This photo is of the eastern side of the 100 block of S.Pine Street. You can see on the northern end where a row house was sacrificed for an apartment building’s parking lot, but the remaining historic houses have been beautifully renovated.
Sadly, this block was separated from the rest of “the Hill” by the construction of 195, but it is still considered part of Oregon Hill neighborhood. Some wryly refer to the area north of the expressway as “the Oregon Hill Heights”.
What’s even sadder is the the City’s own Planning Commission has recently drawn its new ‘pattern book’ for the neighborhood without including “the Heights”, challenging the neighborhood’s defined borders and angering many residents.
This is seen as part of a long campaign to do away with this historic neighborhood, even if it means gradually chipping away, decade after decade. It’s the long battle of preservation.
