TALKS AND EVENTS
Join us at our West's Block location for various talks and events! All of our talks will be hosted on site, at 701 SE Grand Ave.
UPCOMING EVENTS
"Building Portland's Memorial Coliseum" Michael A. Orr Talk & Book Signing Free Event
Portland, Oregon, in the 1950s was a city at a crossroads. Would it retain the status quo of the first half of the twentieth century or rush headlong into the future? Pitting east side upstarts against downtown traditionalists, the battle over where to build the Memorial Coliseum was at times exciting, controversial, and long-winded. Three very different locations set off a storm of subterfuge and political posturing that included the indictment of a commissioner originally tasked with choosing the site and the rise of an east side used car dealer determined to prevent the city from building the arena downtown. With the future of sports and recreation in the Rose City at stake, city leaders and private citizens sparred in public hearings and Portland’s first ever televised debates. Author Michael A. Orr provides a behind-the-scenes look at the drama and machinations in the battle to build Portland a space for future generations.
Book will be available for purchase and signing.
June 20, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Hidden Brilliance: The Residential Architecture of Joseph Jacobberger
AHC historians and researchers Jim Heuer and Robert Mercer present the residential work of a truly brilliant architect from Portland’s “Golden Age.” Over many years, the pair has dug into long forgotten files of architectural drawings at the University of Oregon and tracked down over 260 Joseph Jacobberger-designed homes in Portland and surrounding towns -- over 130 of which still survive. Their findings reveal the amazing virtuosity of an architect previously known mostly for his religious architecture like St. Mary's Cathedral.
Jim and Robert have updated their research, including some houses never before known to be Jacobberger designs. You'll learn that Jacobberger was extraordinarily talented and able to design homes in a broad array of styles from Colonial to Craftsman, English Cottage to Jacobean. His skills turned standard styles into architectural sculpture, blending form with function, with his later designs foretelling the "Northwest Style" later practiced by Pietro Belluschi and others.
June 27, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Travel Artist: Real Places, Real Stories
Join urban designer and artist Jim Richards, who has traveled with his sketchbook across the globe, from the savannahs of Kenya to the Central Highlands of Vietnam, from the Hemingway haunts of Key West to the customs interrogation room of the Havana airport. His new book TRAVEL ARTIST shares his transformational experience of international travel, and the added richness and creative rush that closer observation and on-location sketching brings to it. The book is a must-have for creatives, for urban sketchers, and for anyone with an explorer’s heart and a creative itch. Broadway Books will bring books to the event for Jim to sign, and we strongly recommend pre-ordering the book from them to make sure you get a copy: https://broadwaybooks.net/book/9781961856547
July 7, 2026
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Till Death Do Us Part: Mortuary Architecture of Portland
Visual Storyteller & Author Don Nelson will be presenting this program of funeral homes of Portland, Oregon from the past into the present day. Many were built into established buildings, while others were erected specifically for their businesses by known architects.
July 11, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Lost Oregon Streetcars Presentation by Richard Thompson
Local historian Richard Thompson celebrates the lost trolleys that once plied Oregon's small-town streets. Learn of the devastating 1922 fire that scorched Astoria's plank road railways and put a halt to its once-thriving streetcar network. Hear about a beloved white horse named Old Charlie who proved more reliable at pulling Albany's first streetcars than a steam locomotive. Smile at the spectacle of university students being carted back to their dormitories on the Eugene Street Railway’s midnight "drunk express.” Take pride in the tiny town of Cherry Grove, which became the first in the West to embrace new battery technology.
July 18, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Asylum & Cemetery : Hawthorne Asylum & Lone Fir Cemetery
Explore the History of Portland's 19th Century Hawthorne Asylum & Lone Fir Cemetery through historic images and stories.
Lone Fir Cemetery's History and future will be discussed.
Presentation by Norm Gholston
July 25, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Beaumont-Wilshire: Origins and Early History
Like many Northeast Portland neighborhoods, Beaumont-Wilshire was carved from orchards, open fields, and patches of forest. As a young Portland sprawled across the river, the rural landscape of the eastside was replaced by a grid of neighborhoods, a busy streetcar system, and tens of thousands of new residents.
Using early maps, documents, photos, newspaper accounts, and memories he’s collected from past residents, local historian Doug Decker will explore the early years of of the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood to examine connections between past, present, and future.
November 14, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
WALKING TOURS
From March to November, we offer tours of historic neighborhoods throughout the city. Click here to learn more!
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