Longtime preservationist receives lifetime achievement award from city of Lake Oswego

When perusing Jeannie McGuire’s Old Town Neighborhood home — which features an English clock fashioned in 1767 and a Flemish mirror-adorned sideboard built in 1697 — it’s not hard to notice her appreciation for history.

McGuire has turned that interest into a calling these last few decades. She was a member of the city’s Historic Resources Advisory Board since its inception and has been key to the preservation of city resources like the former Oregon Iron Workers Furnace, the Oswego Canal Headgate and myriad historic homes in town. For her efforts, the city of Lake Oswego recently named its lifetime achievement award for historic preservation after McGuire.

“There are so many preservation projects in our community that Jeannie has her fingers in,” said Historic Resources Advisory Board Chair Kasey Holwerda at a City Council meeting Tuesday, May 21.

McGuire has lived across the United States but grew up in Portland and attended Beaverton High School and Oregon State University. However, she first got involved in preservation when she and a group of community members within Montgomery township in New Jersey advocated strongly against the development of a freeway through the middle of the community. When she moved to Lake Oswego, McGuire quickly became a key voice in the burgeoning movement to preserve historic resources. Notably, she worked with the newly formed HRAB to establish the Landmark Designation List, which limits property owners from making changes to the exterior of designated properties, in the late 1980s. There are currently about 70 properties on this list including the peg tree that represented an original gathering space in town on Leonard Street, the Oregon Pioneer Cemetery on Stafford Road, Lake Oswego Country Club, the Lake Oswego Hunt facility and many homes. A public hearing has to be conducted for any of these structures to be removed from the list.

“If there were no HRAB (Historic Resources Advisory Board) no one would ever have any right to say ‘We can’t tear that building down.’ They (property owners) would go ahead and tear it down. There is a degree of safety for those buildings because of the public hearing,” McGuirre said.

Not every old home can be put on the list, McGuire pointed out. They have to have to be considered significant in terms of architecture and history and meet certain criteria — like being at least 50 years old.

According to the city’s writings about the lifetime achievement award, McGuire worked with former Mayor Judie Hammerstad and City Council to ensure the preservation and restoration of the then-dilapidated Trueblood house on Glenmorrie Terrace, helped develop strategies for restoring the iron furnace, worked to ensure the maintenance and protection of the peg tree and helped establish the Hazelia Agricultural Heritage Trail that includes panels detailing the history of the area, among other contributions.

McGuire believes in historic preservation because these properties are remnants of the past and help retain a community’s character and flavor. Further, she said Lake Oswego has a particularly intriguing history — notably its beginnings as the “Pittsburgh of the West” in terms of the attempt to make the town an industrial hub. Chinese Americans lived in town and helped build the Iron Furnace, and Native American history can be found throughout Lake Oswego.

“Why do we go to Europe and go to the great cities and see all of their great buildings? Because it’s our past, worldwide, not just here. We have a wonderful collection. Many (historic places) have been torn down, but we have a wonderful collection of vintage homes that are beautiful and scattered (across town), large and small,” she said.

Along with serving on the historic resources board for decades, McGuire is a charter member of the Old Town Neighborhood Association and has served on the board of directors for the Oswego Heritage Council.

McGuire caught wind that she would receive an award from the city but was blown away to learn she had received the lifetime achievement award and that it had been named after her. She was greeted by dozens of attendees of a recent City Hall meeting who congratulated her on the honor and was delighted to receive six bouquets of flowers.

“Everyone was so kind and thoughtful and I just have always done all this stuff because I have enjoyed it or have a passion for it. I think it’s important and worthwhile. So being recognized in such a way was certainly not at all expected, but overwhelming,” McGuire said.

City Planner Paul Espe said during the City Council meeting that honoring those who have fought for historic preservation may convince others to join this effort.