview]. _____, “Kathryn Hall Bogle on the Writing of ‘An American Negro Speaks of Color.'" Oregon Historical Quarterly, 89, 1, (Spring 1988). BlackPast.org, Remembered & Reclaimed, The Online Reference Guide to African American History. www.blackpast.org, accessed 2007-2015. Bosco-Milligan Foundation. Cornerstones of Community: Buildings of Portland's African American History. Portland, OR: Bosco-Milligan Foundation, 1995, 1997 (revised edition). Buhler, Julie Lorana. “The Civil Rights Movement in Portland, Oregon, 1955-68.” B.A. Honors Thesis, University of Oregon, Department of History, 1983. Burell, Raymond with Mrs. O. B. (Willia Jackson) Williams, “O’ How I Love Jesus,” a 45 year history of the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church.” Portland, OR: 1990. “Burton,” Clark County History. Vancouver, WA: The Columbian. http://history.columbian.com/names-in-clark-county-3/, accessed March 2016. Casey, Helen Marie. Portland Compromise: The Colored School, 1867 -1872. Portland: Portland Public Schools, Public Information Department, 1980. Clark, Malcolm, Jr. "The Bigot Disclosed: 90 Years of Nativism," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 75, (June 1974) 109-182. Copeland, Danny B. “Grassroots Organizations in the Black Community in Portland.” M.S.W. Thesis, Portland State University, School of Social Work, 1977. Davis, Lenwood G., "Sources for History of Blacks in Oregon." Oregon Historical Quarterly, 73, (September 1972) 197-211. DeBra, Edward Balloch. “An Injury to One: The Politics of Racial Exclusion in the Portland Local of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.” B.A. Honors Thesis, University of Oregon, Department of History, 1992. Dietsche, Robert, Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz, 1942-1957. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2005. Eyer, John H., et. al. “Report on the Negro in Portland: a Progress Report, 1945-1957,” City Club of Portland Bulletin. Portland, OR: v. 37, no. 46, (April 19, 1957). Flamming, Douglas, African Americans in the West. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Foster, Mark S., Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West. Austin, TX: Unviersity of Texas Press, 1989. _____, "Prosperity's Prophet: Henry J. Kaiser and the Consumer/Suburban Culture: 1930-1950," Western Historical Quarterly (1986), 165–184. Galbraith, Cathy, with Diana Painter, “Rutherford, Otto and Verdell, House.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Bosc0-Milligan Foundation; Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, August 5, 2015. Gibson, Karen J., “Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940-2000,” Transforming Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, (April 2007) 3-25. Gold, Shirley Jeanne. “The Portland Group of Negro Descent: Its Structure and its Relation to Total Portland Community.” M.A. Thesis, Reed College, Graduate Division, Education Department, 1961. "The Great Migration: The Afro-American Communities of Seattle and Portland during the 1940s," Arizona and the West, 23, (1981) 109-126. Green, Bessie L., Is there Any Word from the Lord, Yes there is.., Biography and Collection of Published Sermons of Dr. O.B. Williams, 2009. Gurley, Joseph Darnell. “African-Americans' ‘Sense of Place’ in the Inland Empire: 1890-1920.” M.A. Thesis, Washington State University, 2000. Heald, Leslie S. “History and Preservation of Stained Glass in the Pacific Northwest: The Povey Bros. Glass Company of Portland, Oregon.” Masters Thesis, University of Oregon, 1999. Herman, Arthur, Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. New York, NY: Random House, 2012. Herzog, June. “A Study of the Negro Defense Worker in the Portland-Vancouver Area.” B.A. Thesis, Reed College, Sociology Department, 1944. Hill, Daniel Grafton. "The Negro as a Political and Social Issues in the Oregon Country." Journal of Negro History, 32, (1948) 329-347. _____, “The Negro in Portland: A Report of the Committee on Race Relations,” City Club of Portland Bulletin. Portland, OR: City Club of Portland, v. 26, no. 12, (1945). “A History of Blacks in the Pacific Northwest, 1788-1970.