Portland's Historic and Conservation Districts: What You Can Change on the Outside of Your House, and Where
Portland has three kinds of historic district, and they do not work the same way. In one, replacing your windows or siding needs City review before a permit. In another, most work follows a checklist of standards. In the newest kind, including Laurelhurst and Eastmoreland, there is no design review at all. This page maps all 30 districts from the City's own boundary data and explains, with sources, what exterior work each one regulates.
Table: districts, size and resources
Sources: City of Portland, PortlandMaps Open Data, Historic Districts and Conservation Districts layers (Bureau of Planning and Sustainability), read September 20, 2026; district type rules from the City's Historic Resources Code Project resource hierarchy and changes to historic districts; exemption practice from City Historic Resource Review decisions and the 2022 code amendments. Contributing and noncontributing counts are from the City layer and may lag recent changes.
Historic District (18)
- Non exempt exterior alterations need Historic Resource Review before a permit
- Repair and maintenance are exempt; full siding replacement and replacing original wood windows are not
- Storm windows, basement windows, skylights and most pitched roof solar are exempt
- Demolition of a contributing house needs City Council review
Conservation District (6)
- Most alterations follow clear and objective design standards checked at permit, not a land use review
- Historic Resource Review only for large alterations
- Demolition review for contributing houses
- Demolition of a contributing house needs City Council review
National Register District (6)
- No design review: siding, windows and roofing follow the normal permit rules only
- Demolition review for contributing houses
- Federal tax credit and grant eligibility for qualifying work
What this means for a project
The two largest residential Historic Districts, Irvington at 595 acres and Ladd's Addition at 136, are where most of the review happens: over 3,000 contributing houses between them, nearly all built before 1948, most with original wood siding and windows. In those neighborhoods a siding or window project is planned in two stages: a Historic Resource Review application with drawings and material specifications, then the building permit. Repairs that keep the original material, and work on the rear of the house that is not visible from the street, are usually exempt or handled at the lowest review level.
Laurelhurst and Eastmoreland look similar from the sidewalk but sit in the National Register District category, where the City applies demolition review and nothing else. A homeowner there can replace windows or siding on the normal permit rules, and because both neighborhoods are on the National Register, qualifying rehabilitation may be eligible for the federal historic tax credit on income producing property and for state preservation grants.
The six Conservation Districts sit in between. Since the 2022 code update most alterations there are checked against written standards at the permit counter rather than through a land use review, which is faster and cheaper, but the standards still govern material and proportion on street facing elevations.
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Questions about historic districts
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We have a wealth of experience working as main building contractors on all kinds of projects, big and small, from home maintenance and improvements to extensions, refurbishments and new builds.
Exterior work on a historic Portland home?
VResh Construction restores and replaces siding, windows and trim on pre 1948 homes across Irvington, Ladd's Addition, Alphabet, Laurelhurst and Eastmoreland, prepares the material specifications the City asks for, and is EPA Lead Safe certified for every one of them.