Church to Be Demolished for Townhouses

PORTLAND, Ore. – A church in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood will be demolished to make way for multifamily attached housing.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

The property, located at Southeast 50th and Lincoln, is home to the First Free Methodist Church, built in 1953. The church is 4,468 square feet on a 13,200 square foot lot.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

On July 3 the church transferred ownership from the First Free Methodist Church of Portland Oregon into the Oregon Conference of the Free.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

That same day the Oregon Conference of the Free sold the church for $700,000 to Robert J Platt and Lincoln Town Homes LLC.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

On Jan. 2 the developers applied for and received a demolition permit. A week later they applied for new construction of 18 townhouse units. There will be four buildings with three units each and three buildings with two units each.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

Robert Platt has worked on a number of remodels and additions in the past.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

Lincoln Townhomes LLC, which owns a majority of the property, is registered to realtor Gary Had.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

This is the second church on Lincoln Street being demolished for housing that the Portland Chronicle has reported on, the first being Everett Custom Homes‘ six new single family houses going in 17 blocks down Lincoln Street from this development.

Photo credit: Portland Chronicle

The development on 50th Avenue is one block south of the 84 unit apartment complex proposed by Urban Development Group.