Q – What is the milepost 5 stone on SE Stark Street?
A – Here is the short answer. This obelisk-shaped stone is a wayfinding tool, also called a milestone or a milemarker. Historically, they were put up along roads to indicate the distance to or from a particular place. Here, the “P” stands for Portland, and the “5” stands for the distance from that place.
This milepost is one of 15 erected at one-mile intervals along SE Stark Street. Nine survive, but not necessarily in their original locations. Milepost 5 may have been moved around during later street construction, but it is still approximately five miles from downtown Portland.
Milepost 5, 7724 SE Stark Street (Jacob Loeb)
The Milepost 5 marker is listed in the Portland Historical Landmark inventory, which places its installation date as 1854, the same year Stark Street was created. In that year, the Clackamas County Commission, in response to a property owner’s petition, approved the construction of a dirt road from the Willamette to the Sandy River. It followed the base line surveyed for the Territory of Oregon in 1851 and became known as Base Line Road (now SE Stark Street).
Google Maps detail showing the location and status of the original 15 milestones along SE Stark Street
Mileposts or milestones have a long history, dating back to the Roman Empire. The ancient Romans erected them along important roads at one-mile intervals, which for them was 1,000 double paces (.9 of our mile). Milestones were also used in Britain from the Middle Ages on.
This 1741 British milestone has a truncated obelisk shape like the ones found along Stark Street. Source: Alan Rosevear article in Milestones & Waymarkers, vol. 1, 2004
Milestones were used in America from colonial times until the early 20th century. Colonial Postmaster Benjamin Franklin wanted these markers on post roads to improve mail service efficiency. In Oregon, the importance of mile markers for wayfinding was encoded into territorial law. In the 1850s, Oregon laws required mileposts on territorial roads and made it a crime to remove or destroy milestones, mileboards, or guideboards.
Milestone marker on the Boston Post Road. Photo source: Wikimedia
By the 1920s, the old mileposts were being replaced with modern standardized road signs. But on our freeways, we still apply the old Roman system of identifying distance in relation to a significant destination.
By
Patricia Sanders
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
Q – Why are there so many misaligned streets in Montavilla?
A – I understand your puzzlement. I wondered the same thing when I moved to Montavilla. It was confusing. As a driver, I’d have to make two turns instead of driving straight ahead on the same street. As a pedestrian, I could not cross from corner to corner. The map above shows one example of Montavilla’s many jig-joggy streets.
An example of misaligned north-south streets at SE Stark Street. Source: Portland Maps
It would be easy to blame this on poor city planning. But it’s not. It’s one of those quirks of history. It’s because of how Montavilla developed, one subdivision at a time. There was no county plan to conform to, and the properties developers purchased were not of a uniform size.
What is now the Montavilla neighborhood was once Indigenous land, and then, with the arrival of Europeans, it became farmland. As the city of Portland grew, more housing was needed. To meet this demand, real estate developers bought up farm properties and created subdivisions.
The earliest subdivision in today’s Montavilla was Mount Tabor Villa Addition—which gave Montavilla its name. It was platted (or planned) in 1889 as a symmetrical grid of blocks divided into lots and streets. Base Line Road (now SE Stark Street) marked the south boundary, and the north boundary ended at the future Glisan Street. Since there were no other subdivisions in the area, street alignment was a non-issue.
Map of Mount Tabor Villa subdivision. Other than Base Line Road (on the left), the developers assigned the street names, as in subsequent subdivisions. Source: Multnomah County SAIL maps
In 1891, a new subdivision, Kinzel Park, was created immediately south of Mount Tabor Villa. It, too, is a symmetrical grid of blocks and streets. But the developers did not align the streets with those already established in Mount Tabor Villa and the adjacent subdivision, Mount Tabor Villa Annex of 1890.
1891 Section 5 map showing the Kinzel Park subdivision and other properties. Source: City Auditor Archives
Why didn’t the Kinzel Park developers just shift the grid a bit to align with the existing streets in Mt. Tabor Villa? If they had, the subdivision would consist of blocks of varying sizes and two more streets, resulting in reduced profit.
The layout of Mount Tabor Villa and Kinzel Park streets is one example of why some Montavilla streets do not line up. As developers continued subdividing Montavilla, it evolved into a patchwork of 101 tracts–by my count—with more misaligned streets. It’s just surprising that we don’t have even more jogging streets than we do.
Correction: A previous version of this article referred to jaywalking to indicate crossing out of alignment with street corners. It is not against the law to cross at these intersections. Montavilla News regrets the implication that term implied.
Current SAIL Multnomah County map showing Montavilla subdivisions (outlined in red). If you look at the original plat maps on this website, you will find that the original street names were different from today’s street names.
This Portland Maps view of the Montavilla neighborhood area shows various places where streets do not align.
