Current Project Status as of September 14, 2021:
The Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission amended and adopted state rules at its regular June 23, 2021 meeting to implement the Federal National Register of Historic Places program, administered by the National Park Service. The revised rules align state processes with federal law, regulation, and guidance, establish the manner to accurately count owners and objections, and clarify administrative processes, such as public notice, participation, and hearing procedures. On June 25, 2021, program rules OAR 736-050-0220 through OAR 736-050-0270 became effective upon filing with the Oregon Secretary of State. A copy of those rules is available here: https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/displayDivisionRules.action?selectedDivision=3433
The Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) will begin the resubmission process for the Eastmoreland Historic District in Fall 2021, following general implementation of the program rules.
National Park Service returns proposed Eastmoreland Historic District nomination
SALEM, Ore., Monday, July 22, 2019 -- The National Park Service (NPS) has returned the Eastmoreland Historic District nomination to the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD). The federal NPS cited continuing uncertainties related to counting owners within the proposed district boundaries. The SHPO plans to go through a formal rule-setting process to address federal concerns.
The State Advisory Commission on Historic Preservation, a governor-appointed volunteer commission of people with interest and skill in Oregon history, first reviewed and recommended approval of the nomination in February 2017. The nomination was returned and resubmitted twice to the NPS since then over issues related to counting owners and objections. If more than 50% of owners in a proposed district object, the district is not listed in the National Register.
The SHPO most recently submitted the nomination for federal review on May 23, 2019. The NPS identified at least two unresolved issues: a complete, accurate count of property owners and objections, and a conflict between federal guidelines related to trusts and a recent ruling by the Oregon Court of Appeals that requires a federal regulation or state rule recognizing trusts as owners for purposes of the program prior to the SHPO counting objections from trusts.
As a potential resolution, OPRD intends to propose administrative rule revisions that implement the National Register program in Oregon. The process will likely begin in late 2019 and extend into 2020 before the State Historic Preservation Officer would consider final adoption of rules. SHPO will then determine whether to resubmit the nomination if rules are adopted and resubmission is appropriate under such rules. Other nominations could still move through the existing nomination process as long as they don't involve the same complicated issues that have affected the Eastmoreland nomination.
The proposed Eastmoreland Historic District is located in Portland, Multnomah County. It encompasses approximately 475 acres and is generally bounded SE Woodstock Blvd on the north; SE Cesar E Chavez Blvd and SE 36th Ave on the east; Berkeley Park and SE Crystal Springs Blvd on south; and SE 27th and 28th Ave on the west. The Eastmoreland Historic District is considered significant for its relationship to community planning and development trends in Portland in the early twentieth century, most notably for its reflection of City Beautiful planning principles, and for its eclectic yet cohesive mix of early twentieth century architectural styles.
View the NPS return letter
Copy of National Register Nomination as sent to the National Park Service on May 23, 2019
For a copy of the National Register nomination, meeting minutes of the February 2017 SACHP meeting, and property owner and objection counts provided to the National Park Service on May 23, 2019, please visit our File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site. Instructions to access that site are as follows:
Instructions for accessing the FTP site
- Copy and paste ftp://159.121.119.151 into your browser address bar (Note: If you are using Windows Explorer, view the FTP site as a Windows Explorer page. Do this by selecting “Page" from the menu bar in the browser, then selecting “Open FTP site in Windows Explorer")
- When a dialog box appears, use the following information to log in (login and password are case sensitive):
Login: shpoguest
Password:welcome
- Double-click on “Outgoing" and download the entire folder named Eastmoreland Historic District.
- Once the folder opens, click on the file to download. Do this by “copying" the entire folder and then “pasting" it to your desktop.
The audio recording of the Eastmoreland section starts at 07:30 minutes.
An archived version of this web page with the original attached documents is available online.
What is the Eastmoreland Historic District?
The Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association nominated the Eastmoreland neighborhood for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
The proposed Eastmoreland Historic District is located in Portland, Multnomah County. It encompasses approximately 475 acres and is generally bounded SE Woodstock Blvd on the north; SE Cesar E Chavez Blvd and SE 36th Ave on the east; Berkeley Park and SE Crystal Springs Blvd on south; and SE 27th and 28th Ave on the west.
The Eastmoreland Historic District is considered significant for its relationship to community planning and development trends in Portland in the early twentieth century, most notably for its reflection of City Beautiful planning principles, and for its eclectic yet cohesive mix of early twentieth century architectural styles. A full copy of the nomination is below. The nomination is submitted as an addendum to an existing document called a Multiple Property Document, or MPD, called “Historic Residential Suburbs in the United States, 1830-1960," which describes the history and important trends in suburban residential development in the United States from the nineteenth century through the post-World War II era. This “cover" document places local and regional trends in community planning and development that can be seen throughout the country and serves as an additional reference for the Eastmoreland nomination.
Project Timeline and Important Dates
May 26, 2016 – SHPO attended a meeting sponsored by
the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association in Portland to answer questions about
the National Register process.
November 1, 2016 – Eastmoreland Historic District
nomination submitted for initial review on behalf of the nomination proponent.
December 15, 2016 – Public notice published in The
Oregonian announcing the availability of the official draft of the
Eastmoreland Historic District nomination.
December 15, 2016 – Written notification of the
upcoming SACHP meeting and copies of the draft nomination provided to the City
of Portland and preparers.
December 20, 2016 – Public notice published in the Portland
Tribune announcing the availability of the official draft of the
Eastmoreland Historic District nomination.
February 6, 2017 – Press release sent to local print,
radio, and TV news outlets announcing the upcoming State Advisory Committee on
Historic Preservation (SACHP) meeting on the Eastmoreland Historic District
nomination, including The Oregonian.
February 16, 2017 – Tour of the proposed Eastmoreland
Historic District held for the benefit of the SACHP. The public is invited, but
must provide their own transportation.
February 17, 2017 – The SACHP meets to consider the
proposed Eastermoreland Historic District nomination.
May 15, 2017 – The nomination document is sent to the
National Park Service (NPS). The SHPO sent the National Register of Historic
Places nomination document for the proposed Eastmoreland Historic District to
the NPS with a recommendation not to list the District due to procedural
problems.
June 30, 2017 – Close of the NPS’s consideration
period.
July 5, 2017 – NPS sends notice dated June 30, 2017
to the Oregon SHPO that the agency is returning the nomination for
"procedural errors" related to the agency's May 15th recommendation.
August 2017 – In August, the SHPO asked the NPS
for clarification on the agency's procedures for resubmitting the nomination
for the proposed Eastmoreland Historic District to the National Register of
Historic Places.
November 2017 – the NPS provides guidance for
counting owners and objections to the SHPO.
February 2018 – The Oregon Department of Justice
provides guidance for counting owners and objections to the SHPO.
February 13, 2018 – The Oregon SHPO begins the
process of recounting the number of private-property owners and notarized
objections for resubmission to the NPS.
April 25, 2018 – The Oregon SHPO determines that the
majority of the property owners within the proposed Eastmoreland Historic
District object to listing the District and submitted the nomination document
to the NPS for an official determination of eligibility.
June 29, 2018 - During the SHPO’s 2018 work, four
residents in the Eastmoreland neighborhood transferred ownership of their
properties to thousands of new trusts. Federal guidance grants qualifying
trusts the ability to submit notarized objections to the nomination. The May
2018 submittal noted that with objections from the new trusts, more than 50% of
the owners objected to the nomination. In its June 29, 2018 letter, the
National Park Service says the Oregon SHPO “needs to ascertain whether these
trusts are valid and whether they have a fee simple ownership in the properties
at issue.”
May 23, 2019 - Nomination for the proposed Eastmoreland Historic
District is forwarded by the SHPO to the National Park Service for a final
decision.
July 19, 2019 - The National Park Service returns the nomination
document, citing continuing uncertainties related to counting owners within the
proposed district boundaries.