In 1954, a 16-year-old boy in Portland, Oregon biked home with a set of nine-foot doors balanced on his handlebars, swaying with the weight in a snaking line. While most kids his age were collecting comic books or baseball cards, Jerry Bosco was collecting architectural artifacts. The doors were adorned with beveled glass windows and he?d rescued them from a bulldozer that was gobbling up a home in Northeast Portland, leaving behind nothing but rubble and a cloud of dust. This was one of the first pieces of Portland?s history that Jerry Bosco salvaged. Eventually, he would have enough artifacts to weave together the narrative of the city, told through colorful stained glass, brass doorknobs, thick slabs of old growth timber, and stylized accents from decades of the city?s history. After graduating from Portland State University in 1964, Bosco met fellow collector Ben Milligan. Ben was drawn to arrowheads, agates?and comic books. Their shared interest in collecting pieces of history led to a future as life partners and Portland?s most prolific salvagers. Their collection lives on today in the Architectural Heritage Center on Grand Avenue, where locals often come with questions about their own historic homes.

Today, Milligan and Bosco would have plenty of opportunity to sneak into old properties scheduled for demolition. Portland houses have been torn down at an alarming rate as the city has grown rapidly in the last few years.
And, just like Milligan...