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
On Saturday, July 13th, Montavilla Brew Works will celebrate nine years of serving locally brewed beer with an all-ages event from noon to 9 p.m. Although this event commemorates the years since this pioneering neighborhood destination greeted guests, it represents a decade of work for founders Melissa and Michael Kora, who nurtured this ten-barrel brewery and taproom through good and challenging times. The festivities at 7805 SE Stark Street will have DJ MD providing music to guests inside and under the covered patio area, while Demarco’s Sandwiches will sell food from their food truck parked on SE 78th Avenue. The brew masters will also break out archived beers at the peak of their aging cycle for special pours of brewing history.
Montavilla Brew Works grew from a home-brewer’s passion and a desire to create a neighborhood-scale enterprise. Before starting his brewery, Michael Kora secured work with Bridgeport Brewing Company after briefly working for the owner’s winery business. When the seasonal wine work ended, Dick Ponzi learned of Kora’s desire to work in the brewing industry and found a place for him in his other business where he could learn about operations. “I didn’t get to brew because I didn’t go to brew school. I was driving a truck, working in the warehouse, shipping, distributing, moving beer around, and learning brewing at home. I then nano brewed for a while at the Green Dragon,” recalled Kora. After growing his skills and experiencing the brewing business from the inside, it seemed time to branch out on his own. Sitting at McMenamins Edgefield, Michael and Melissa Kora sketched out a five-year business plan and agreed to start looking for a space to rent.
Melissa and Michael Kora touring the Daugherty Auto Service garage 2013. Photo courtesy Michael Kora
The couple moved into Montavilla several years before starting their business. After agreeing to start a brewery, they looked for commercial spaces in neighboring areas but could not find a suitable location that fit their vision for the taproom. However, with some luck and good timing, Michael Kora discovered the neglected former Daugherty Auto Service garage at the corner of SE 78th and Stark Street. “I was riding home from the gym and came by Stark Street just to kind of look at what was going on and there was a for sale or lease sign. This building was so dilapidated it was nothing to look at, but Melissa and I were from the Detroit area of Michigan. I’d seen worse, so [I thought] this building is pretty cool and would make a cool brewery,” said Michael Kora. William “Dave” Beets, the operator of the now-demolished Beets Auto Body, owned the property and was excited to see it go to new owners for such an unexpected use. “He was a character, but he was surprisingly stoked. He said, ‘I think this is awesome. You guys are gonna be the first. There’s no breweries around here like this. It’s gonna be good for the community and the neighborhood.’ He was a neighborhood guy even though he didn’t live here,” recalled Kora.
Daugherty Auto Service garage. Photo courtesy Michael Kora
The Kora’s became tenants of the Stark Street building in 2013, but it would take over two years to open the doors to the public. The original owners of the 1922-era auto garage never designed it to house any other type of business, and it took substantial efforts to rehabilitate the building. Permits took four months to approve, and construction lasted another nine months. Kora discovered that the building roof slopes significantly to the northwest corner of the property for rainwater drainage, forcing him to place his tall brewing equipment at the south-facing front of the building, blocking windows and putting beer production centerstage. During construction, he added onto the north side of the building to create a walk-in cooler and storage room needed to keep finished beer and ingredients out of the limited customer-facing space.
Montavilla Brew Works construction. Photo courtesy Michael Kora
Construction delays, the added brewery inspections, and unanticipated expenses drained their cash reserves. Michael Kora started beer production offsite to begin bringing in funds and building the brand. Flying Pie Pizzeria was an early supporter, buying the pre-opening batches and installing a permanent Montavilla Brew Works tap handle at the restaurant, replacing Bud Light. Initially, they relied on help from friends, but the couple mainly worked alone at Montavilla Brew Works for the first few years. “Melissa designed everything on the interior. So she made this place feel like it does. And I was the beer guy and eventually the business guy. It was her and I for the first four and a half years,” recalled Kora. After the early lean years, they brought in help to brew their beers and cover bar shifts. With the added staff, it was beginning to feel sustainable until the pandemic upended the business model. Montavilla Brew Works focused on serving draft beer onsite with little attention paid to the at-home market. They distributed a limited number of kegs to local businesses but had not embraced canning. COVID-19 bar closures forced a change in the whole microbrewery industry. “We completely 180’d, and we’re in this world where we were doing 100% draft, and then we switched to 100% cans. Melissa and I were out there every week delivering to people’s homes,” said Michael Kora. They had to let their employees go to keep the business going. The brewery survived that scary time and invested early in outdoor seating to bring people back as soon as possible. Business is still recovering, but Kora expects it will not be on the same trajectory it was on before the pandemic.
