Talk about baptism by fire.
Constance Bracewell’s first day as executive director of The Old Church Concert Hall, that beloved West End performance space located in the striking 140-year-old Calvary Presbyterian Church, was also a moment of architectural tragedy.
That same day, the circa-1905 Portland Korean Church (originally the First German Evangelical Church), located just two blocks away, was destroyed by arson.
Before coming to Portland nearly a decade ago, Bracewell had worked in Hollywood as a visual-effects artist, for hit movies like “X-Men,” “The Fast and the Furious” and “The Chronicles of Riddick.”
But this time the flames were real.
“We recently upgraded all of our sprinkler heads and had a major fire inspection,” she said. “And it certainly felt good that night.”
Completed in 1882, The Old Church is Portland’s oldest house of worship on its original site. Its designer, Warren Williams, was the most acclaimed local architect of his time. His masterful Merchants Hotel and Blagen Block rank among Old Town’s finest remaining works of 19th century cast-iron architecture, as does the Morris Marks House, an Italianate-style gem relocated to the southern edge of downtown, not to mention Deady and Villard Halls at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
This corner of downtown, west of the South Park Blocks and north of Portland State University, is sprinkled with more churches per capita than anywhere else in the city.
That’s because in the late 19th century, former mayor William S. Ladd, who was also the city’s richest man thanks to co-founding Portland’s first bank (among many other subsequent lucrative railroad, hotel, flour mill, mining and telegraph interests), became a kind of ecclesiastical Andrew Carnegie figure.
Ladd, whose mansion was on the site of the former Oregonian building on Broadway (its Ladd Carriage house the sole remaining portion), provided free land for many churches here, in what was then a posh residential enclave clustered around the South Park Blocks, the city’s first greenspace.
The Calvary Presbyterian, later to be known as The Old Church, was actually the youngest entry in the collection.
Named a National Historic Landmark in 1972, The Old Church is also a heroic preservation story. Lannie Hurst, a children’s librarian and amateur actress with the Portland Civic Theater, had no experience in historic preservation when in 1967 she led a successful grassroots effort to save the building after was threatened with demolition.
At 300 seats, The Old Church offers a unique size niche; most venues of comparable size are mostly standing room. With little soundproofing, it’s not exactly ideal for the loudest rock and hip-hop acts.
Yet that’s become an asset, giving the venue a reputation for eclecticism.
As a nonprofit performance venue still recovering from the pandemic and what Bracewell diplomatically calls the general public’s “perceived changes to downtown that don’t match the reality,” The Old Church is only slowly beginning to recover financially. Yet it’s been well cared for, be it the modern sound system or its vintage pipe organ.
“COVID was for everybody a time of a lot of questioning,” she says of the days in 2020 and 2021 when full houses at The Old Church were rare. “But this building has stood through more pandemics than this one —through wars, through times of social upheaval. Buildings like this one, their context has changed so many times because the environment around it changes.”
After moving to Portland 25 years ago, my first apartment was, coincidentally, just a couple blocks from here.
That building, the Empire Apartments on 11th Avenue, is not only still standing but will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. Yet since I called it home in 1997 every surrounding building has been replaced. Only the spire of the Old Church is familiar (well, that and a surprisingly enduring Plaid Pantry convenience store).
Even so, I like the juxtaposition of this carpenter gothic-style 1882 church with contemporary residential buildings like the Mosaic condominiums. And so does Bracewell.
“It’s the juxtapositions between the old and new that tell the story of a city’s evolution,” Bracewell says, lamenting the Portland Korean Church’s demise but rejoicing in the Old Church’s continuing presence.
“Portland has been fortunate to retain as much history as it has, and each historic building that falls takes a piece of Portland’s autobiography with it.”