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.

Walla Walla

Walla Walla is a long way from any big cities - local wags like to say "it's not the end of the Earth, but you can see it from here." But this town of 33,000 people has a lot of history and culture, and has in recent years become a center of high quality wine production. This walk takes in the buildings and activities in the revitalized old downtown, goes through the prestigious Whitman College, and includes a plethora of beautiful old houses and civic buildings. The walk is 4.4 miles long, but is flat.

The walk starts at the Marcus Whitman Hotel. This Walla Walla landmark opened for business in 1927, after community leaders raised 1/3 of the $450,000 construction cost - a downtown "first class" hotel was seen as an essential attribute of any thriving community. After a period of decline the hotel was spruced up starting about 15 years ago and is now an elegant place to stay once again. The lobby and other first floor sitting rooms remain designed in elegant 1920's style. If you stay overnight you will eat a sumptuous breakfast buffet in the morning. The hotel is named after the first European-American in the area, a missionary who built a mission in Walla Walla and was, in 1847, killed by Native Americans after he was blamed for the deaths of half the local Cayuse tribe in a measles epidemic.

Go out the front door of the Marcus Whitman Hotel on 2nd Avenue and turn left. On the next block to the right is the United States Post Office, constructed in 1914, and on the National Register of Historic Places. Unlike the beautiful old post offices in many cities that have been replaced with ugly modern structures, this building remains the main post office for the community.

Continue on 2nd Street another block to Oak Street. Ahead on the right is the 1914 Northern Pacific Railroad Depot, now repurposed as a restaurant. In the parking lot is this old train car, also a restaurant. The depot is on the National Register of Historic Places. Rail passenger service to Walla Walla ended in the 1950's.

Turn right on Oak Street, after one short block turn right again onto Colville Street, and then after one more block turn left onto Cherry Street. At the corner of Colville and Cherry, on the right, is the Kirkman House Museum. The museum is located in this 1880 historic mansion, constructed by Walla Walla farmer and rancher William Kirkman. It was built in an Italianate Victorian style, and is yet another Walla Walla site on the National Register of Historic Places.


Continue on Cherry Street another block, and to the left is the Norman Francis Butler House, constructed in 1882 in a Queen Anne architectural style. No surprise - it is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

At Palouse Street turn right and proceed three blocks to Main Street. Before you cross Rose Street, on your left is the Walla Walla Elks Lodge. The building itself is undistinguished, but the giant Elk on top of it is certainly unusual. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is one of the largest "fraternal" organizations in the U.S., although like all such organizations, its membership has plummeted nationally in recent decades, from 1.6 million in 1976 to 850,000 today.

Continue one more block on Palouse Street to Main Street. At this five-way intersection, take a 45 degree left turn onto Boyer Avenue. You will be heading into the Whitman College campus. This prestigious private liberal arts college converted from a seminary to a more general educational establishment in 1882. It has approximately 1,500 undergraduate students on its 117-acre campus. After crossing Park Street the Hunter Conservatory of Music, located in this attractive brick building, will be on your right. The building was constructed in 1910.






Continuing on Boyer Avenue, Memorial Hall will be on your left. The chief administration building for Whitman College was constructed in 1899, with a classic campanile/clock tower adorning its top.

Continuing along Boyer, on the right side of the street is one of several interesting sculptures on the Whitman campus. This colorful work is entitled "Carnival," and was carved by artist Jim Dine in 1997 from a single tree. It is popularly known by campus denizens as "Venus," due to its vague resemblance to the famous Venus de Milo statue in Paris' Louvre Museum. If you are interested in other sculptures on the Whitman campus, this guide provides a walking tour and descriptions.

If you are on the south side of Boyer, cross to the north side, and if you are on the north side, stay there. Take the trail veering away from Boyer along the north side of Campus Creek. This gently flowing stream provides benches for sitting and enjoying the garden-like landscape.









Eventually you will skirt the side of the admissions building, located in what was originally the President's house. Behind this building is "Treaty Rock," placed in this location in 1955 to commemorate the treaty signed in 1855 between five area tribes and the U.S. government.

Continue on the path as it skirts the edge of the large college quadrangle to the left. Eventually you will reach the edge of campus on Stanton Street. Continue straight ahead on University Street one block until you reach what appears to be a glorified alleyway, but which is actually Brookside Street to the right. Take this street and enjoy the quiet residential atmosphere and the attractive pre-World War II homes on either side of the street.

Brookside Street ends at Boyer Avenue. You will turn left, but to the right is the imposing Washington State Odd Fellows Home. This retirement community is operated by a non-profit associated with the Odd Fellows fraternal organization. The main building was constructed in 1925, with modern senior apartments on the periphery.

Continuing on Boyer, the next intersection is at Clinton Street. To the left is this house at 571 Boyer, a 1909 neoclassical architectural gem.