Post-COVID, Melissa and Michael Kora spend less time in the brewery during service hours. Both are more focused on improving operations and branding, with a goal to make each subsequent batch better than the last. Although they retained canned beer to some degree, wide expansion is not part of the company’s plans. “A good 80 plus percent is still draft, and the remainder is packaged because we don’t distribute that far out of Portland. Hence putting the name of the neighborhood on it. We want people to come here. You want them to come to the neighborhood,” explained Michael Kora. Montavilla Brew Works’ hyper-local interest extends beyond just its business name. Over the years, Kora collaborated with area businesses to produce cross-promoting brews. These include an American amber beer titled Academy Amber after the Academy Theater, East Glisan Mosaic is dedicated to East Glisan Pizza Lounge, and a German Pilsner-style lager called Plywood Pilsner spotlights neighbor business Mr. Plywood. “We figured we live here, bought our house here, our business is here. We’re going all in, and you know, it’s worked. It’s helped build a really loyal fan base,” said Kora.
People can find limited supplies of Montavilla Brew Works beer at around 300 locations from Hood River to Hillsborough and as far south as Eugene and Corvallis. However, the corner of SE Stark Street and 78th Avenue is the best place to experience it. This weekend’s celebration will feature vintage beers that Kora has stored for years, just waiting for a special accession. The staff will sell these beers in smaller sipper cups to let more people experience the limited stock of aged brews. The event will also allow children to attend. Montavilla Brew Works has famously prohibited children, smoking, and televisions inside the tap room during regular business hours. However, on street fair days and special events, they set aside the rules prohibiting kids and open the space to all ages. Guests are encouraged to stop by July 13th starting at noon, and those interested in the archival beers should drop by early to get a taste while supplies last.
Q – When did the Montavilla Park swimming pool open?
A – The public swimming pool in Montavilla Park formally opened on July 28, 1930, nine years after the park itself. In the park’s early years, other types of recreation took priority. Two baseball diamonds were built in 1921, a playground in 1925, and tennis courts in 1927.
Montavilla Pool 2023, photo by Jacob Loeb
Of course, a pool and accompanying building were more expensive, costing $30,000. They were designed by Portland architect Roscoe Hemenway (1899-1959). At the time, Hemenway was just beginning his architectural career, but later, he became a favorite of Portland’s elite. His original building has been added to and altered over the years, so the current Community Center and gym have a much different look.
Group of children at Montavilla Park Pool. August 16, 1935 (Portland Archives)
From the beginning, the Montavilla pool was extremely popular. Soon after opening, it attracted 2,200 bathers a day. Because of its heavy use, a new 1931 state health law required a filtration system to keep bacteria within safe limits. This improvement cost $10,300.
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
A – Two myths have been circulated regarding how Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood got its name. One is that it is a contraction of Mt. Tabor Village. The other is that it was shortened to fit on destination signs on Montavilla streetcars. Neither is true.
Rather, Montavilla is a contraction of Mount Tabor Villa Addition, our neighborhood’s first subdivision. The lots, located between today’s SE Stark and NE Glisan Streets from 74th to 78th Avenues, went on sale in 1889.
The first documented usage of the name Montavilla occurs in a U.S. Post Office ledger that records the appointment of James Downing (1836-1927) on September 23, 1891 as Montavilla’s first postmaster. Did Downing invent the name? Or was it someone else? Who knows? But it probably was not the trolley company since the streetcar line did not extend to Montavilla until 1892.
This U. S. Post Office ledger records the September 23, 1891 appointment of James Downing, Montavilla’s first postmaster.
The name Montavilla did not catch on immediately. Portland city directories and newspaper articles show a gradual shift from Mount Tabor Villa Addition to Montavilla. It was pretty firmly established by 1900 when the U. S. Census identified Precinct 62 as Montavilla.
So, how did the story about Montavilla as a contraction of Mount Tabor Village begin? The earliest use of this name I’ve found dates from a 1968 business improvement group. Local business owners hoped to recreate a village atmosphere here. That group called itself the Mount Tabor Village Association.
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
Q – I’ve heard that the Highland Christian Center, 7600 NE Glisan Street, used to be a movie theater. Is this true?
A – This is partially true. A portion of the Highland Christian Center complex was once the Granada Theatre. You can still see where that 1924 theater used to be if you stand at the corner of NE Glisan Street and NE 78th. It’s the 1-1/2 story structure at the back. The one-story portion in the front originally housed several small shops. This building complex was designed in 1924 by architect Earl G. Cash for developer George S. Smith. The theater entrance was on Glisan to the right of the shops. From here, theatergoers would walk down a narrow hallway to reach the auditorium.
Southeast corner of NE 78th Avenue and NE Glisan Street with the remodeled 1924 building, which once housed the Granada Theatre (back) and a row of shops (front).
Today, the remodeled 1924 building looks plain, but when the Granada opened on August 24, 1924, the Oregon Journal described it as “one of the most luxurious moving picture theatres of Portland’s east side.” In the 1920s, theater architects created exotic designs meant to transport viewers to the magical world of movies. For the Granada, the architect borrowed Moorish elements for the entrance and the auditorium. The grand entrance, of course, is gone, but tiles along the roofline of the former shops are faint echoes of the original design.
