Oral history interview with Dorothea M. Lensch, 1977 October 20-1978 March 10

This oral history interview with Dorothea M. Lensch was conducted by Mischa Creditor and Carol Spellman in two sessions on October 20, 1977, and March 10, 1978, as part of the Portland Neighborhood History Project. The project was conducted by Portland Parks and Recreation in the late 1970s, and consisted of interviews with people who moved to or lived in the Portland metropolitan area from the early to mid-1900s. Charmaine Allen was also present for part of the first session.

In the first interview session, conducted by Mischa Creditor on October 20, 1977, Lensch discusses her early life in Portland and her education at Mills College in Oakland, California; at the University of Oregon in Eugene; and at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She speaks about her work as director of recreation for the Portland Parks Bureau from 1936 to 1972. She shares her reasons for returning to Portland after living and teaching on the East Coast for a decade, talks about lobbying for the bureau's plans to expand community recreational programs, and discusses her work setting up community centers in war housing projects during World War II. She talks about developing and funding youth sports programs, including programs for children with disabilities; speaks at length about the people she worked with in the Parks Bureau, particularly Paul Keyser; and discusses working with Portland city government and other city departments. She describes the circuses that the bureau once produced. She speaks about organizing and funding the bureau's youth camp programs, particularly the camp for children with disabilities.

In the second interview session, conducted by Carol Spellman on March 10, 1978, Lensch speaks further about working with Paul Keyser, describes his parks philosophy, and talks about his work planning Peninsula Park, Washington Park and the Rhododendron Garden. She discusses fundraising to purchase land for park projects, and revisits the topic of her work setting up community centers in war housing projects during World War II. She talks about cultivating leaders through the Parks Bureau public programs, about bringing electricity to the parks, and about the campaign for a parks levy on the Portland city ballot at the time of the interview. She speaks further about the development of programs for children with disabilities. She shares her experiences as a woman in municipal government; looks at documents and photographs and talks about them; and discusses the development of Parks Bureau programs and youth centers for teenagers. She closes the interview by talking about race relations in Portland during the 1950s and 1960s, and their effect on public park programs in Portland.