History
The following is a Neighborhood and Site History prepared by Stephanie Turner as part of her PSU Permaculture Design Class.
Kailash Eco-Village is located in Lot 4 Block 1 of Williams Addition #2, a subdivision platted by Richard Williams in July of 1904. Originally part of the Kenilworth plat, it is now in the Creston–Kenilworth neighborhood. Located approximately one mile east of the Willamette River, Creston-Kenilworth is bounded by SE Powell Boulevard to the north, SE Foster Road to the west, SE Holgate Avenue to the south, and SE 26th Avenue to the west. The neighborhood consists of a mixture of early twentieth century single-family homes and post-World War II apartment complexes. Nearby busy thoroughfares are lined with automobile-oriented, twentieth century commercial buildings and a few scattered remnants of streetcar-era business districts.
Settlement in the Kenilworth area began as early as 1860. When a late 19th century streetcar line along Gladstone Street created easy access to downtown Portland, homes and businesses began to pop up amidst the farmhouses in the area, and the neighborhood became one of Portland’s early blue-collar commuter suburbs. Late 19th and early 20th century growth consisted primarily of homes and a few businesses concentrated near the streetcar lines. Development continued as the transportation network expanded and streetcars were replaced with electric trolleys. After about 1914, automobile-oriented development began. With the opening of the Ross Island Bridge in 1926, homebuilding surged again as large-scale commercial buildings with parking lots began to dominate the major thoroughfares.
Between the years of 1900 and 1948, modest homes in the typical early 20th century period cottage, bungalow and builder styles filled the residential lots in Williams Addition #2. White, working class families enjoyed a pleasant, convenient neighborhood that offered easy access to downtown and nearby shopping, good schools and beautiful public parks. After World War II, the cultural and architectural character of the neighborhood began to change with a building boom of multi-family housing. The first small apartment courtyards appeared in the late 1940’s, and by the 1970’s, high-density apartment complexes dominated large sections of the neighborhood. Kenilworth began to diversify as returning soldiers, single working women, young couples, non-traditional families and people of a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds moved into the apartments. The Kailash Eco-village complex is an integral and representative part of this historic period.
Historic Maps show a single family dwelling on the northeast quarter of Lot 4 Block 1 between the years of 1908 and 1958. In 1958 the property was purchased by Club Cabana, Inc. and the home was razed to make way for a modern, thirty-two unit luxury apartment complex. The Club Cabana Apartments were constructed in 1959, and in 1960, residents began to enjoy the good life in a Hawaiian-theme setting that included a heated outdoor swimming pool, a “Lanai Lounge” and an on-site gymnasium. A giant palm tree mural, water features and lava-rock landscaping contributed to the tropical setting, and amenities included forty-two parking spaces, laundry facilities and a private storage compartment for each unit. The one-bedroom apartments were the latest in streamlined modern convenience, including a dishwasher in every kitchen.
As the character of the neighborhood changed, Creston/Kenilworth lost many of its long-time homeowners. Many of the single family homes, in addition the apartment complexes, became rentals with absentee landlords. Long-time residents remember the 1970’s as a time when inner Southeast Portland was the center of Portland’s counter-culture movement with groups of young people, hippies and students sharing rental homes and apartments. Pool parties at the apartment complexes were known for experimentation with free-love and mind-altering drugs.
The 1980’s brought a wave of Southeast Asian immigrants to the neighborhood. The number of Creston-Kenilworth residents classified as Asian/Pacific Islander tripled between 1980 and 1990. A Kailash resident who grew up nearby recalls that the Club Cabana apartments housed many Southeast Asian families during this period, with four or five people in each of the one-bedroom apartments. He remembers the noise, commotion and exotic cooking smells that emanated from crowded, sparsely furnished apartments with bamboo mats on the floors. During this period the Lanai and Gym were closed and the complex began to deteriorate due to neglect.
By 1990, only 34% of Creston/Kenilworth housing was owner occupied. The deteriorating low-rent units became housing for poor and unemployed people on public assistance. New waves of immigrant families, primarily from Russia and Africa, brought life to the neighborhood, but the years of neglect by absentee landlords led to vacancies and blight that attracted crime and drugs. Residents recall the Club Cabana Apartments as a blighted trouble spot during this period, a hub for methamphetamine, crack and stolen cars. The last of its original amenities disappeared when the swimming pool was filled in and the Club Cabana complex, like much of the rental housing in the neighborhood, continued to deteriorate.
As the William’s Addition #2 Subdivision approached its second century, a renaissance began as homebuyers rediscovered this convenient, close-in neighborhood. Attracted by the exceptional value of charming but neglected early 20th century homes located just minutes from downtown, first-time buyers began to move into and renovate houses and gardens. The return of owner/residents invested in making the neighborhood a good place to live is restoring balance, and Creston-Kenilworth is again beginning to thrive. Once a white, blue-collar suburb, it is now home to families, couples, single adults and seniors of diverse income levels, races and social backgrounds. A strong neighborhood association is committed to developing an inclusive sense of community that supports neighborhood diversity and retains a wide range of affordable housing options while making it an attractive, safe, and enjoyable place to live.
The Club Cabana Apartments became, once again, representative of a major shift in the neighborhood when Ole and Maitri Ersson acquired the complex in 2007 and began renovating the individual units, common areas and grounds, giving the old complex a new life as the Kailash Eco-Village.