Architect’s rendering of the planned Glisan-Street façade for the original 1924 Granada Theatre entrance and storefrontDrawing after the Glisan-Street façade
The Granada was Montavilla’s third movie theater. Before that, Montavillans went to movies at the Scenic at Stark and 79th (operating from 1910-c. 1918) and a second theater at Stark and 81st that went by various names between about 1912 and 1929.
The managers of the Granada seemed to keep up with advances in cinematography. On April 14, 1929, they premiered the first Montavilla showing of Paramount Picture’s first all-talking film, the murder mystery “Interference.” In December, 1929, the theater began showing feature-length films entirely in color.
The Granada was in continuous operation from 1924 to 1956, outlasting the two earlier Montavilla theaters. To this day, some Montavillans still hold fond memories of going to movies at the Granada.
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
A – SE Stark Street is named after Benjamin Stark (1820-1898), one of Portland’s earliest entrepreneurs active in Portland from 1845 to 1862.
He was born in New Orleans and grew up in New London, Connecticut. In New York City, he studied law and worked in the shipping trade, traveling between the East Coast and the West Coast. He first stepped foot in Portland in 1845, as an agent in charge of cargo on the barque Toulon. With his share of the cargo’s profits, he bought land in what is now downtown Portland, the first of his many lucrative land and business investments in Portland.
Stark also had a brief career in politics during the Civil War years. In 1861, Governor John Whiteaker appointed him to the U. S. Senate, replacing Edward Baker, who had died in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. Baker was a staunch Unionist, but Governor Whiteaker and Stark were Confederate sympathizers.
SE Stark Street 2024. Photo by Jacob Loeb
The Oregonian unleashed a stream of invective against Stark. In its November 11, 1861 edition, he was called “a secessionist of the rankest dye.”. In 1862, the Oregon legislature refused to confirm Stark and chose instead pro-Unionist Benjamin F. Harding to complete Baker’s term. After the embarrassment of being rejected as Oregon’s Senator, Stark moved himself and his family to his boyhood home of New London, Connecticut, where he died in 1898.
The original Stark Street only existed in downtown Portland. It defined the southern boundary of Stark’s 48-acre property between what are now Naito Parkway and Burnside. Today, this is Harvey Milk Street, renamed in 2018 to commemorate the first openly-gay elected official in the U. S., who was assassinated in 1978.
While the Stark Street name no longer exists on the west side of the Willamette, it continues on the east side. There it was originally called Base Line Road since it follows the base line meridian established in the 1851 Federal land survey of Oregon and Washington.
Base Line Road (now SE Stark Street) early 1900s. Image courtesy Heyward Stewart, co-owner of the Academy theater.
When the City of East Portland was incorporated into the City of Portland its K Street became East Stark Street.
In Montavilla, the continuation of the street continued to be called Base Line Road until 1909, when it became East Stark Street. In 1933—as part of Portland’s new comprehensive street-name plan–it was renamed SE Stark Street.
I can imagine that if Benjamin Stark could see a map of Multnomah County today, he would be surprised to see his short-namesake street in downtown Portland no longer there and to see a new Stark Street stretching from the Willamette to the Sandy River.
This is part of a new segment at Montavilla News called Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post on this page.
Long a Montavilla landmark, the historic Saints Peter and Paul Episcopal Church is slated to be demolished to make room for a much-needed affordable housing complex.
The Montavilla church became known as Saints Peter and Paul only in 1968, when the congregations of the Montavilla church, St. Peter’s, merged with the Lents church, St. Paul’s. But the history of the Montavilla church goes back more than 100 years.
At its beginning, there was no church building, but the congregation had existed since at least 1915. At that time, Montavilla’s tiny Episcopalian community of some ten families gathered in homes or rented spaces. By 1920, they were an official mission church thanks to the assistance of Rev. Thomas Jenkins, rector of St. David’s in Portland.
Rev. Jenkins was dedicated to making Episcopal churches available to suburban communities. St. Peter’s was one of three mission churches he established in eastern Portland. Only St. Peter’s Chapel, as it was then called, survived and in 1926, got its own church building. When the congregation built a larger church in 1959, the original church was renamed Jenkins’ Hall in his honor.
Rev. Thomas Jenkins as Bishop of Nevada. Source: Wikipedia
But being designated a mission church did not necessarily come with a church building. The Montavilla congregation had to continue worshipping in rented spaces until it built a church in 1926. Until then, they were frequently forced to move as their rental spaces were sold. In 1920 and 1921 alone, they relocated five times.
Nor did a mission church come with a permanent priest. Sometimes, a visiting priest would conduct Sunday services, but sometimes, congregants like Dorcas Hallum and Ernest Stockley took the pulpit.
