January 2019—Portland, Oregon

Church custodians are perhaps the largest repository of information about the grounds, usually knowing when renovations have taken place, what features are original, and what characteristics of the building are difficult to maintain. Replacing sanctuary lightbulbs are a big challenge. Frank Lloyd Wright may have said, “Space is the breath of art,” but I can’t imagine he considered the epic task of removing pews to make way for the scissor lift. Architects love the sense of grandeur a 50-foot high nave provides, but maintaining such a space has proven to be a costly and time-consuming task for congregations. Burnt-out bulbs are only one challenge of many. Some chancel windows have not been cleaned since installation; some out-of-reach areas have not been dusted in 50 years.

 While I have formally lived in Portland for only few years, I consider it my home. Having grown up near Vancouver (the one across the Columbia River) it is an area of which I am familiar. A high-school friend loaned me his truck to so that I could visit and photograph Gresham UMC, Portland 1st, Forest Grove UMC, and Tigard UMC.

 In the 1980s and 90s, a person was hard-pressed to find a decent meal in Portland. Now, it seems like food trucks line every corner. While most metropolitan areas have one or two artistic enclaves (You’re on notice, Atlanta. Little Five Points is small and affected for a city of 5 million residents.), Portland is a honeycomb of livable neighborhoods, all of which are teeming with restaurants and galleries. And they love mid-century. Some of my favorite places to visit while there include the tiki bars Hale Pele and The Alibi, and Lounge Lizard, a vintage shop with quality stuff. Those looking for pristine mid-century furniture should check out lookmodern on S.E. 8th and Hawthorne. They have masterful restoration specialists which make their stock the best mid-century furniture I have ever seen for sale in the United States.