Independence

Twelve miles south of Salem, on the west bank of the Willamette River, is the small city of Independence, population 8,590 (2010 census). It's off the beaten path, not on I-5, nor on State Highway 99W. As a result, unlike many larger Willamette Valley cities, most of its great late 19th century and early 20th century historic buildings remain standing. There are occasional erroneous references to the town being the western end of the Oregon Trail, perhaps due to the fact that it was apparently named after Independence, Missouri, the eastern end of the Oregon Trail (the actual western end of the trail is in Oregon City). Regardless, the town dates from 1845, and this walk will go by many commercial and residential buildings constructed during the town's heyday as the hop-growing capital of the U.S. in the late 19th century. The entire central part of town is a National Historic District. Despite its small size Independence is not one of America's declining small towns - it is growing in both population and jobs. But it's definitely not in Oregon's "fast lane," so enjoy the small town atmosphere and scenery on display. The walk is 2.5 miles long, and is entirely on flat terrain.

This walk begins at Riverview Park, along the Willamette River. It is the only public access to the river in the City. Park near the boat ramp and start back up toward the city. Loaner life jackets are helpfully provided for boaters.

Riverfront Park has seen significant improvements over the past decade, most notably this attractive public amphitheater. It hosts movies and concert events in the summer. The historic buildings of Main Street are to the west, across the street from the park.

Proceed through the park away from the river toward Main Street. Once at Main Street, turn left. This Main Street is a classic example of the type - it is so authentic that it almost could be transplanted into Disneyland (irony intended!). The city maintains a lot of information on its website regarding Main Street's architecture and other historic buildings in town, and this link will provide access to a Main Street walking tour, describing the historic structures in detail. At the corner of Main St. and C St. is the Cooper Block, built in 1895 in a Queen Anne style. It is one of two buildings along the block with a spire.

Continue one block south on Main Street to Monmouth Street, and here is the second building with a spire. This one was built in 1892 to house the Independence National Bank.

Continue along Main Street, exiting the commercial district at D Street. On the left side of the street, at 435 Main Street, is this home, in a "vernacular" style, built in 1888. "Vernacular" is not actually an architectural style, but rather a term used to describe typical architecture of a community or area, using easily available, inexpensive materials, and serving localized architectural needs and living preferences. As an example, the houses being built in today's suburbs, using a mish-mash of traditional styles, with garages facing the street in front of the house living area, could be described as today's "vernacular" architecture. Anyway, this particular house appears to need some paint and perhaps other refurbishment. This walk will go by a few houses in this state - a sign that Independence still has some "bargain" historic houses for those with a taste for rehab projects at an affordable price.

Continuing on Main Street past E Street, on the left, is the city's very new shiny city hall, or "civic center," as it is officially known. On the right side of Main Street are a couple of 19th century historic homes in the "vernacular" style.

Continue on Main Street to G Street, then turn right. Cross the railroad tracks and then turn right onto Third Street. You will be in the middle of an old industrial district that was built adjacent to the railroad. To your right up ahead is this old-fashioned water tower, emblazoned with the town name in large letters. A very short and very boring youtube video of the tower can be found here.

After one block on Third Street turn left onto F Street, and then after one block turn right onto Fourth Street. After you cross E street the next block has several historic houses, generally modest and in "vernacular" style, between E and D Streets. This particular house, built in 1895, is actually considered "historic non-contributing" because the entry was added in 1985 and the windows altered to a non-period style. However the house still looks great anyway.

At the corner of Fourth and D Streets is this mission-style church building, constructed in 1927. Originally occupied by the Calvary Presbyterian Church, it is now the home of the Life Center Foursquare Church, a local non-denominational congregation. A brief perusal of the congregation's website would indicate that it has fairly fundamental, conservative Christian beliefs.