This 1924 Sanborn fire insurance map detail shows the last St. Peter’s rental located on E. 80th Avenue, opposite the big 1893 Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1926, the St. Peter’s congregation took out a loan and erected its own church at the corner of Pine Street and 82nd Avenue. Despite its small size, it was designed by the prestigious Portland architectural firm headed by Ellis F. Lawrence, founder and dean of the University of Oregon School of Architecture, and so many years later, it became an official historical landmark.
On Sunday, September 12, 1926, the St. Peter’s congregation processed from their rented quarters on 80th to the church site at the corner of 82nd and Pine for the groundbreaking ceremony.
The St. Peter’s congregation at the groundbreaking ceremony. Archdeacon Henry D. Chambers is on the left. Source: Sts. Peter and Paul archives
Archdeacon Jay Claud Black officiated the first service on November 14, 1926. On November 18, the new church held an open house with the Women’s Guild hosting an afternoon tea followed by an evening of entertainment and a dance.
These two photographs from the Sts. Peter and Paul archives show the original church, with its congregants (left), and the church with the added vestibule entrance (right). Source: Sts. Peter and Paul archives
During the Depression, St. Peter’s had a series of temporary priests, so much of the church operation was still up to members of the congregation. They paid off the church mortgage in 1930 and soon after built a social hall. Unfortunately, at one point, the church coffers were so low that parishioners Mark and Ethel Francklin paid the priest’s salary.
During the 1940s, the congregation continued to be led by temporary priests. Then, in 1950, it got its first permanent priest: Rev. Kent Lambert Haley, who served St. Peter’s for the next 16 years. When he retired at the end of 1966, he left a legacy of remarkable accomplishments, including a new and larger church.
Rev. Kent Lambert Haley, rector of St. Peter’s from 1950 to 1966. Source: The Oregonian, April 1-April 3, 2016
Rev. Haley had arrived in Portland just one year earlier, fresh from divinity school in Berkeley, California. His first posting was at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, where he was also ordained as a priest. In 1950, Bishop Benjamin Dagwell urged Haley to take charge of St. Peter’s.
When he arrived in Montavilla, he found a rundown church surrounded by weeds. Rev. Haley’s daughter Mary still remembers playing in those weeds.
The church was located at the edge of Portland’s dense suburbs. 82nd Avenue was still a two-lane road, with farms, orchards, and nurseries to the east. At first, Rev. Haley, his wife Janice, and baby Mary had to live in a vicarage on 86th Avenue with a leaky roof and a crumbling basement.
During his 16 years at St. Peter’s, Haley spurred himself and his congregants into a flurry of activity. They helped with new building projects, maintaining and repairing the church building and grounds, organizing social events, and raising funds to cover expanding parish expenses.
Haley deeply loved church music, which would be a focus during his years as St. Peter’s priest. His masters’ thesis was on the boy choir in the parish church, and establishing a boys’ choir was a priority. He had directed boys’ choirs at St. Clement’s in Berkeley and St. Mark’s in Portland. In 1950, he created a boys’ choir at St. Peter’s. Around 1955, Haley added a girls’ choir.
Haley also introduced the medieval custom of the Boy Bishop, a practice he had revived in 1948 at St. Clement’s.
14-year-old Boy Bishop Todd Goodrich being installed by Oregon Bishop James W. F. Carman with Father Haley on the right in 1963. Source: Sts. Peter and Paul’s archives
Every year on St. Nicholas Day, December 6, the choir elected one of its choristers to serve as Boy Bishop until Epiphany, January 6. The Bishop of Oregon installed the Boy Bishop, who would wear boy-size vestments and carry a bishop’s cross (crosier). He had various duties, including managing the choir, giving sermons, and leading processions. The last Boy Bishop was elected in 1965, Rev. Haley’s last year at St. Peter’s.
Other aspects of church life were improved under Rev. Haley’s leadership with the enthusiastic support of his membership.
In 1953 and 1954, the hall next to the church and the basement were enlarged. A new kitchen was added.
In 1955, St. Peter’s became an official parish, and Father Haley was instituted as its rector.
You would think, with all this activity on top of his religious duties, Haley would be pressed for time. But in 1954, he launched a children’s television show called “Noah’s Ark” on a local station. He told stories with his own drawings, just as he did for his Sunday school classes. The show ran weekly until 1957.
TV Life cover showing Father Haley with one of his biblical illustrations in the background
By 1956, St. Peter’s membership needed a bigger church, so the parish bought the vacant lots just west of the church. They also purchased the lot and house next door on Ash Street to serve as a new vicarage.
In 1958, the architectural firm of Dukehart and Kinne was hired to design a church that would seat 200 congregants and 50 choristers. St. Peter’s parishioner, Robert Kyle, oversaw the construction.
Groundbreaking occurred on November 30, 1958, and the new church was dedicated on November 27, 1959.
