Monuments Next Up: South Park Blocks Abraham Lincoln Installation

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The monument of President Abraham Lincoln will return to the South Park Blocks this year as part of the Portland Monuments Project, the City's ongoing effort to foster dialogue with the community about monuments, develop community-centered policy changes, and determine the future of seven monuments that were damaged, toppled, or removed during demonstrations in Portland in 2020.

The City's monument of President Lincoln will be installed on a seismically upgraded base that is lower to the ground and feature new contextual elements including historical narrative text with QR codes, interpretive panels and site markers to bring the Abraham Lincoln monument closer to the public. The inspiration to bring Lincoln closer to Portlanders comes from the Port of Portland's installation honoring Oregon Governor Victor G. Atiyeh. The "Trader Vic" monument is installed at ground level in a designated section of the international concourse at PDX Airport, memorializing Governor Atiyeh's global vision, endless drive and work ethic, and the lasting impact he had on Oregon politics and Oregon's economy. Changes to the original site reflect input received from Portlanders through multiple listening sessions, community events, and years of programming as part of the Portland Monuments Project.

The Office of Arts & Culture and the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) worked closely with leading preeminent conservation experts and fabricators to conserve and restore the hundred-year-old bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln. The restoration process was both educational and informative, and the lessons learned through research, metallurgical analysis and fabrication will inform future conservation work for the monuments of Presidents George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt.

The Office of Arts & Culture and RACC also partnered with accessibility experts and users with lived experience at Access Recreation to ensure that restored monuments, as well as the educational components that accompany them, will be accessible to many more members of the public. The resulting approach to this project is the culmination of extreme care, meticulous detail, and diligent attention to community feedback.

Reflections of the Community

The Portland Monuments Project encourages healthy, and sometimes difficult, dialogue about our history. The City's task is to honor the breadth of community feedback and lived experience. For example, some Portlanders have told us they want monuments like Lincoln to be returned exactly as they were while others oppose the monuments ever being returned to public view. Because there is disagreement, there is no perfect solution. There is, however, an opportunity to hold multiple truths with great care, and to engage in the kind of public discourse Portlanders value even when navigating difficult and complex questions.

The Portland Monuments Project has received input from Portlanders across various forms of public engagement including a 2024 symposium, public surveys by researchers at PSU's Regional Research Institute, and projects undertaken by Portland Monuments Project partners. Across that engagement, one point became clear: returning the Presidential monuments exactly as they were would not be a neutral decision. It would be a status quo decision that overlooks the dissenting views Portlanders have shared.

Our work on the Portland Monuments Project focuses on bringing nuance and context to the way these monuments are displayed, humanizing the figures they portray, and recognizing the full impact of their legacy and contributions in American history. We also acknowledge that Portland's monuments are part of a larger conversation that is happening nationally and internationally about ways to honor both history and change.

The siting of the Lincoln monument reflects a variety of input from Portlanders:

• 2021 Portland Parks & Recreation South Park Blocks Master Plan including monument-specific themes from community-specific listening sessions
• 2021 Portland Historic Landmarks Commission: Public Letters on South Park Block Monuments to State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation (SHPO)
• 2021 Converge 45 Monuments & Memorials Work on monuments
• 2023 Lewis & Clark Portland's Monument Engagement Process Committee Report on Public Engagement with Portland's Monuments and Memorials
• 2024 Portland State University: Portland Monuments Symposium Report

The Future of the Portland Monuments Project

Portlanders will continue to inform the City's work on the Portland Monuments Project, and we are currently surveying Portlanders through a partnership with Oregon Contemporary and the Portland Art Museum for recommendations on potential sites for the installation of the bust of York.

Public engagement opportunities and conversations hosted by Project Partners advance dialogue that explore how these public symbols can reflect a fuller, more inclusive history and spark meaningful dialogue about the city's past, present, and future, and the City wants all Portlanders to have an opportunity to engage in the process

The Office of Arts & Culture will continue to provide status updates about the work of Portland Monuments Project, including the lessons and learnings from community conversations about the role of public art in Portland.

Learn more about the Portland Monuments Project Timeline