Turn left on D Street and proceed three blocks to Seventh Street. At Seventh turn right and go one block to Monmouth Street, so named because it connects the adjacent cities of Independence and Monmouth (to the west). Turn right on Monmouth. This Street contains a number of historic structures, including this one on the right at the corner of Sixth and Monmouth, constructed in 1895. It has beautiful landscaping around the Victorian-style structure.

As you continue the walk down Monmouth Street the parade of historic homes continues, This particular bungalow-style structure, located on the right between Fourth and Third Streets, only qualifies as being of "secondary" significance within the Independence Historic District, because it was constructed in 1913 and is not in a Victorian, Queen Anne, or "Vernacular" style. It is a grand home nonetheless.

When you reach Third Street, turn left. At the corner of Third and Monmouth is the Berean Baptist Church. The current congregation is occupying a building originally constructed in 1874 as the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was later apparently occupied by St. Patrick's Catholic Church (now located farther west in town). The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

But before proceeding down Third Street, take a look down Monmouth toward the river (east). The large unfinished building on the right is a monument to the real estate mania of 2005-2006 and a misplaced desire to build the "world's greenest building." The builder undoubtedly thought that if this was feasible in a place like Independence, Oregon, it was feasible anywhere in the U.S. He turned out to be wrong.

Go north on Third Street one block to C Street. At the corner of C and Third is this 1888 home, a primary significant contributing structure within the Independence Historic District.

Turn left on C Street, go one block and then turn right on Fourth Street. On your left is the Independence Elementary School. This stately brick building was completed in 1926.

Continue on 4th Avenue past the elementary school. Cross B Street and continue one more block to A Street. At the corner of A and 4th, on the right, is this 1910 home, which is in need of refurbishment. Is designated as a "historic non-contributing" structure because replacement windows are not in the original style and the front porch is boarded over. If refurbished in original style, this home could rejoin its neighbors in enhancing the historic character of the neighborhood.

Turn right on A Street, and then left on Walnut Street. After one block turn right on Butler Street, and then right again onto Log Cabin Street. Back at A Street, turn right and then make a quick left onto Third Street. All of these blocks contain modest, historic homes built before or at the turn of the 20th Century. Proceeding down Third Street, this home on the right was built in 1888, and has a festive Halloween decoration in the front at the appropriate time of year.

At the corner of Third Street and B Street is the Independence Heritage Museum. The museum is located what was originally constructed in 1888 as the First Baptist Church.

Turn left on B Street and go one block to Second Street. As you cross second street, you will see the tracks of the Portland and Western Railroad in a private right of way to the north, and then in the middle of Second Street to the south. This railroad was once the west side (as in west of the Willamette River) line between Portland and Eugene. It is now a lightly used branch railway, which is why tracks in the middle of the street aren't much of an inconvenience, especially on a lightly-travelled street.


Turn right on Second Street. On your right are two more historic houses, built in 1880 and 1895. On the left, at the corner of Second and B, is an historic home built in 1910.


At C Street turn left and proceed one block to Main Street. Cross Main Street, and you will be back at your starting point - Riverfront Park.

North and Northeast Portland Churches

The churches of inner North and Northeast Portland, from roughly the Emmanuel Hospital campus north almost to Alberta Street, are interesting for two reasons - their architectural heritage and the history they represent. In the early 20th Century this area of Portland was settled by a large number of Volga Germans, descendants of German colonists who went east to Russia in the 18th Century instead of across the Atlantic to the U.S.  Events in Russia and the Soviet Union led many of their descendants to realize their mistake and join the German immigrant wave to the United States. The history of Portland's Volga German community is spelled out in great detail on this website, and is in the process of moving to this website. The Volga Germans were a religious people, and they established churches throughout this neighborhood, providing a major part of the great religious architectural heritage of Portland. By the 1950's the Volga Germans left this neighborhood and most of these church buildings were purchased by African-American congregations as this area became part of the heart of Portland's African-American community. But the African-American presence in this part of town is also diminishing as it becomes a fashionable inner city neighborhood that has fewer religious residents, and the fate of some of these churches is uncertain.

