By Daniel Perez-Crouse
Portland’s Historic Houses of Worship weaves a history of faith, architectural evolution and cultural change through the brick-and-mortar remnants of differing congregations, from Portland’s founding to roughly the late 1960s.
This book is part of Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series, which already has an extensive list of subjects about Portland, like the history of Hawthorne Blvd., Multnomah Village, Goose Hollow and more. Its writer, John Doyle, has been a lifelong student of history and has a Master’s in art history from Tufts University. He’s lived here since 1997 and is a lover of local architecture. His book is the culmination of hundreds of hours of research on Portland and Oregon history. “I have always gravitated to narrative art with complex iconography. I like to look at art that tells a story and teaches historic, religious or moral lessons so religious art has long fed that need. I also like to experience architecture that intends to engage, impress and even overwhelm the viewer so, again, religious architecture has always been a natural fit for me,” he said.
While the popular conception of modern-day Portland doesn’t coincide with houses of worship, as it’s one of the least religious cities in the nation, this book does an exceptional job illustrating how they are intertwined with the backbone of Portland, and everyone can derive new insights through it. “This book is not really about religion. It is about Portland’s history and architectural heritage. It is also about the growth and development of the city as it can be traced through the foundation, reconstruction and proliferation of its houses of worship of all faiths,” he said.
As Doyle says in the opening pages, the history of a city “is written in the lives of its citizens and the buildings they have left behind.” Many of those buildings left behind we can still appreciate and learn from how they’ve changed. For example, The Zen Temple on NE 10th Ave. and Highland St. was originally built for Dunkards, a conservative sect of Anabaptists of German origin—followed by a series of African American congregations.
However, an unfortunate majority of the earliest homes have been lost to time. Whether it be natural causes, demolition or otherwise, the book describes this as “growing pains” of its growth. The first church of Portland in 1850, First Methodist, was created only five years after its inception as a city. While that building isn’t currently standing, it speaks through what is now First United Methodist Church on 1838 SW Jefferson St.
Many of Portland’s earliest churches and congregations in Portland’s downtown core were moved to where they could expand and grow with their populations, and are lost to time outside of photos and illustrations featured in the book. The book follows the expansion out of the city’s downtown roots to East Portland, Albina and more. The book offers revelations like an entire former district called McMillan’s Addition with the Nichiren Buddhist Church at its core, replaced by the Memorial Coliseum. Examples like this show how entire communities and areas of the city lie in the shadows of more modern structures.
The shifting and alternating styles over the years are also described and evaluated in the book with immense detail. In its opening chapter, it says, “Portland’s religious architecture provides examples of virtually every architectural style popular in the United States since the end of the Revolutionary War.” And it reminds us to see architecture as a living, growing and developing art form. A lot of the early church settlements had the more plain Greek-revival style, transitioning amidst 19th century push to Gothic Revival. Like the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which started life as a humble, smaller Greek-revival style building, was elevated to cathedral status in 1885 following the construction of a much larger Gothic Revival structure.
The book also contextualizes its narrative of faith, architecture and history of with the people who inhabit it and reminds of the cultural role churches played at the time. It makes the point that, before the Great Depression, religious communities provided the only safety net that existed in the US and that there are large, culturally distinct communities that have gathered behind them. It shows how Christian and Buddhist religious schools were a vital part of the educational experience for Asian Americans in Portland in the early 19th and 20th centuries.
While tight and condensed at 127 pages, making it a breezy read, there are tons of incredible revelations and new understandings of the city and its history to be gained through this book. “This book also feeds an important need. The growth and proliferation of Portland’s houses of worship is an important part of understanding our city’s history. Until now this information could not have been found in one place,” said Doyle.
Portland’s Historic Houses of Worship is currently available through the publisher (bit.ly/4moUHc1), at bookstores and major online retailers. Doyle is also available for private tours and lectures. Contact him at pdxarchitecturetours@gmail.com.
