Sellwood Moreland Improvement League

Sellwood Community House now on Historic Register

Dec 07, 2006

SMILE initiated and financed an effort to get the 96-year-old Sellwood Community Center, operated by the Portland Parks Department, listed on the National Historic Register. Neighborhood historian and active volunteer Eileen Fitzsimons pursued the tedious and lengthy process of preparing the application and presenting it to the state commission, and she reported at the December SMILE General Public Meeting that officials in Washington DC had approved the application and added the Center to the Register on November 15th.

The listing confers benefits on the city’s stewardship of the building and should reduce the cost of its operation, while making it eligible for grants.

Since then, PP&R elected to close the Community Center and a group of local residents organized by SMILE formed themselves into a team to reopen the building as the nonprofit Sellwod Community House, and resume the services formerly provided byt PP&R in the Community Center.  The Community House has proven a major success by any measure, and is being operated under a token lease from the City of Portland, responsible for itw own maintenance of the historic facility in which it operates.