Architect’s sketch for the new St. Peter’s Church. Source: Oregonian, November 29, 1958
Father Haley wanted—and got—a traditional church design. He wanted architecture that reflected Anglican High Church traditions.
Father Haley described himself as an Anglo Catholic—or High Church—priest to distinguish Episcopalians from Protestants. In 1955, the Oregon Episcopal Convention dropped the word Protestant from the name of the Episcopal Church to stress continuity with traditional Roman Catholic practices. Haley was not happy when, in 1976, the national Episcopal Church reversed its position.
Besides getting a traditional Anglican church design, Rev. Haley argued for a pipe organ to provide a richer, smoother sound. A pipe organ was vastly more expensive, but fortunately, Bishop Benjamin Dagwell donated a Wicks pipe organ. The pipe organ needed its own room, but parishioners agreed to this added building expense. The church’s interior was designed with optimal acoustics in mind: lots of flat, smooth surfaces, including floors without carpets.
Ground level plan for the Sts. Peter and Paul campus. The 1959 church is on the left. The 1926 church was renamed Jenkins Hall. Source: Sts. Peter and Paul archives
Interior view of the completed church showing a portion of the nave with pews and the altar. By the time this photo was taken, the choir stalls had been removed. Photo source: Montavilla News
While church membership grew in the 1950s, it declined in the 1960s. In 1968, the Oregon Diocesan leaders recommended that it merge with another low-population church, St. Paul’s in Lents. The congregations agreed and the two churches became Sts. Peter and Paul. St. Paul’s rector, Rev. Lee H. Young, headed the combined church until 1977.
Under Rev. Scott H. Helferty, 1984-1994, Sts. Peter and Paul began programs to serve local communities in need, which had multiplied in the 1980s. Due to various economic and political conditions, there was a crisis of homelessness. Churches began programs to provide shelter and food.
Rev. Helferty and his parish began offering free dinners on Wednesdays to low-income and homeless people. So successful was this program that, in 1993, the Montavilla Business Association gave its Outstanding Citizen award to long-term parishioner Douglas M. Parker for his contribution to the program. The meal service continued as Brigid’s Table.
In subsequent years, under rectors Kurt Neilson, Sara Fischer, and others, new services were added. These services include Rahab’s Sisters, the Crisis Kitchen, the Red Wagon Project, and the Montavilla Wellness Fair.
Rahab’s Sisters was started in 2003 by a group of Episcopal lay and clergy women. It was inspired by the Maze Marigold project in London’s East End, which Rev. Fischer had observed firsthand in 2002. Rahab’s Sisters emulated the London project, offering non-judgmental hospitality to marginalized women and gender-diverse individuals in east Portland. Desiree Eden Ocampo, executive director of the project, refers to the service as harm reduction.
Beginning in 2011, Sts. Peter and Paul also reached out to Montavilla’s growing Latino community by offering Spanish language services, where visitors were welcomed by familiar images of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Spanish services continued until COVID arrived in 2020 when all in-person gatherings ended at the church.
While Sts. Peter and Paul reached out to the homeless and the hungry, it was slower to welcome female clergy. Lay women had long served in church guilds, but the Episcopal Church was slow to accept women clerics. Women were officially allowed to become deacons in 1970 and to become priests in 1976. Yet at Sts. Peter and Paul, only three women have held clerical positions: Jannis Goold, a deacon in 1990; Rev. Eleanor Applewhite Terry, a part-time assisting priest from 2003 to 2004; and Rev. Sara Fischer, a priest from 2020 to the present.
Rev. Sara Fischer is the first female rector to serve Montavilla’s Episcopal church. Photo source: Sts. Peter and Paul website
Over the years, Montavilla’s Episcopalian church has had its ups and downs, but it survived and served its community for at least 123 years. Now, the congregation is making the ultimate sacrifice, the surrender of its worship and social spaces in the interest of serving those in greater need.
Fortunately, the church’s service-oriented parishioners and their allies will continue their community assistance work. Rahab’s Sisters will operate from its temporary home in the nearby Montavilla United Methodist Church while it seeks funding for a dedicated facility. A new initiative, the Montavilla Collective, explores ways to weave a wider web of connection. In addition, the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon will be seeding a new community, currently under the name St. Mary the Prophet, to minister to those in the Montavilla neighborhood and beyond who are not served by traditional churches. The Rev. Sara Fischer will lead this new mission initiative part-time beginning in 2024.
The St. Peter and Paul’s complex will soon be gone, but its spirit of service and generosity will live on.
Saints Peter and Paul Episcopal Church will hold their last traditional Sunday liturgy at 10 a.m. on December 3rd. A special deconsecration will occur later that day at 5 p.m. followed by dinner. The church community invites the public to attend one or both events held at 247 SE 82nd Avenue.