To the right is this five-story apartment building, the Clinton Court apartments. This building was constructed in 1922, and although Yelp indicates that it is closed, the building looks open and occupied from the outside. Continue on Boyer another long block to Division Street, then turn right. On your left is Wildwood Park, which has a restroom should you need it. Continue on Division for three blocks, crossing Mill Creek, until you get to Alder Street.

On your left once you cross Alder is Pioneer Park. Turn left on Alder and follow the park frontage to Sassayama Drive, which enters into the park. Pioneer Park was completed in 1906. At the end of Sassayama, in the middle of the park, and to the left is this playful covered wagon sculpture. Straight ahead is a gazebo-style bandstand at the park's center.

Continue straight, past the bandstand, and then veer to the right to head for the park's southwest corner. Near the edge of the park is this large aviary, with lots of different birds to watch. At the corner of the park is a small rose garden.

Exit Pioneer Park at the intersection of Division and Whitman Streets and proceed west on Whitman. Across the street from the park at 835 Whitman is this attractive Victorian-style home, built in 1904.

Continue three blocks on Whitman Street, past some attractive early 20th century residences. At Howard Street, on your right, is Sharpstein Elementary School. This school was constructed in 1898, making it the oldest continuously operating elementary school in Washington State. Fortunately the school authorities in Walla Walla did not follow the easy path of demolition taken by other school districts around the country with beautiful old school buildings. Instead the building was remodeled to meet modern health and safety codes for schools.

Continue on Whitman two more blocks to Catherine Street. At the corner of Whitman and Palouse, to the right, is this farmhouse-style home with a large wraparound porch built in 1905. At Catherine Street turn right, then right again onto Newell, and then left onto Palouse Street. Along all of these blocks, and on the next two blocks of Palouse Street, you will find a number of beautiful historic houses. Many of these homes are more thoroughly described on the "Historic Walla Walla Walking Tour, which is a pdf document that can be accessed by googling the above search term.

After crossing Poplar Street Walla Walla's Carnegie Library, built in 1905, is located on the right side of Palouse Street. It is now the Carnegie Art Center. Over 1,600 of these libraries were built in the United States, funded by the philanthropy of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. It's a reminder of the good that can eventually come from massive accumulations of private wealth, a truth that is being proven today by the Gates Foundation.

At Alder Street, after the Carnegie Library, turn left, but before doing so note the two imposing, historic churches on the northeast and northwest corners of Palouse and Alder. On the left is the Covenant Presbyterian Church, constructed in 1912. On the right is the First Congregational Church with its imposing spire, built in 1931. In front of the Presbyterian Church, along Alder Street, is the small Volunteer Park, dedicated in 1904, with a statue commemorating soldiers of the Spanish-American War.

Continue on Alder Street one block, then turn right onto Spokane Street. You are now entering the Central Walla Walla business district. On the right is the Charles Smith Winery Tasting Room, only one of many in downtown Walla Walla, featuring popular "black label" wines such as Velvet Devil merlot and Boom Boom syrah. After one block on Spokane Street, turn left onto Main Street. On the first block, on your left, is Heritage Square, a small park area that seems to be a congregation spot for homeless persons at times. On the next block, past Colville Street, is the former Liberty Theater, built in 1917, and now incorporated into a Macy's department store.

Continue along Walla Walla's main street, one of the finest small town main streets on the West Coast. The retail stores mix both touristy places such as wine tasting rooms along with stores that serve more general local retail needs. This sidewalk clock, located between First and Second Avenues, on the left side of the street, dates from 1910.

Main Street showcases a number of historic structures, more thoroughly described in the online "Historic Walla Walla Walking Tour" pdf document mentioned above. This building, on the left between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, is the Dacres Hotel, built in 1899.

Continue on Main Street to Fifth Avenue, then turn right. But before doing so, take a look at the monumental Walla Walla County Courthouse, on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1916. To its right is the former County Jail, built in 1906. In front of the courthouse is a statue of Christopher Columbus donated by Walla Walla's Italian-American community.

Once on Fifth Avenue continue two blocks to Sumach Street. After crossing Rose Street (the first block) you will see this concrete channel for Mill Creek, which you have already crossed twice on the walk. Beyond is a sign of prosperity for downtown Walla Walla - new townhomes between Sumach Street and the creek. The Vue Twenty-Two development was completed in 2008. A couple of the homes are listed on VRBO in an attempt to attract affluent wine country visitors.

Go one block on Sumach Street and then turn left onto Fourth Avenue. On your right is a large institutional building which houses a large U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office. After one block on Fourth turn right on Cherry, and then right again on Third Avenue. On your left is the historic Whitehouse-Crawford building constructed in 1904 as a woodworking mill but transformed in 2000 for occupancy by the Seven Hills Winery. The Whitehouse-Crawford restaurant and the winery tasting room are open to the public.

After one block on Third Avenue turn right on Rose Street. On the right at the corner of Third and Rose is the Walla Walla City Hall, built in 1908 and a grand civic building in its own right. At Second and Rose you will return to the Marcus Whitman Hotel, the start of the walk.