Know your board: Sue Stringer

Posted on by Sue Stringer

“Know your board” is a series of articles to help you get to know the members of your Eliot Neighborhood Association Board.  Eliot has a very diverse board.  It consists of men and women who care about our neighborhood. We want to share a little bit about your board members.

Sue Stringer
Sue Stringer

Sue Stringer is fairly new to Eliot. She has lived in the neighborhood for the last 3 years but has lived in Portland on and off for 17 years.  She is also new to the board joining in January as the Eliot News Editor.  She joined the board because she wanted to get more connected with the neighborhood and meet new neighbors.

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Up Close and Personal: Angela Kremer

Posted on by Becca Pollard
Angela Kremer at her Victorian house
Angela Kremer at her Victorian house

“It’s a work in progress,” Angela Kremer says of the interior paint of her home. Like many residents of Eliot she and her husband chose the location in part because of its affordability relative to other close-in Portland neighborhoods. She spotted the three bedroom Victorian house on the corner of Rodney and Hancock in 1998 when she was riding by on her bike. “It needed a lot of work, but I just fell in love with it. It really appealed to me to fix it up and make it something that people could enjoy from the outside.”

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Historic Homes Headed for Demolition

Posted on by Eliot Neighborhood
623Thompson

There are two 125-year-old houses in Eliot that are going to be demolished if the neighborhood doesn’t rally to save them. The best option would be to purchase them from the developer who owns them, Guy Bryant of GPB Construction, or failing that, to convince him not to tear them down to build his ultramodern 40-foot-tall rowhouses that, needless to say, don’t fit in to the neighborhood. The houses were built at the time the City of Albina was its own city.

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Jubel Perkins Memorial for NARA

Posted on by Eliot Neighborhood

By Caroline Dao

Many of you are familiar with the NARA Indian Health Clinic located on the corner of N. Morris and Williams but may not know much about the organization. Founded in 1970 in Portland, the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, Inc. is an Indian-owned, Indian-operated, non-profit agency. Originally an outpatient substance abuse treatment center, NARA NW now operates a residential family treatment center, an outpatient treatment center, a family resource program, transitional housing for Native women and Children, a primary health care clinic and Totem Lodge which serves as their mental health resource location. All services are centered on the family as it is NARA NW’s philosophy that, “Without the family circle there will be no future.”

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Remembering Lee

Posted on by Mike Warwick
Lee Perlman, left, with his journal for furiously taking down notes. Pictured with Mike Warwick
Lee Perlman, left, with his journal for furiously taking down notes. Pictured with Mike Warwick

Lee Perlman’s death is a personal loss as well as a blow to Eliot. I have known Lee as a friend and activist for around three decades, primarily through our mutual advocacy for Eliot’s preservation both as a residential community and historic asset and as a reminder of the legacy of Portland’s origins and the role of its black and immigrant communities. I joke that Lee’s commitment to historic Eliot was so extreme that his house retained the original paint and probably shingles. Although home maintenance was not a high priority for Lee, he was always willing to volunteer his time helping his neighbors and unreserved in his contributions to the Eliot Neighborhood.

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Lee Perlman, Age 64, Found Dead at His Eliot Home

Posted on by Allan Rudwick
Lee Perlman, left, with his journal for furiously taking down notes. Pictured with Mike Warwick
Lee Perlman, left, with his journal for furiously taking down notes. Pictured with Mike Warwick

Very sad news this week as Lee Perlman was found dead on Friday at his home on Brazee Street by Portland Police. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

As the news passed through the neighborhood, there was an outpouring of sadness and support as neighbors shared memories of Lee at the Eliot Ice Cream Social in Dawson Park this past Monday. Plans for a memorial service are not yet available, but this post will update as more information comes in.

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Robert E. Menefee: Profile of an Albina Businessman & Resident

Posted on by Roy E Roos

During the early years of rapid development in the town of Albina, which most of is now inside the Eliot neighborhood, many well-known businessmen were involved with the process.  When Albina was incorporated in 1887, it saw phenomenal growth through 1892.  Much money was spent and made on real estate investments and industrial expansions tied into the railroad industry.  Businesses during these years thrived on healthy profits in part due to an abundant supply of immigrant workers willing to work at working-class wages.  The real estate market was exceptionally healthy due to soaring lot prices.  After Albina merged with Portland in 1891, the value of property skyrocketed.  Most Albina businessmen and property speculators though lived in today’s NW and SW Portland, which was generally where most of the “well-to-do” lived.  Robert E. Menefee and his brothers were an exception to this rule as they resided in Albina during most of their lives.  Some of the homes they lived in are still standing in the neighborhood today.

16 NE Tillamook, oldest surviving house where Menefee lived with his father from 1890 to 1892.

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John F Wilson – Builder of Quality Homes in Eliot

Posted on by Roy E Roos

In our neighborhood full of wonderful old homes, we often wonder who the actual builder was that put his design and energy into these buildings. Many of the skilled men who actually built our homes also lived inside Eliot. Some of them were masters at the design as well as the carpentry. John F. Wilson was one of these men who left their building legacy behind for us. But unlike most builders of the day, he remained inside our neighborhood for six more decades even though he switched residence in several houses.

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