National Register of Historic Places, Municipal Elevator, Oregon City brochure

A four-page brochure on the Oregon City Municipal Elevator, one in a series of three brochures on the city's National Register sites. From the brochure: "THE OREGON CITY MUNICIPAL ELEVATOR is a 130-foot-tall, public elevator tower rising from an underground tunnel in downtown Oregon City to connect with the city’s second level atop a bluff to the east. The elevator is a Modern, reinforced concrete structure designed by Gordon E. Trapp (1915-2009) of the engineering firm, Stevens & Thompson of Portland, Oregon. It was constructed by the Portland engineering firm, James & Yost in 1955. The elevator was designed to be futuristic in style and to incorporate minimal ornament. From downtown, the elevator is accessed through a tunnel aligned with the intersection of 7th Street and Railroad Avenue or via a tunnel that runs east under the Union Pacific railroad tracks at the base of Singer Hill. Metal elevator doors are embedded in the tunnel’s eastern wall. These doors access a staffed Otis elevator that rises through the elevator’s narrow, cylindrical shaft into the center of an observatory. The horseshoe-shaped observatory has canted walls and large windows offering unobstructed views of the city below, including the Willamette Falls to the south. From the observation deck, pedestrians exit east to the paved McLoughlin Promenade, a linear park with a concrete pathway that runs north and south along the edge of the bluff. The elevator is backed by the natural vegetation and basalt outcroppings of the bluff, and is constructed of reinforced lightweight concrete. Routine maintenance has occurred over the years, but the tunnel, shaft and observation deck retain excellent integrity of design, materials, workmanship, site, location, feeling and association. In 2008, the City of Oregon City installed a permanent, non-contributing art exhibit designed by artist Michael Asbill. The observation deck’s floor was painted with a map of Oregon City, and the tunnel and observation deck walls were hung with framed historic images of Oregon City. Project funding was provided in part by a 2014 Historic Preservation Fund grant to City of Oregon City (project number OR-14-13) administered by the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (grant number P14AF00096) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Oregon City, Oregon is a Certified Local Government.

National Register of Historic Places, Municipal Elevator, Oregon City brochure

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