Collection is open for research.
Gifts of Helen Jones, March 2006 (Lib. Acc. 25934) and Ginny Parham, April 2006 (Lib. Acc. 25952).
Designed by Portland, Oregon, architects Glenn Stanton and Hollis Johnston, Columbia Villa was built to house the massive influx of shipyard workers to Portland during World War II and was intended to serve as permanent public housing after the war. By the early 2000s, Columbia Villa had fallen into disrepair, and the Housing Authority of Portland razed it and built a new development on the site called New Columbia.
Source: "Columbia Villa (New Columbia)," by Karen Gibson, Oregon Encyclopedia (accessed August 2025),
Arthur Glenn Stanton (1895-1969) was an architect based in Portland, Oregon. Stanton designed many private residences, public buildings, churches, academic buildings, and institutional buildings in Oregon, particularly in the Portland area. He studied architecture at the University of Oregon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early in his career, he worked as a draftsman in the office of Portland, Oregon architect Morris Whitehouse. Along with Hollis Johnston, Stanton designed the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho, one of multiple facilities where the U.S. government incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II. Stanton was elected as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1951.
Sources: "Arthur Glenn Stanton (Architect)," Pacific Coast Architecture Database (accessed September 2025),
Hollis Johnston (1894-1967) was an architect in Portland, Oregon who worked independently and in partnership with other Portland architects, including Herman Brookman and Glenn Stanton. Beginning his career in the office of Portland, Oregon-based architect Ellis F. Lawrence, Johnston worked as the chief consulting architect for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Bonneville Dam project in the 1930s.
Sources: Oregon Historic Site Form for Bridlemile School (Portland, Oregon), 2009, in the Building Oregon collection, University of Oregon (accessed September 2025),
Columbia Villa blueprints, Coll 1097, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of blueprints of architectural drawings of the Columbia Villa housing project, designed by architects Glenn Stanton and Hollis Johnston. The blueprints show plans, elevations, sections, and construction details for the apartment units of Columbia Villa.
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.