Waldschmidt Hall, University of Portland, Oregon - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

Waldschmidt Hall began life in 1891 as West Hall, the original and only building of Portland University. Portland University (not to be confused with the University of Portland) was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a spin-off of Willamette University. The new school, situated on a bluff overlooking the Willamette River, got off to a promising start but ran into legal and financial difficulty following the Panic of 1893. Having abandoned their new campus in 1898, Portland University closed its doors altogether in 1900 and rejoined Willamette University.

The abandoned campus, which was basically West Hall, was acquired by the Rev. Alexander Christie, Archbishop of Portland, in 1901 who established it as a new Catholic school named Columbia University. With the help of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the school flourished along with its sister university, Notre Dame, in Indiana. In 1935, the school’s name was changed from Columbia University to the University of Portland.

By 1990, West Hall was approaching 100 years of age and was in bad need of repair and upgrading. The University of Portland embarked on a three-year renovation project to bring the building up to modern code standards but utilized the original blueprints in order to retain the building’s nineteenth-century character. Somewhere in the middle of this renovation, the building was renamed Waldschmidt Hall after Paul E. Waldschmidt, a Roman Catholic bishop and a former president of the university. As an illustration of the effects of inflation, the building cost $32,500 when new in 1891 but cost $5.5 million to renovate a hundred years later. It is of course on the National Register of Historic Places, having been added in 1977.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 1-May-2001 Denomination: 20c Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: Not listed

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