Postal Employees Credit Union

Name: Postal Employees Credit Union
Address: 421 SE 10th Avenue
City: Portland
Year of Construction: 1962
Architect: Reese and Blachly
Original Use: Financial (Credit Union)
Status: In Use
National Register of Historic Places: Listed (100005726)
Description: As described in the building’s National Register of Historic Places designation form, prepared in 2020 by Jessica Engeman of Meritus Consulting:

“The Postal Employees Credit Union is being nominated at the local level under Criterion C, for its architecture. It is an excellent example of a banking building designed in the International Style with significant interior features that are characteristic of Northwest Regionalism—a local variant of the Modernism movement. The building’s 1962 date of construction is also the period of significance. Following World War II, bank architecture underwent a considerable design shift in response to multiple factors including new bank legislation and a booming postwar economy. Financial institutions embraced the language of Modernism more readily than other building types as a way of casting off long-held public perception that banks were traditional and stuffy. Modernism was a form of passive advertising for banks, demonstrating a new business model that emphasized openness and friendly convenience to a growing middle-class customer base. Architects John W. Reese and Frank E. Blachly designed the credit union in ‘high style’ Modernism, including many of Modernism’s key features such as a flat roof, smooth wall planes, ribbon windows, open interior volumes, technologically modern materials, plan type that allows for maximum light penetration, indoor-outdoor connection, and the use of pilotis to support the structure. The architects’ interior application of Northwest Regionalism is evident in the use of unpainted wood for features that include the wave-shaped ceiling of the main banking room with curved glulam beams, gumwood office doors with transom panels, and accent wall paneling. With its progressive design, auto-accessible convenience, and welcoming, light-filled interior, the Postal Employees Credit Union embodied the features of a quintessential modern bank building from the midcentury period.”