This walk is 3.8 miles long, and is on level terrain.

Our walk starts at the New Seasons Market on the corner of Fremont Street and Williams Avenue. Williams and Vancouver on each side of New Seasons form a one-way couplet for both automobiles and bicycles. This New Seasons has as much parking for bikes as it does for cars. There is a lot of new construction in the area, which is discussed in more detail in this blog entry.

Go to the Vancouver Avenue side of New Seasons and turn left. Proceed three blocks from Fremont to Fargo Street. At the corner of Vancouver and Fargo, on the left, is the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church. The interesting history of this  congregation can be found here. After being founded by African-American shipyard workers during World War II, the rapidly growing congregation moved into this building in 1951. However the building was erected in 1909, and I am not sure about the name of the congregation that originally occupied this structure.

Continue three more blocks on Vancouver Avenue to Stanton Street, On your left is Dawson Park, which takes up a city block. To your right is the Legacy Emanuel Hospital campus, which has grown to take up many city blocks. The hospital was begun by the Lutheran Church, which operated the facility until 1971.

At Stanton Street turn left and go one block along Dawson Park. At the other end of the park, at the corner of Stanton and Williams, is Immaculate Heart Catholic Church. The beautiful neo-gothic building has been on this site since 1890. The church's mission statement includes the following sentence: "As an inner city parish, we strive toward outreach to the lonely, the poor and the uninvolved."

Turn left on N. Williams and go one block to Morris Street, then turn right. On the right side of this block is a building that currently houses a mentoring program for urban youth. However some old lettering on this building indicates its previous incarnation as the Immaculata Academy. This catholic school for girls was located here from 1913 to 1958. It also was home to the Immaculate Heart School, associated with Immaculate Heart Catholic Church around the corner, which closed in the 1980's.

Continue on Morris Street to Rodney Avenue. At the corner of Morris and Rodney, on the left is St. Mark Baptist Church. This church has apparently closed and has been listed for sale recently, but its fate is not clear. The building dates from 1898, when it was constructed for the Second German Baptist Church (a Mennonite congregation), later the Immanuel Baptist Church, which left for a new church home farther east in 1953.

Turn right onto Rodney. At the next intersection, Rodney and Stanton, you will find two old churches. On the northeast corner of the intersection is the Mt. Gillard Missionary Baptist Church. However this venerable building was built and first occupied by the First German Baptist Church, a congregation of Volga Germans, in 1896. The church left this building for a site near downtown Portland in 1911. It is noteworthy that eight years after this church was founded, the SECOND German Baptist Church was founded one block away (see previous entry) on the corner of Rodney and Morris. The current congregation does not have a website, so the vitality of the church on this site is unknown. The origin of the "Mt. Gillard" name is also unclear.

Diagonally across from Mt. Gillard, at the southwest corner of the intersection, is the Community Outreach Christian Center. The building in which the church is located was constructed in 1907, but did not house a Volga German congregation. I have not found any information about the building's original occupants.  While the Community Outreach Christian Center does not have a website, the entry doors indicate that it is affiliated with the Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. The website describes the congregation as a Holiness-Pentecostal church, primarily African-American, with six million members in the United States, founded in 1897.

Continue on Rodney Avenue two more blocks to Knott Street, then turn left. At the corner of Rodney and Knott is St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church. While the congregation was founded in 1911, this building, much different in architectural style from the early 20th century churches in this area, was completed in 1945. St. Philip the Deacon was founded as a primarily African-American congregation, but now describes itself as an "inclusive and diverse spiritual community." Given the strife in the Episcopal Church USA and the larger worldwide Anglican Communion this millennium, it would be interesting to discern the attitudes of this congregation toward homosexuality, gay marriage, and gay clergy, given the perceptions of African-Americans regarding homosexuality. Clearly the church has no problem with earlier changes from the 1970's in the Episcopal Church USA - the current rector is the Reverend Deborah Brown.

