Historic Landmarks Board

The Mission of the Historic Landmarks Board is to preserve, promote and advocate for Forest Grove's irreplaceable historic sites and assets for the cultural, economic, and educational benefits of everyone.

Members

• Tim Orr, Chair
• Jennifer Brent, Vice-Chair
• George Cushing, Secretary
• Brad Richards
• Kevin Ezell
• Natasha Triplitt
• Vacant
• Vacant, Student Advisor
• Angel Falconer, Council Liaison
• Matt Johnson, Senior Planner, Staff Liaison

The HLB is comprised of seven members and one high school student member. Two members may reside outside city limits. Members have a demonstrated positive interest, competence or knowledge of historic preservation.

1. The purpose of the Historic Landmarks Board, Code § 35.065-35.075, is to encourage broad-based community representation and advise City Council on public policy issues affecting Forest Grove and Council adopted Goals and Objectives related to historic and cultural landmark preservation.
2. The HLB maintains a comprehensive program to identify, designate, and protect the history, culture, archeology, and landscape of the City.

Forest Grove possesses a significant concentration of historic buildings in a small geographic area like no other in the State of Oregon. The buildings in our historic neighborhoods represent a variety of architectural styles, craftsmanship and development patterns that helped shape Forest Grove and make our city what it is today.

The Historic Landmarks Board helps retain the integrity of its historic neighborhoods. The Board reviews applications for new construction, exterior alteration, additions and demolitions for the buildings in Forest Grove's three National Register Historic District including Clark (115 resources), Walker / Naylor (83 resources) and Painter's Woods (37 resources), as well as approximately 33 additional buildings outside of all the districts that have been determined to be significant historic resources.

The Historic Landmarks Board's historic preservation grant program makes funds available to property owners of registered historic buildings desiring to make exterior rehabilitation or renovation improvements.

In 2015, the City of Forest Grove and its Historic Landmarks Board (HLB) set out to create a ten-year plan for the City’s Historic Preservation Program. The plan would integrate the disparate activities of the HLB into a comprehensive set of goals. A list of activities would then be created to serve those goals. The activities would be sorted into a calendar in a logical and attainable sequence. The finished report would be the HLB’s ten-year plan for 2017 through 2026. The following is the result of that project.

Download the Adopted Preservation Plan 2017 to 2026 (PDF).