The Portland Branch Meetinghouse, also known as the Portland Stake Tabernacle, is a lovely tudorbethan style building that was completed in 1929. The original Portland Branch building, completed in 1915, was outgrown, and so this large building was completed, and the old building was sold to the local RLDS (now Community of Christ) branch.
This building still stands and it's lovely, although in 2019 the local ward stopped meeting here (I'm unsure if it was discontinued or relocated) and the building became a family history center (similar to what happened to the historic Las Vegas Ward).
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| (Image Source: Church History Library) |
The building looks very much the same.
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| (Image Source: Church History Library) |
The front of the building originally had a large mural, done by J. Leo Fairbanks, showing Christ watching over the armed forces. It was commissioned by the stake president in the 1940s, whose son died serving in WWII. The President used the money to commission the mural.
This beautiful building is another example of the issue many historic buildings face--they are located in inner-city areas, such as Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and other areas, where LDS demographics are decreasing, as family-oriented members tend to move to the suburbs. Therefore, these older buildings, already threatened just because of the cost of their upkeep and maintenance, are even more at risk of their congregations being discontinued or moved and the building becoming useless. While I'm glad the building is still preserved as a family history center, it has been closed for nearly 2 years due to the pandemic, and even when it's used, that would hardly use much of a very large building.
In the past 7 years since I started this blog, several buildings that I documented have now been razed, sold, or abandoned. I plan to do a post in the upcoming month about these buildings.