Where Knott Street meets Martin Luther King (MLK) Blvd., the Nike Factory Outlet Store will be straight ahead. Turn left on MLK and then cross to the other side of the street at the signal light. Proceed north two blocks to Stanton Street, then turn right. At the end of the block at the corner of Stanton and 7th is the Northeast Community Fellowship Church building. However the building, finished in 1904, originally housed the Ebenezer German Congregational Church. This church was part of the Brotherhood Movement, which appears to be very "congregational" in nature, emphasizing lay testimony rather than leadership by clergy. Although the testimony was only accepted from men - women sat to the side and had to be silent! In 1992 the church disbanded and the current occupants moved in. The Northeast Community Fellowship is a member of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, founded by the legendary Aimee Semple McPherson.

At 7th Avenue turn left and proceed six blocks to Fremont Street. On your right is Irvington Park, and if you are walking by in the late fall you will see on this street, and on many, many other streets in Portland, a plethora of fallen leaves, piled on the street for sweeping up. It can be quite a mess, but it's not much of a price to pay for the beautiful deciduous trees that line the streets in Portland's older neighborhoods.

At Fremont carefully cross this busy street and go left one block to 6th Avenue. Turn right on 6th, and on your right you will see this attractive home with unusual front windows. Yes, this used to be a church, the First Mennonite Baptist Church, another Volga German congregation. It was built in 1910 and served the congregation until 1938, when the congregation merged into the Second German Baptist Church at the corner of NE Morris and Rodney, and this structure was apparently converted to a private residence.  Mennonites are Anabaptists, the "radical" Protestants of the 16th Century, who were persecuted not only by Roman Catholics but also by the Lutheran and Calvinist "mainstream" Protestant faiths. "Anabaptist" translates to "baptized again," and is actually a term given to them by their enemies because Anabaptists believed that baptism into another form of Christianity was insufficient, thus requiring their converts to go through a second baptism.

Continue on 6th to Beech Street, then turn right. After one short block, turn right again onto 7th Avenue and proceed one block back to Fremont. You will be back at the intersection of 7th and Fremont again, with Irvington Park across the street. Turn left onto Fremont and proceed two blocks to 9th Avenue. At the corner of 9th and Fremont is the Door of Hope church, a new non-denominational congregation formed in 2009 that in 2014 moved into this building. Unlike the Episcopalian Church, which bases its faith on a three-legged stool of bible, tradition, and reason, Door of Hope states "we believe the bible to be the only inspired, infallible, and authoritative word of God."

But this building is clearly much older than the Door of Hope congregation, and in fact a closer look at the corner of the building tells its story. On one side of the door is the Door of Hope lettering and information, while on the other side is the original cornerstone indicating that this building was once home to the Zion German Congregational Church. The cornerstone also contains the words "Erbaut 1914." Services were held in German all the way until 1958. In 1967, after a merger with two other congregations (one of which had a church that you will be visiting later along this route), the combined church changed its name to Rivercrest Community Church and moved to outer east Portland.

After turning left on 9th continue north for two blocks, then turn left onto Failing Street. After one block you will see this forlorn and neglected church on your right. This photo series from the Oregonian paints a poignant picture of an old, vacant church, whose fate is not yet known, although a local group is trying to organize its preservation. It was built in 1904, and then expanded in 1938, as St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church, which occupied the building until 1973. The church was a member of the Evangelical Synod of North America, descended from the Reformed, or Evangelical, church in Germany, which in turn followed the lead of 16th century Protestant leader John Calvin, a French resident of Geneva, rather than fellow German Martin Luther. The Evangelical Synod of North America eventually merged with other churches to become today's United Church of Christ, at the "liberal" end of the Christian spectrum in the United States. By 1973 the Church had dwindled to 21 members and decided to close. The building was sold to the Gethsemane Church of Christ, a predominantly African-American congregation, which moved out in 2013.

