Collection is open for research.
Gift of the Boise Neighborhood Association, April 2025 (RL2025-034).
The Boise Neighborhood Association, initially sometimes called the Boise Neighborhood Improvement Association, had formed by late 1972. It represents the Boise neighborhood in North Portland, Oregon, which includes parts of N. Mississippi Avenue and is bordered by the Overlook, Humboldt, King, and Eliot neighborhoods.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the association was involved in the Mississippi Avenue Target Area project, which sought to revitalize the area. Around that time, it was also involved in a dispute with Housing Our Families, a community development corporation that had two rental properties in the neighborhood. The association opposed development of a third rental building by Housing Our Families, alleging that the existing properties had been a source of crime and drug activity. Housing Our Families eventually canceled the planned development in Boise and instead built a housing unit in an adjacent neighborhood. These actions, along with the association's proposed land use policies, spurred concerns that gentrification might displace Black residents who had historically made up a large part of the neighborhood's population.
Sources: Collection materials; caption in Oregon Journal, December 23, 1972, page 2; Willamette Week cover story by Chris Lydgate, "The Battle of Boise," March 17, 1999; television documentary review, "Gentrification vs. Revitalization," by Barry Johnson, Oregonian, August 23, 2002, page E1; "No room for displacing folks in Mississippi Avenue revival," by Wade Nkrumah, Oregonian, December 27, 2002, page E2; map of Boise neighborhood on Boise Neighborhood Association website (accessed January 2025),
Boise Neighborhood Association records, Coll 1121, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection processed by Jeffrey A. Hayes in January 2026. Materials that had been originally stored in binders were rehoused in archival folders for preservation purposes.
The collection consists of the records of the Boise Neighborhood Association of Portland, Oregon. The majority of materials are from the late 1990s or early 2000s, though the collection includes some photocopies of historic photographs of the Boise neighborhood. Records include correspondence, meeting minutes, meeting attendance records, reports, and planning records. Subjects covered in the collection include the revitalization of the Mississippi Avenue business district, the association's dispute with the community development corporation Housing Our Families, and the 2004 Boise-Eliot Multicultural Fair and Mississippi Avenue Street Fair. The collection also includes police reports and crime statistics for north Portland neighborhoods, and some photographs of cleanup work and a carnival and rummage sale in 1998.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.