August 31, 2003

(Updated) Group Seeks To Capture Portland Neighborhood Histories

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

Not too long ago, I finished reading a publication entitled Voices of Portland, a 1976 publication called the Neighborhood History Project, the result of volunteers "out in their neighborhoods with tape-recorders, sometimes exploring basements and attics to track down old photographs, mostly sitting and talking with neighbors about Portland and history from the shanghai days to World War II."

More recently than the nation's bicentennial year, a similar new effort has gotten underway. Called the Neighborhood Story Project, an "an intergenerational, volunteer effort to reclaim, preserve, share, and celebrate the history of the Hosford Abernethy Neighborhood."

This year, the project received a grant as part of the Interwoven Tapestry Project to "interview recent Asian immigrants, drawing on their experiences [which] the organizers hope to share... with others who may be unaware of the rich history of the Asian community here in Portland."

The overall Neighbor Story Project itself started to come together in September 2001, when several neighborhood residents (including the principal of the local elementary school, members of the HAND board, and the pastor of St. Philip Neri) realized a shared interest in neighborhood history.

"The elementary school folks were interested in having their students interview elderly neighbors," said Linda Nettekoven, the project's coordinator, via email earlier this month, "in order to learn some history and build bridges across the intergenerational divide; the neighborhood just wanted to capture the stories of long time residents." St. Philip Neri's pastor thought of the stories being lost as he "found himself burying the generation of Italian immigrants who had settled the neighborhood many decades ago."

"The vision also included trying to develop a history of neighborhood activism or civic engagement," said Nettekoven, "since our area was slated to house the Mt. Hood Freeway. We wanted to come up with art, publications, staged readings, a website -- whatever we could think of that would make these stories accessible to the community."

"We're moving more slowly than we'd like,"she added. "But life keeps intervening and hopefully 'slow and steady' will work out in the long run."

Nettekoven, who also serves on the board of Southeast Uplift, says she also wishes funding could be secured to create a neighborhood history resource center "to help neighbors ... discover what is already known about their houses or neighborhoods and how to add to that."

So far, operating on little funding and volunteer help, the Project has produced a workbook for elementary students to help them research the history and architecture of their homes; conducted oral history training for twenty volunteers; begun gathering the stories of neighborhood residents; and mapped the original land additions which make up the neighborhood.

Future plans include the development of self-guided "history walks" featuring photographs and other historic materials displayed at cooperating public and private sites; development of a website to share stories and other material; publications including student writing projects; staged readings; and displays of photographs and other art works depicting neighborhood history.

For more information on the Neighborhood Story Project, or to offer time, energy, or resources, call 503-235-7917 or 503-236-1866, or email Linda Nettekoven via the email address you can find via Southeast Uplift.

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