The Multnomah County Courthouse is a historic building that served as the courthouse for

Multnomah County, Oregon Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

from 1911 to 2020. It is located in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

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 ...

, the county seat, and 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 ...

. Due to concerns over the structural deficiency of the then-century-old building, which was determined to need a costly

seismic retrofit Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent exp ...

, the county board of commissioners decided in 2013 to launch plans to construct a new courthouse in a different location, to replace the existing building. Construction began in October 2016. The old courthouse closed on September 29, 2020, and the new courthouse opened on October 5. The old building was sold in 2018 to NBP Capital, which plans to convert it into a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

after making a seismic retrofit.

History

The Multnomah County Courthouse was built in two phases between 1909 and 1914 at a total cost of $1.6 million; to make it fire-resistant, it was constructed of concrete-encased steel, with

concrete slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings, consisting of a flat, horizontal surface made of cast concrete. Steel- reinforced slabs, typically between 100 and 500 mm thick, are most often used to construct floors and ...

floors and walls of

terra-cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

brick, covered with plaster. At the time, it was the largest courthouse on the

west coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

and served also as

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

and

county jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

. Originally, the building had a central courtyard, where

prohibition-era In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, an ...

confiscated alcohol was poured down a drain; over time, this courtyard was filled in to make room for more offices and a jury room. The courthouse had four two-story courtrooms which featured most of the courthouse's original design; some two-story courtrooms were split horizontally during the 1950s, expanding capacity and resulting in new floors. Further renovation of the courthouse had been under consideration since at least 1970, with studies starting in the 1990s also considering building a new courthouse. It was placed on the

in 1979.

Replacement and closure as courthouse

A February 2001 earthquake exposed weaknesses in the building's structure. Plans for the addition of a new floor, the infill of the

light well In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or ...

and a major

were considered, with costs estimated in 2011 to be between $176 million and $220 million. However, in March 2013, the county board of commissioners decided instead to work toward planning for the construction of a new courthouse building in a different location, to replace the existing building. A search for suitable sites for the new courthouse followed, and in April 2015 the county commission chose a site at the west end of the

Hawthorne Bridge The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the ol ...

as the location for the planned new courthouse. Construction began in October 2016. The last day of operation of the old courthouse was September 29, 2020, and the new building opened to the public on October 5, 2020. The new courthouse is 17 stories tall and has 44 courtrooms. It is located in the block bounded by First Avenue, Madison Street,

Naito Parkway Naito Parkway is a major thoroughfare of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was formerly known as Front Avenue and Front Street and was renamed in 1996 to honor Bill Naito. It runs between SW Barbur Boulevard and NW Front Avenue, and adjac ...

, and Jefferson Street, with its main (public) entrance located at the intersection of First and Madison.

Post-courthouse future

The county sold the old building to NBP Capital in November 2018. In 2020, it was reported that the company plans to carry out a

and convert the building for mixed use, but that details of the plans are not yet finalized.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Architecture, National Register of Historic Places, Oregon 1911 establishments in Oregon County courthouses in Oregon Government buildings completed in 1911 Government buildings in Portland, Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon Portland Historic Landmarks Southwest Portland, Oregon Oregon's Most Endangered Places

History

Replacement and closure as courthouse

Post-courthouse future

See also

References

External links