The owners of a used auto sales lot along SE 82nd Avenue listed the property for sale. Although unrecognizable from its original use, the site once housed a renowned restaurant that played a role in Portland’s hot-rod culture. In the 1950s, the 30,980 Square foot parcel was home to Rutherford’s Triple XXX Drive-In, serving as a frequent destination for families and car enthusiasts.
Charlie Rutherford operated the two Portland-based Triple XXX Drive-In locations situated relatively close to one another. The Montavilla drive-in sat on the corner lot at 1164 SE 82nd Avenue, and the other location at 6120 NE Sandy Boulevard occupies an entire triangle-shaped block. That building still hosts a restaurant but reflects the indoor seating design added to the Triple XXX eateries in the late 1950s.
The Rutherfords Triple XXX Drive-In chain began in Renton, Washington. It opened in 1930 and was the first drive-in restaurant in the Pacific Northwest. Archie H. Rutherford started the business with his sons Joel and Jerry. The family grew the drive-in chain serving burgers and Triple XXX Root Beer to many locations nationwide, including Portland. Two unaffiliated restaurants are in operation today. One is in Issaquah, Washington, and the other is in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“…Most Saturday nights were balmy, at least in the tricky circuitry of memory, and after we’d finished, I started the engine, turned on the lights, and waited for the carhop. Then I pulled out slowly, being cool, hoping the clutch wouldn’t chatter, rapping the pipes as we headed down the road. Many nights, we made the rounds of other drive-ins. On 82nd, I could hit Merhar’s, where many of the cycle guys hung out, then cruise through Rutherford’s Triple XXX and back through Flanagan’s again, just in case someone hadn’t seen me. On Sandy, there was Jim Dandy’s, a real hot-rod hangout, another Rutherford’s Triple XXX, then Yaw’s, a place where the rich kids from Grant hung out, then on up to the Tik-Tok, a favorite gathering place for rodders since the ‘Thirties.”
Nothing remains of the Triple XXX Drive-In on the SE Taylor Court and 82nd Avenue property. Past owners transformed the 3,678-square-foot structure into a traditional office building, and future owners may redevelop the land for a new use altogether. However, the site’s history built the car culture that took over the country, and its next use can indicate the further trend for American cities.
Update November 30th, 2023: According to the Seattle Times, the Issaquah Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive-in closed permanently on November 29th, leaving only one remaining location in West Lafayette, Indiana.
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This week, the original owners of the Bipartisan Cafe sold the 18-year-old landmark shop to their former employee Josh Pangelinan. Hobie Bender and Peter Emerson opened the coffee house and pie spot at 7901 SE Stark Street on January 18th, 2005. The corner eatery helped launch the century-old downtown main street’s resurrection, defining Montavilla, and has served as the community’s living room for nearly two decades.
Bender and Emerson opened Bipartisan Cafe after Peter Emerson decided to cash out his stock option at Starbucks and leave the company. Both were 45 years old, and their two children were not yet teenagers. This sudden career change allowed Emerson to pursue a longtime obsession with creating communal spaces. “I am always creating restaurants in my head, ” said Emerson. “I actually explored opening [the cafe] about five years before when I was not happy working for Starbucks.” However, he kept his corporate job until his manager noted Emerson’s workplace disinterest in a performance review. “So I gave my notice and started looking around,” recalled Emerson. The partners considered purchasing an existing business but decided to create something new in an untapped market instead.
In the early 2000s, Montavilla lacked the definition as a neighborhood and was not the destination it has today. “If somebody told me I’m in Montavilla, I would say ‘where’s that?’ but it reminded me a little bit of a small town, which I’m from,” recalled Emerson. They found a rough space on the corner of SE 79th and Stark that had potential. “It was ugly, [but] I can work with it,” he recalled thinking while touring the storefront. When they tore out decades of tenant upgrades, the partners discovered that the building retained its 100-year-old charm below the surface. Under the fake stone facade hid the original undamaged transom windows. Walls and a drop ceiling covered thin-plank interior cladding, and the hardwood floors extended the length of the space, intact but worn with years of use. Emerson recalled it was just the look he imagined for his creation. “I wanted it to look like an old Grange hall, a community-type place.”
When the Bipartisan Cafe opened, it joined a handful of existing restaurants, bars, and shops. “There were some anchor businesses, but there was not much traffic,” said Emerson. However, even during construction, people expressed excitement over the new addition to their neighborhood that needed more walkable resources. “A lot of people had just moved in [to the area], and we didn’t have a coffee shop,” explained Emerson. That excitement translated into a strong launch that almost lost its momentum. “The first year went pretty good, and then I didn’t realize that December and January we’re going to be really slow. I panicked and thought we were going under, but it picked up stronger than ever mid-January, and it’s been a kind of a cycle like that since.” Press coverage of the new shop drove some traffic, but an article about Hobie Bender’s pies put the cafe on the map and brought people into the neighborhood from all over Portland.
