Venue History
Xhurch is an interdisciplinary arts venue and living space located in a former church. The story of how the building changed hands over the years speaks to the cultural and demographic shifts common to North and Northeast Portland. Built in 1914, the small, home-like structure, then known as "Alberta Shul", was a gathering space for the neighborhood's Jewish community. By 1952, the shul community had outgrown its modest container and sought a larger building nearby, leading them to sell the shul to Mount Sinai Congregation, a group of African-American Christians. Racial tensions inherent in the sale were distilled in a poignant letter from the rabbis of the shul responding to their real estate agent, who, along with a host of discriminatory neighbors, were intent on obstructing the deal “for no other reason than that the purchasers, though Christian, are also Negro." The rabbis responded with eloquence, and in no uncertain terms, wrote:"We regard such pressures as being violative of the principles of Americanism, of Judaism, of Christianity and of common decency... Man has no dearer right than the privilege of worshiping God in his own way. To deprive any group of people of the right to meet and to worship merely because God chose to make them a part of the colored majority of mankind is repulsive to Americans who love their country and the great principles of democracy... In the event you refuse to close the sale, we desire to be released from our listing agreement so that we may ourselves consummate the moral agreement we have entered into."
(read the full letter at Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments blog.)
Throughout the following half-century a host of congregations rose and fell at the site where Xhurch now resides, including Neighborhood Church of God, Church of the True Vine, and Church of Love, until 1990, when the building was purchased by real-estate investor, John Andrews, who had little interest in church planting but continued to rent the building to small congregations until eventually the building fell vacant. He placed an add on Craigslist that said: "Church for rent", and in late 2008, an artist and musician, Matt Henderson, responded to the add and toured the space, eventually working out terms to rent the building in an open-ended 'mixed-use' capacity. In 2010, the 'Xhurch' chapter had begun...
“...Man has no dearer right than the privilege of worshiping God in his own way.” - Congregation Tifereth Israel, 1952
Xhurch (pronounced 'church') started as a live-work space and gathering spot for friends, artists, and collaborators, and soon blossomed into a unique venue for performance and art-making. The space has played host to a long list of creative practitioners hailing from near and far, offering lecture series, film showings, regular art and music happenings, exploratory VR nights, 'Summer of Science', fundraisers, an ambient music series, Santuary Sunday, curated by Coco Madrid, and the annual NTVTY scene ritual/alternative holiday display. Xhurch remains an integral arts venue catoring to fringe creative expression.