Montgomery Park is an office building and former

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

mail-order catalog Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

and

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

located in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, built in 1920. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

under its historic name Montgomery Ward & Company Building. The building is located on property once used for the

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...

, of 1905.Painter, John Jr. (October 4, 1984). "Trade center slated at Ward's warehouse". ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', p. D8. It was occupied by Montgomery Ward from 1920 until 1985, although the majority of the company's operations at this location ended in 1982. The building is the third-largest office building in Portland with .

Description and original uses

At the time of its completion, in September 1920, the building was the largest in the city, as measured by floor space, which was approximately originally. A wing was added to the building's northwest corner in 1935–36, changing what had been an L-shaped building to a roughly U-shaped one. The building has nine floors plus a basement. The 4th through 9th floors were used almost exclusively as warehouse space, while most portions of the 2nd and 3rd floors functioned as office and mail-order workspace. The first floor was used primarily for loading and unloading of freight arriving and leaving by truck or rail and temporary storage of such goods. Three

rail spur A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An indust ...

s served the facility, extending into the ground floor. Among other things, the building is known for its large steel-framed roof sign, the largest sign in Portland, which was constructed in 1925.

Retail store

Retail service at this location was relatively limited in its first years. A 1936 expansion added retail space, covering a variety of goods, occupying a new mezzanine floor and parts of the 2nd and 3rd floors. A tire store was opened in an adjacent annex. In the post-World War II years, the Vaughn Street store's business declined steadily. An increasing proportion of the store's customers were attracted to new suburban

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

s, and in the early 1970s

began to follow the same path itself, opening stores at

Mall 205 Mall 205 was an enclosed shopping mall located at the junction of Interstate 205 and S.E. Washington Street in Portland, Oregon's Hazelwood neighborhood, in the United States. The mall features over 20 stores and a food court; anchor stores in ...

and

Jantzen Beach Mall Jantzen Beach Center is an outdoor shopping mall located in Portland, Oregon, on Hayden Island in the Columbia River, known as Jantzen Beach SuperCenter from 1996 until about 2012. Opened in 1972 as an indoor mall, sometimes known informally as ...

, along with a stand-alone store in Beaverton. The Northwest Portland store closed in July 1976, and the building remained in use only for warehouse and mail-order functions and as a "catalog overstock outlet". In 1978, the company built a new warehouse in Portland's Rivergate Industrial District, and in 1982 it closed the Northwest Portland warehouse, eliminating 500 jobs at the site. Only the small "clearance outlet" store continued to operate, and following the 1984 sale of the building, that store closed finally in July 1985.

Renovation

Montgomery Park, Portland, east facade close-up

In 1984, the building was acquired by the Norcrest China Company, a Portland property development company owned by

Bill Naito William Sumio Naito (September 16, 1925 – May 8, 1996) was an American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in Portland, Oregon, U.S. He was an enthusiastic advocate for investment in downtown Portland, both private and public, an ...

and his brother Sam Naito. In 1985, the Naitos initiated a rehabilitation and refitting of the building's interior for use for

trade show A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and cu ...

s, banquets and offices.Oliver, Gordon (May 9, 1996). "Bill Naito, 1925–1996: Portland loses a civic treasure" (and sidebar, "The Naito File: Facts & Figures, Awards and Achievements"). ''

'', pp. A1, A14–A15. As part of the renovations, the building was renamed "Montgomery Park". The "notoriously frugal" Bill Naito liked the new name, because it meant that only the "W" and "D" of "Ward" in the huge 14-letter

neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...

rooftop sign needed to be altered, with "P" and "K" letters. The sign was changed in May 1986, at which time most of the renovations also were completed and the building opened for regular use for trade shows, among other uses.

Foreclosure

A lender has initiated foreclosure proceedings on a loan tied to the Montgomery Park office complex, owned by

Unico Properties Unico Properties LLC (formerly University Properties Inc) is an American private equity real estate investment and development company based in Seattle, Washington, focused on the north-west and west of the US. It was founded in 1953. As of Se ...

. The borrowers owe nearly $150 million, according to a paperwork filed with Multnomah County Recorder’s Office on September 29, 2023. The property is expected to go up for auction in February, 2024. File:Montgomery Park, Portland, Oregon 2012, main entrance.JPG, Entrance in 2012, on building's west side File:Montgomery Park, Portland, OR 2012 - windows.JPG, Windows above central

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

File:Montgomery Park, Portland, OR 2012 - elevators.JPG, Elevator bank File:Montgomery Park night 2013.jpg, The large rooftop sign, which is white in daylight, glows in red neon at night. File:Montgomery Park - Portland Oregon - from Fremont Bridge - wide.jpg, View from

Fremont Bridge Fremont Bridge may refer to: * Fremont Bridge (Portland, Oregon) * Fremont Bridge (Seattle) The Fremont Bridge is a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Fremont Cut in Seattle, Washington. The bridge, which connects Fremont Avenue North an ...

with

Tualatin Mountains The Tualatin Mountains (also known as the West Hills or Southwest Hills of Portland) are a range on the western border of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A spur of the Northern Oregon Coast Range, they separate the Tualatin Basin of Washi ...

and

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China *Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fores ...

in distance File:Montgomery park.jpg, Aerial view from the west-southwest

References

External links