You CAN Fight City Hall

And we are! Now we need your help.

We cannot sit by and let 60 years of work, including a model historic preservation ordinance and more than a dozen historic districts, to be tossed aside by a majority of the Portland City Council simply to accommodate the grandiose plans of a single property owner.

If our laws and historic districts are to have any integrity, we must challenge the vote of May 20 to arbitrarily reclassify the former Chamber of Commerce building at 142 Free Street, allowing the Portland Museum of Art to demolish this historic example of the work of John Calvin Stevens.

After much discussion and careful consideration, we have instructed our attorneys at Murray, Plumb & Murray to move forward with a lawsuit to overturn the council decision. They are making a strong case for us and are working at a reduced rate, but litigation like this is expensive.

We obviously hadn’t budgeted for something like this, and now we need to raise the money to pay for these extraordinary legal expenses. Will you help us? After all, if we don’t take this on, who will?

And if we don’t take this on, who’s to stop the next property owner or developer who wants to tear down a historic building just because it’s in their way?

Please help us take a stand for historic preservation by donating to our special legal fund today.
Click the 142 Free Street Appeal Legal Fund to donate now.