At 8th Avenue turn right and proceed three blocks north to Skidmore Street.  On your right is the Allen Temple CME Church, which has worshipped in this building since 1961. The national Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) church was formed in 1870 by African-Americans who wished to be independent of the white Methodist church of the South, which is now part of the United Methodist Church. The CME has 850,000 members nationwide, and professes to the Methodist Articles of Religion prepared by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, in the 18th century. This building was originally constructed in 1913 as a home for the Second German Congregational Church, which moved to a new home at NE 55th and Alberta in 1961, and eventually disbanded in 2011.

At Skidmore Street turn left and proceed west. After four blocks you will cross busy Martin Luther King Blvd.(MLK) at a signal light, with the McCoy Village affordable housing project on your right. Two blocks beyond MLK, at Mallory Street, on the left, is the Community Church of God, in a small building. The church has no website, but a little internet sleuthing indicates that this church was constructed before 1908 and housed a congregation of German Adventists. The Seventh Day Adventist church was born on American soil in the mid-19th century and grew based upon an erroneous prediction by one William Miller of the coming End Times. However Adventists adjusted to this disappointment, and have built a church with over 18 million members worldwide. The most superficially distinctive aspect of Adventist theology is their holding of primary church services on Saturday rather than Sunday.

Continue four more blocks on Skidmore to Vancouver Avenue. On the corner to the right is the First A.M.E. Zion Church, a cornerstone of Portland's African-American community, in this location since 1917. A.M.E. is short for African Methodist Episcopal - this national church was founded in 1816 as an independent Methodist denomination for African-Americans. It was mainly differentiated from the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) national church (parent church of the Allen Temple CME church at 8th and Skidmore) by its Northern vs. Southern U.S. origins. In 2012 the national African Methodist Episcopal Church entered into full communion with the United Methodist Church of the U.S., the descendant of the church from which it originally split in 1816.

At Vancouver Avenue turn left, go one block and then turn left again onto Mason Street. You will cross Williams Avenue, where two large new mixed use multi-story apartment and commercial projects have been newly constructed on this trendy street. Continue on Mason for four more blocks past Williams to Garfield Avenue. At the corner of Mason and Garfield is the Philadelphia Community Missionary Baptist Church, which has no website. But the building was first occupied in 1927 by the German Congregational Evangelical Brethren Church. The church moved here from the facility at 3605 SE Mallory that you will be walking by later on this route. This congregation left the building in 1967 after merging with two other local congregations, changing its name to Rivercrest Community Church, and moving to the area east of I-205.

Turn right on Garfield Avenue, then after one block turn right again on Shaver Street, and after one block on Shaver turn left onto Mallory Avenue. On your left before you reach Failing Street is the Mallory Church of Christ, a non-denominational church. The building is clearly of post World War II construction.

On the right side of the street is the Hughes Memorial United Methodist Church, also in what appears to be a post-World War II building. The church is mentioned in a list of United Methodist congregations, and has a contact link for a pastor, but does not have an independent website.

Continue two blocks south on Mallory Avenue. On your left are two affordable housing projects, one of them brand new. On the right, before you get to Fremont Street, is the Greater St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church, which has this Facebook page and has been worshipping in this building since 1984. The pastor, described on a 30th anniversary celebration poster as the "overseer," is Kimberly Black. However the building, with its distinctive Russian-style onion dome, was built in 1907 by the Free Evangelical Brethren Church, a Volga German congregation. In 1927 the congregation moved several blocks north to the site on the corner of Mason and Garfield that you passed earlier on this walk, and the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church moved in, adding the distinctive onion dome. In 1980 St. Nicholas moved to a new site in Southwest Portland.

Turn right on Fremont Street and proceed four blocks west to New Seasons Market, where the walk began.