The local customer base was stable, but significant growth required media exposure to bring people from outside the neighborhood. “We did the interview for that in May and forgot about it,” remembers Emerson. By summer, when the publication printed the article, the partners were unaware that their business’s trajectory would soon change. “We didn’t even know it was coming out, and we got slammed. Since then, pie has been what made us [known] citywide,” said Emerson.
Initially, the partners planned for Peter Emerson to run the shop, with Bender providing occasional support. She was enrolled in classes and on a different career path but still wanted to support the family cafe. “I foolishly thought, ‘Oh, I can make that work on my own,’ but she was helping right when we opened the doors, and by the end of the year, she was full-time,” recalled Emerson. Bender stopped going to school and took an equal role in developing the cafe. “I felt a little guilty about that for a while, but she has reassured me many times that she’s glad we did this,” confessed Emerson.
Hobie Bender’s daily participation in the Bipartisan Cafe helped the young business get off the ground, but her more influential contribution came from Bender’s multigenerational pie-making expertise. Growing up in Southern Oregon, she honed her baking skills in the one-time family business, but not through familial guidance. “Her mom owned a pie shop, Pies by George Ann, and Hobie worked in it as a teenager, but her mom wouldn’t teach her how to make pies because she never wanted Hobie to do it for a living.” However, when the business sold, the new owners kept Bender on and taught her the family recipes as an employee. Decades later, those renowned dishes became the core of the cafe’s success despite the efforts of Bender’s mother. “Those are the pies that we have here, and when her mom found out that we were gonna serve pies… she was not happy with me,” recalled Emerson.
Emerson noted that pies were not a popular item among the younger patrons when the cafe opened. In 2005, few places specialized in the dish, with most restaurants offering commercially baked varieties. After the article recognized their baking talents, a segment of the population that longed for a classic fresh pie began making the trek out to Montavilla. “When they said something about our pies, all of a sudden, we’re getting people from all over the city, and they were all older,” said Emerson. That buzz about their pies and coffee spread across generation lines, bringing even more people to the shop and neighborhood. As the Bipartisan’s reputation grew, adjacent storefronts became main street destinations again with customer-facing tenants.
Even as businesses opened around them, the Bipartisan Cafe remained a common destination for all residents, just as Peter Emerson intended. “I come from a small town where there is a space you go to, and on certain events, the whole town is there.” That meeting hall idea themed the space as an all-welcoming place for the community. Emerson’s family had a long history of political involvement and civic engagement, contributing to the cafe’s name. However, the obsession with collecting political memorabilia came after the doors opened, starting with four big posters. “Somebody gave me Eisenhower, and I think I had Kennedy, Johnson, and Lincoln. At some point, somebody came in and said, ‘I notice you have only Democrats on the wall.’ And I said, ‘well, Lincoln is on the wall.’ but I [thought] I should have a representative of all presidents.” That eventually led Emerson to eBay, and then he was hooked. Over the 18 years, he has packed the shop with articles of American political history. All but a few items will stay with the shop as part of the sale. Peter Emerson will take his father’s name placard and two figurines representing his dad. Hobie Bender will keep a sign’s letter “H” that Emerson liberated from an old hotel marquee.
Until a few years ago, selling the business was not part of the owners’ plan. “I thought I was going to work here until I die, and I was beginning to hand it over to my kids in early 2020.” Then the pandemic hit, causing the cafe business to struggle through all of 2020, extending into 2021 and beyond. A community fundraiser kept the cafe open with significant contributions from Mr. Plywood and loyal customers. “2020 to now has been hard. We had to reinvent every six months, and at some point, I just felt like I don’t have the energy that this place needs and deserves.” Bender and Emerson’s kids decided not to take on the tumultuous life of working in food service, leaving their parents to consider the future. A year ago, they started shopping the idea of a sale, but they had high standards for any buyer.
Josh Pangelinan worked at the cafe for eight years and kept tangentially involved as a coffee distributer’s rep. Once he expressed an interest in buying the shop, Emerson explained there was no other reason to keep looking. “He knows what the Bipartisan Cafe is. He knows what Montavilla is. He knows how they go together, and he’s going to keep that.” Not only will Pangelinan’s personal history with the cafe maintain continuity for customers, but his hands-on involvement will support the staff from a place of experience. Peter Emerson will work for the next 60 days making sure everything transitions smoothly, and then take a summer vacation before looking for his next adventure. Hobie Bender will come in as needed.
Peter Emerson looks back on the years at the cafe with a sense of success. Together with Bender, they created exactly the space he wanted to build, a small town community space in the heart of a city. A room where people gathered for the exhilaration of the 2008 election and the deflated hopes of the 2016 election. The place where people formed the farmer’s market and local business association. He is excited to see what the new owner will bring to the space, and he will still come in occasionally, but mainly as a customer interacting with his community. “All my friends are from the cafe, and I’ve got some great friends,” remarked Emerson.
By
Jacob Loeb
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