Current Exhibits

The Architectural Heritage Center mounts rotating gallery exhibits drawn from the Bosco-Milligan Foundation’s renowned collection of architectural artifacts, one of the largest in the United States.

 

Streetcars Build a City

Meyer Memorial Trust Gallery

Opens:
September 2012

 

Sponsored by:
Portland Streetcar, Inc.
Shiels, Obletz, Johnsen Inc.

 

In Portland, our urban neighborhoods are a product of the pre-automobile era. Although far-slung suburbs may be a result of America’s love affair with the private automobile, inner city residential districts owe their location, street alignment, and pattern of growth almost entirely to the advent of the street railway. Current Portland roadmaps still reflect those early “streetcar suburbs.”

Portland and its street railway system grew together and expansion into the open spaces beyond downtown was rapid. Until the coming of the automobile streetcars were also the only easy means of getting around town and had become an integral part of most inner city neighborhoods.

But the heyday of streetcars only lasted a few decades. Already by the 1910s the automobile had begun to change the way people moved about the city. By the 1920s traffic around the city was frequently snarled by the volume of automobiles and the existing (and abundant) streetcar lines. The 1930s marked the “beginning of the end” as streetcars began to be replaced by electric “trolley buses” while the old rails were buried under layers of asphalt.

In recent years the streetcar has made a triumphant return to the Rose City and September 2012 marks its return to the Central Eastside.

Our exciting new exhibit tells the story of the rise, fall, and re-birth of the streetcar in Portland and its indelible impact on the city. Guest curators Dan Haneckow and Richard Thompson hold a wealth of knowledge about streetcar history in the Portland area. Dan is well known for his blog Café Unknown. Richard is the author of Portland’s Streetcars (2006) and Portland’s Streetcar Lines (2010). Be sure to also check out our series of streetcar related education programs this fall and winter.

 

Wonders In Wood

Glass Blast

Liz’s Antique Hardware Gallery

On Exhibit through Spring 2013

Sponsored by: Rejuvenation

Supported by: Maud Eastwood and Precision Images

Few areas of collecting vintage articles have been as widely addressed and professionally covered as the field of glass in all its complexities. But what is long overdue is a comprehensive treatment of glass doorknobs which addresses the needs of the serious collector seeking to identify acquisitions. This is a collectible that grows on the seeker. The more in-depth the search, the greater the understanding and appreciation, not only of the decorative treatment but also the underlying substance.

In the 1820s there was a revolutionary development in glass manufacture in the United States, the invention of mechanical glass pressing. Between 1825 and 1830 there were four patents granted relating to glass doorknobs. The second patent was granted to Henry Whitney and Enoch Robinson of the New England Glass Works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

From the standpoint of hardware production, glass-making is clearly a time-honored and significant profession of both English and American craft, worthy of attention and collection.

Come to the AHC and see this interesting collection!