Oregon Historic Sites Database

Search Menu

Site Information small logo

Oregon Historic Sites Database

Scanned Document Links

Inventory Form

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:902-918 SW Yamhill St historic name:Masonic Temple
Portland, Multnomah County (97205) current/other names:Pythian Building; Mildred's Palace
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:219 / 1-2 / 5600
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:1S 1E 3
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):5.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status:
prim constr date:1907 second date:1959 date indiv listed:
primary orig use: Meeting Hall orig use comments:
second orig use: COMMERCIAL: General
primary style: Mediterranean Revival prim style comments:
secondary style: sec style comments:
primary siding: Brick:Other/Undefined siding comments:
secondary siding: Cast Stone
plan type: architect:Martin, Richard
builder:
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Portland LGBTQ+ Historic Resources 2024 RLS Survey & Inventory Project 2024
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: N/A
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 05/25/2023
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)
902-918 SW Yamhill Street is a five-story Mediterranean Revival building with a concrete foundation. The square plan building is topped with a wood cornice and a brick parapet. The ground level contains aluminum storefront windows with aluminum doors. The upper floor windows are single-hung wood segmental arch, Romanesque arch, and pediment designs. There are two fire escape stairs on the building, one located on SW Yamhill Street and the other located on SW 9th Avenue. The building facade features Corinthian-topped pilasters between the windows of the upper floors with detailed latticework and medallions framing the cornice.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Masonic Temple, better known as the Pythian Building, housed numerous LGBTQ+-centered enterprises and events starting in the 1960s. The Pythian Ballroom hosted drag events in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As part of the first National Gay Pride week in June 1971, LGBTQ+ organization Second Foundation of Oregon hosted Portland’s first Gay Pride celebration with a dance in the Pythian Ballroom. The Metropolitan Community Church held meetings at the Pythian in the early 1970s, and The Second Foundation’s Gay Community Center operated in the building between 1972 and early 1973. Between 1977 and 1979, the Pythian’s second floor ballroom became Mildred’s Palace, the first disco in Portland for LGBTQ+ youth. Opened by Bill Hicks and Lanny Swerdlow, Mildred’s Palace hosted the founding of the first LGBTQ+ youth drag court in Oregon. During this time, the club became a target of police harassment against LGBTQ+ youth. The Masonic Temple is significant under National Register Criterion A in the area of LGBTQ+ history for its association with Portland’s first Pride celebration, an early LGBTQ+ youth disco, and other LGBTQ+ events and activities.
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:University of Oregon Digital
Historical Society:Oregon Queer History Collective Other Respository:Umbrella Project
Bibliography:
Gay Barchives. "53-Lanny Swerdlow: Portland's Gay Scene; Stampede in LA." Youtube Video, 59:57. October 28, 2021.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3gXdAFiIMY. Cook, Tom, and George Painter. “1999 Portland Gay History Walking Tour.” Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. https://www.glapn.org/6045walkingtour.html. Dirk, Jayden. “There is No Place in the City:” Queer Youth, the Counterculture, and Portland’s Early Gay Rights Movement, 1968-1974." Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. Last updated 2018. https://www.glapn.org/6067EarlyLGBTQYouth.html. Imperial Sovereign Rose Court of Oregon. "Gay Oregon History." History. https://rosecourt.org/a-brief-history-of-the-imperial-sovereign-rose-court/gay-oregon-history/. Kohl, David Grant. A Curious and Peculiar People: A History of the Metropolitan Community Church of Portland, Oregon and the Sexual Minority Communities of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, OR: Spirit Press, 2006. Singer, Matthew. "March 18, 1996: Portland's Gay Youth Culture Comes of Age in the Fight to Save Its Only Home…" Willamette Week. Last Updated November 4, 2014.https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23432-march-18-1996-portlands-gay-youth-culture-comes-of-age-in-the-fight-to-save-its-only-home.html. Ad. Northwest Gay Review. June 1977. Horn, Don. "Mildred's Palace." Youth. The Umbrella Project. https://www.umbrellaprojectoregon.com/mildreds-palace. Horn, Don. "The Pythian Building." Venues. The Umbrella Project. https://www.umbrellaprojectoregon.com/pythian-building. Will, Robin. "Portland's Legendary Youth Clubs, 1977-1998: Mildred's Palace, Metropolis, The City, Rage." Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. Last Updated August 19, 2018. https://www.glapn.org/6058CityNightclub.html. Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. "Rosebud & Thorn." Queer Heroes Northwest. https://www.glapn.org/6533RosebudThorn.html.