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1977. Jelsing, Nadine, Portland Civil Rights: Lift Ev’ry Voice. Portland, OR: Oregon Public Broadcasting, April 21, 2015 [film]. Kilbourn, Charlotte, and Margaret Lantis. "Elements of Tenant Instability in a War Housing Project." American Sociological Review, 11, (February 1946). Maben, Manly, Vanport. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1987. MacColl, E. Kimbark with Harry H. Stein, The Growth of City, 1915 - 1950. Portland, OR: The Georgian Press, 1988. McLagan, Elizabeth, Notes Toward a Biography: The Papers of John Hiram Jackson. Portland, OR: Cascade Campus Community History Center, Portland Community College, 1998. _____, Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940. Portland, OR: Georgian Press, 1980. " ‘A Menace to the Neighborhood,' Housing and African Americans in Portland, 1941-1945," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 102, 2, (Summer, 2001) 158-179. Millner, Darrell, On the Road to Equality: The Urban League of Portland, a 50 Year Retrospective, 1945-1995. Portland, OR: Urban League of Portland, 1995. Multnomah County Proclamation, Hank Miggins, Acting Board Chairperson, June 3, 1993. Negro Citizens and Taxpayers League. 1946: The Status of Negroes in Portland and Program of the Negro Citizens and Taxpayers League. Portland, OR: Urban League of Portland, 1946. The Negro in Oregon: A Survey. M.A. Thesis, University of Oregon, Department of Sociology, 1932. Oregon Historical Society, The Oregon Encyclopedia, http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/. Created 2002. - Abbott, Carl, “Vanport.” - “Albina Riot, 1967.” - Roth, Leland, “McCaw, Martin, and White Architects.” - Roos, Roy, “Albina Area (Portland).” Polk’s Portland, Multonomah County, City Directory. Monterey Park, CA: R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers, 1948, 1950, 1955, 1969, 1975. Portland Bureau of Planning, The History of Portland’s African American Community, 1805 - Present. Portland, OR: Portland Bureau of Planning, February 1993. A Portland Family Album: Self-Portrait of an African-American Community. Portland, OR: Blue Sky Gallery, 1995. “Portland NAACP,” Verdell Burdine and Otto G. Rutherford Family Collection, Portland State University Library, http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/portlandnaacp/, accessed 2016. “Povey Brothers Studio,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povey_Brothers_Studio, accessed March 2016. “Report on Problems of Racial Justice in Portland,” City Club of Portland Bulletin. Portland, OR: City Club of Portland, vol. 49, no. 2, (June 14, 1968). Ritz, Richard Ellison, Architects of Oregon. Portland, OR: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. Robbins, William G., Landscape of Conflict: the Oregon Story,1940-2000. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2004. Robinson, Michael D., “A Historic Portland Valley Scottish Rite Brother,” Oregon Scottish Rite, Brotherhood, Charity, Community, https://oregonscottishrite.wordpress.com/tag/portland-scottish-rite-building/. Posted March 14, 2015. Ross, Richard, “Albina; Portland’s Ghetto of Mind,” KGW Documentary, 1967 [film]. Taylor, Quintard, Jr. In Search of the Racial Frontier: African American West, 1528-1990. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1998. Vancouver Avenue: Yesterday, Today, & Forever, Celebrating 65 years as Spiritual Landmark: the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, Portland, Oregon, 2009. The Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Collection, 1940-201 [Collection #189]. On file, Oregon Historical Society, 2016. Warden, Albert W., Jr., Baptist in Oregon. Portland, OR, Judson Baptist College, 1969. Wilkerson, Isabel, The Warmth of Other Suns, the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York, NY: Random House, 2010. Newspapers (various issues, as cited in text) - Clarion Defender - The Observer - The Oregonian - Oregon Journal - Pacific Advocate - Portland Tribune - The Skanner