RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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After more than 30 years of minimal to no use, the city of Portland, Ore., had three ideas for the old building that once housed Washington High School: tear it down, convert it into office buildings space, or — the more out-of-the-box idea — turn it into a music venue.
The Washington High building “was a bad investment for anybody, honestly,” says Portland entrepreneur Kevin Craddock , who owns Revolution Hall, Mississippi Studios and Polaris Hall. But local developer and preservationist Art DeMuro had a vision for the long-standing brick building. He envisioned a concert hall within the more than 130,000-square foot facility with additional office spaces in the place of former classrooms. “DeMuro was savvy enough and respected enough and beloved enough that he got the deal done with the city,” backed by real estate developer PacTrust in 2013, Craddock adds.
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Shortly after securing the high school — which first opened in 1906 and moved to its current location in 1909, then was rebuilt in 1924 following a fire — for an $18 million restoration, DeMuro passed away from cancer. But the project went on, and when it came time to design and build out the concert venue, the development company Venerable Properties reached out to the owners of Portland’s beloved indie venue Mississippi Studios, Craddock and Jim Brunberg , to build what would be called Revolution Hall.
“I was having a sandwich next door at this place called Meat Cheese Bread, and Jim just rolled over with our talent buyer at the time and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go look at this high school. They want to turn it into a music venue,’” says Craddock. “I didn’t even go with them.”
Craddock was familiar with the building. Back in his bartending days, he used to break into the high school after work through what he called “the door of debauchery,” and take in the stunning view of the city in the wee hours of the morning. He says that the door was never latched and earlier this year he got the original vestibule he broke in through tattooed on his leg.
After the school shut down, Craddock also attended experimental shows called Time-Based Art put on by the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art at the building. At the time, there was no running water, only one usable bathroom on the bottom floor, and the event organizers had to run electricity from a generator.
“I think they had permission, but maybe not,” says Brunberg.
“It was permission light,” jokes Craddock. “Diet permission.”
Revolution Hall in Portland, Ore.
Jim Brunberg/Courtesy Revolution Hall
By the time DeMuro’s team was ready to renovate Washington High, the whole place needed to be gutted. The restoration project included a historic overlay to preserve the exterior and design elements of the school, but new plumbing and electrical systems were installed, as well as a new roof. Despite the obvious cost and complications of renovating a space that hadn’t seen regular use in over three decades, Craddock and Brunberg, who always have a sawzall or some form of chainsaw in their cars to “tweak” things at one of their venues, were up to the task.
Wanting to spend more time at home after years as a touring musician in bands like Box Set (which appeared on the cover of Billboard magazine’s best unsigned bands issue in 1994), Brunberg opened Mississippi Studios in 2003. Originally, the space had been a recording studio, but Brunberg transformed the former church into a 100-cap room that welcomed underplays from Yeah Yeah Yeahs , Brandi Carlile , Regina Spektor , Feist , Rickie Lee Jones and Hot Tuna . A few years later, Brunberg met Craddock at a mutual friend’s party.
“I knew who Jim was the whole time, so when he very casually said, ‘The business isn’t doing good, I just had these kids and I’m on the road, be my business partner,’ I was like, ‘That sounds like a good idea,’” says Craddock, who had spent years in music-adjacent jobs and in construction. The trust was immediately apparent in their working relationship. “Jim announced to the staff before I even was a legal owner that I was one of the owners, and then he went on the road with [the band] Storm,” says Craddock.
Revolution Hall owners Jim Brunberg (left) and Kevin Craddock.
Byron Beck/Courtesy Revolution Hall
In 2009, Craddock fully jumped in to improve food and beverage options and add structure to the business side of Mississippi Studios. Over the years, Mississippi Studios has been renovated several times and the pair added the Bar Bar restaurant, which claims to have the best burgers in town.
“He saved the business because I was a dumbass musician trying to run this little venue,” says Brunberg. “We’re like a family. Everybody thinks that Kevin and I are either married or brothers, and that’s fine with us.”
The jovial duo quickly realized the biggest initial expense in renovating Washington High was soundproofing the auditorium so that the other tenants wouldn’t be disrupted by soundcheck in the middle of the day. And the historic overlay meant even the curved wood auditorium chairs had to keep their original design.
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“The old seats were only 16 inches wide, but we did not notice that when we first got the tour of the building,” Brunberg says. Local codes mandate that seats be at least 21 inches wide. On that initial tour, Brunberg laughs that he patted himself on the back for bringing a tape measure to check the length of the seats. “They were 23 inches wide, which is great. But those were the teachers’ seats at the end of the rows.”
Alongside local woodworker Matt Lackey, they...
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