In 2008 we will host the 26^th Annual Irvington Home Tour

The Irvington Home Tour is the longest continuously running neighborhood home tour in Portland.  In fact, the very first Irvington Home Tour, conducted in 1967, was the first such tour in the city.  The tour was scheduled intermittently until 1983, when the popular program became a permanent part of the Irvington Community Association's annual calendar.

The Tour has its genesis in the dark days of the mid-1960's.  The middle-class flight to the suburbs had drained population and resources away from the neighborhood and by the early years of the 1960's, many of the fine homes had been turned into rooming houses.  Some of the larger ones had been abandoned altogether.  Compounding the problem, the part of Irvington west of 15th Avenue was "red lined" by the racist managements of local banks, making it difficult for residents to obtain loans for restoration or purchase of the houses there.

In those years, apartment developers began to demolish the homes between Tillamook and Broadway, replacing them with uninteresting (and some would say ugly), apartment buildings, whose principal architectural feature was a large parking.  By 1964, a few neighborhood residents took the lead to organize the community to fight the blight.  The Irvington Community Association (ICA) was formed that year, the first such organization in Portland.  

In 1967, one of the activities organized by the ICA was a home tour of 20 neighborhood residences.  The idea was to inform the larger community of the historic homes still very much intact in the neighborhood, to provide an activity that would help neighbors get acquainted, and to raise money for community projects.  Those goals have remained the focus of the tour ever since. In the ensuing years, the tour was held sporadically, as interest and available volunteers permitted.

By the early 1980's, the germ of an urban renaissance had begun to spring up and the Home Tour was made a regular annual activity.  The Tour provided a stimulus to rehabilitation and a recognition for the home owners who were making major investments in cash and "sweat equity" to restore their properties.  The Home Tour began to grow in attendance as citywide interest in Irvington has increased in the 1980's and 1990's.  By 1991 the attendance had grown, and revenues from the event had grown beyond the few hundred dollars that was typical of earlier years.  In response, the ICA created its Charitable Giving Program and developed guidelines for distributing the proceeds of the Tour to worthy charities that have a connection to the Irvington neighborhood.

Today, as Irvington has resumed its status as one of the premier neighborhoods of Portland, the Home Tour continues its role of bringing neighbors together and raising money for community projects.  Where once sales of a few hundred tickets were considered a success, now sales are capped at 1000 and most years tickets sell out in advance.  

In 2001, to expand awareness of the Tour and to provide a year-round reminder to the community of the Tour, the ICA launched this website.  Over the years our content has expanded to include hundreds of photos of Irvington homes, including detailed coverage of each year's Tour homes, both inside and out.  Starting in 2004, national coverage of the Tour in publications like American Bungalow Magazine and Old House Interiors helped us reach a national audience.  In 2007, over 15% of the tickets sold on-line went to out-of-the-metro-area buyers, and most of Irvington's  B&B lodgings are filled at Tour-time with out-of-town visitors making the Tour the centerpiece of a visit to Portland.

We look forward to our 26th Annual Home Tour in 2008, and hope that you will join us for another delightful tour!

The Irvington Community Association also maintains a website to provide services internal to the Irvington Community.  We invite all Irvington neighbors and others interested in NE Portland community affairs to visit that site as well.

copyright ICA, 2001-2008