The New Deal's Local Legacy: Pioneering Historic Preservation and a Landscape Aesthetic

FREE for AHC Members! (must sign into your AHC member account when registering)

Timberline Lodge provides lasting evidence that beauty could result from the country’s greatest economic crisis. While Timberline is the best known of the Depression era’s Oregon projects, examining the New Deal’s long list of projects reveals the impressive legacy left by this effort. The roots of historic preservation in our region started with HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) and WPA (Works Progress Administration) construction projects that not only helped provide jobs to the unemployed, but also cemented the concept of a regional landscape aesthetic, illustrated in places like the Rocky Butte Scenic Drive and the amenities of Overlook Park.

In this updated presentation, Judith Kenny will consider the contributions of famous regional architects, such as Ellis F. Lawrence and Jamieson Parker, as well as some lesser-known local artisans. Judith will explore the New Deal projects in the Portland area that contributed to the preservation of our pioneer architectural heritage and the development of a regional landscape style. Judith is a member of the AHC Education Committee, walking tour docent, and a retired professor of Geography and Urban Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Images: Overlook Park shelter, designed by Ellis F. Lawrence (1938). AHC Library. Historic American Buildings Survey Drawing of the Bybee House on Sauvie Island (1937). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.