Terra Cotta PortlandMeyer Memorial Trust Gallery |
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Opens March 29, 2008 Special Thanks to: Aurora Mill Salvage, Denise Bartelt, Joanne Carlson, Holly Chamberlain, Clayton-Deer Park Historical Society, Virginia Ferriday, Norm Gholston, Gladding McBean, Stacey Govi, Marsha Hanchrow, |
Portland’s architectural riches include a grand collection of more than 40 buildings clad in glazed terra cotta. They range from the 1907 Wells Fargo Building at SW Sixth & Oak (Portland’s first “skyscraper” and first terra cotta building) to the last – the Charles F. Berg Building at SW Broadway near Morrison.
Many of these buildings stand throughout the retail heart of downtown Portland, from Oak to Yamhill Streets, and SW Fourth to SW Tenth Avenues, and all were built during the era of streetcar-oriented development. The rich collection of surviving terra cotta-clad buildings is presented in detail in Virginia Ferriday’s Last of the Handmade Buildings, which called strongly for a “terra cotta district” along with expert maintenance and preservation of this wonderful building material.
Given the various waves of redevelopment for a multitude of uses, all terra cotta buildings did not survive, including the Orpheum Theater and YMCA building. This exhibition will illustrate the richly decorative variety of terra cotta as a building material, through salvaged artifacts in the collections of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation, including those donated by Virginia Ferriday.
| The exhibit will also celebrate the standing terra cotta buildings that define an important chapter in the development of Portland’s architectural character – from their construction over time and into today. |  |
| Generously sponsored by: |
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The Art of Ceramic Hardware
Exhibit opens April 26, 2008
Liz's Antique Hardware Gallery
Architectural Heritage Center
701 SE Grand Avenue
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Foundation Members: Free Supported by: Precision Images |
Ceramic or porcelain doorknobs, such as those made by Wedgwood, Staffordshire, and Rockingham, have a long history in the United States. England and France were early sources of these decorative and practical items for the Colonial market, and then supplanted by American manufacturers such as Fenton of Bennington, Vermont and other East Coast companies.
Until the 1876 Centennial Exposition, American pottery focused on utilitarian purposes, without decoration. Ornamentation through colorful glazing and transfer printing followed the Exposition, as well as the patenting of molding processes. The result was some of America’s most colorful and artistic hardware.
After the turn of the Twentieth Century, the Schlage Company of California, Lenox of New Jersey, and others provided additional competition with new hardware styles in an Art Deco vein. Porcelain hardware maintained its popularity into the 1950s, when Yale and Towne produced a line from world-class designers.
This exhibit features exquisite examples of the beautiful art of ceramic hardware, as well as the fascinating history of its production. Many thanks to Maud Eastwood, (“The Doorknob Lady”) and Don and Elaine Shreve, for helping to shape this new visual feast in the AHC’s hardware gallery!