The Ellison-White Conservatory of Music was a music conservatory in Portland, Oregon, United States, associated with the Ellison-White Lyceum and Chautauqua Association. [1] The conservatory advertised itself as "answering a need" for a "Standard Conservatory of the Fine Arts" on the U.S. West Coast. [2]
The conservatory opened in 1918 in the Broadway Building, subsequently relocating to northeast Portland. In 1927, the conservatory constructed the nine-story Studio Building in downtown Portland, after which it formally closed some time in the 1940s.
Founded by J.R Ellison and Clarence White, the Ellison-White Conservatory was originally located in the Broadway Building in downtown Portland, [3] and held its first classes on September 9, 1918. [3] The conservatory was associated with the Ellison-White Lyceum and Chautauqua Association, which had originated in Boise, Idaho. [4]
The conservatory advertised itself as answering a need for a "Standard Conservatory of the Fine Arts" on the U.S. West Coast. [2] By 1920, the conservatory had relocated from the Broadway Building to a location on Everett Street in northeast Portland. [2] [5] In 1922, the conservatory expanded its voice department. [6] In 1927, the conservatory constructed the historic nine-story Studio Building in downtown Portland, located at SW 9th and Taylor, relocating their operations there. [7] The Studio Building had more than 100 rehearsal studios, sound-proof walls, and was attached to the 450-seat Guild Theatre. [8]
The conservatory was closed by the Ellison-White Lyceum and Chautauqua Association some time in 1940s after the Great Depression, though the exact date is unknown. [lower-alpha 1]
Portland is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous county in Oregon. As of 2020, Portland had a population of 652,503, making it the 26th-most populated city in the United States, the sixth-most populous on the West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle. Approximately 2.5 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area, making it the 25th most populous in the United States. About half of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.
Chautauqua is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, showmen, preachers, and specialists of the day. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt said that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America".
Interstate 405 (I-405), also known as the Stadium Freeway No. 61, is a short north–south Interstate Highway in Portland, Oregon. It forms a loop that travels around the west side of Downtown Portland, between two junctions with I-5 on the Willamette River near the Marquam Bridge to the south and Fremont Bridge to the north.
The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. It has an enrollment of about 500 students. The college merged with Willamette University in 2021.
Helen Kleeb was an American film and television actress. In a career covering nearly 50 years, she may be best known for her role from 1972 to 1981 as Miss Mamie Baldwin on the family drama The Waltons.
Harbor Drive is a short roadway in Portland, Oregon, spanning a total length of 0.7 miles (1.1 km), which primarily functions as a ramp to and from Interstate 5. It was once much longer, running along the western edge of the Willamette River in the downtown area. Originally constructed from 1942–43, the vast majority of the road was replaced with Tom McCall Waterfront Park in the 1970s. Signed as U.S. Route 99W, it had been the major route through the city and its removal is often cited as the first instance of freeway removal in the U.S. and as a milestone in urban planning; the original road is remembered as the first limited-access highway built in the city.
Jeanette Loff was an American actress, musician, and singer who came to prominence for her appearances in several Pathé Exchange and Universal Pictures films in the 1920s.
Walter Landon Chappell was an American photographer and poet, primarily known for his black and white photography of landscapes, nature, and the human body.
Jacques Gershkovitch (1884–1953) was a Russian conductor and musician who became the first music director of the Portland Junior Symphony, the first youth orchestra in the United States, based in Portland, Oregon. Born to a musical family in Irkutsk, Gershkovitch was sent to Saint Petersburg in his late teens to study at the Imperial Conservatory. In 1913, he graduated with honors in flute and conducting, and was awarded the Schubert Scholarship for a year of study under German conductor Arthur Nikisch in Berlin. Gershkovitch returned to Irkutsk to enlist during World War I, and by 1916 he had become head of the Imperial Russian Army's military symphony orchestra. He held this position through the Russian Revolution and thereafter, as concerts were often presented as benefits for orphans and the Red Cross.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Portland, Oregon, United States.
The Oregonian Building was a building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States, which served as the headquarters of Portland's major newspaper, The Oregonian, from 1892 to 1948. It was the first steel-framed building constructed in the Western U.S., and from its opening until 1911 it was the tallest building in Portland. In addition to the newspaper's offices and printing press, in 1922 the building became the home of Portland's first commercial radio station, KGW, which was owned by the Oregonian Publishing Company. A second radio station, KEX, was acquired by the paper in 1933, and joined KGW in new, shared studios in the Oregonian Building. A fire in 1943 forced the radio stations to relocate. The company sold the building in December 1947 as it prepared for a move to a larger building. In June 1948, the newspaper moved to a new building on Southwest Broadway, also called the Oregonian Building. The 1892 building with the landmark clock tower then stood vacant for about two years until it was demolished, in 1950.
Caroline Flora Burke was an American actress, theater producer, television producer, writer, and art collector. She appeared in several films in the early 1940s before becoming a theater producer in New York City, notably producing several stage productions of Harold Pinter plays and Broadway productions. She also worked as a producer for NBC in the 1950s, and at the time was the company's only female producer.
Jane Goude, born Genevieve Hazel Goude, was an American actress, Chautauqua performer, and clubwoman, billed as "The Girl from the Golden West".
Bess Gearhart Morrison was an American actress and educator, and a speaker on the Chautauqua and lyceum adult education circuits.
At the advent of the 20th century, the city of Portland, Oregon, was among the first on the United States West Coast to embrace the advent of the silent and feature film. The city's first movie palace, the Majestic Theatre, opened in 1911. By 1916, Portland had "the finest array" of movie houses on the West Coast relative to its population, pioneering venues dedicated exclusively to screening films. The popularization of the sound film in the early 1920s resulted in another boom of new cinemas being constructed, including the Laurelhurst, the Hollywood Theatre, and the Bagdad Theatre, the latter of which was financed by Universal Pictures in 1926.
The Studio Building is a nine-story building in downtown Portland, Oregon. Built in 1927 by the Ellison-White Conservatory of Music, along with the attached Guild Theatre, the building originally had 128 studios for actors and musicians. The exterior displays busts of famous composers. The street level is occupied by the restaurant Pastini, as of 2010.
Coyla May Spring was an American dramatic reader, singer, and pianist, on the Chautauqua circuit and the lyceum platform.
Irene Stolofsky, sometimes billed as Irene Stolofsky Davis after 1926, was a violinist from Chicago. She made several recordings in the 1910s, and toured the United States and Canada on the Chautauqua circuit in the 1920s.
Rachel Steinman Clarke was a Polish-born American violinist based in Chicago.
Katherine Neal Simmons Love was an American soprano singer of Choctaw ancestry. She often performed songs of Native American themes, wearing an evocative costume of beads and fringe.