Help Save The Landauer Mercantile Building
Donation protected
Ever since I attended the University of Oregon studying literature and creative writing, I had a naive, albeit romantic notion of living above a quiet little bookstore that was my very own. A space of quiet comfort. A home to shelter my family, to provide a simple, modest means - to share with my neighbors; a place of safety, security, and community.
In early 2007, while looking for that forever place to plant my roots, I found the Landauer Mercantile. Built in 1891 - one of the last standing Victorian era Mercantiles, at the turn of the century the location of circus grounds for the booming East Portland Borough. The Landauer family operated the Leondor Family Circus on site, and the Leondor Brothers traveled with the Ringling Circus before the Barnum Bailey merger as an acrobatic duo tumbling act.
I grew up in Portland - born & raised, but don’t remember ever noticing the building. The day I first saw her, she was sorely run down, neglected - forlorn. The tenant on the main was Sindee’s Market - at the time one of the few places in town to procure obscure beers. The building had a monumental list of structural issues - she was leaning precipitously to the Southeast (22” - close to two feet off center), all the floors & ceilings were sagging (6 + inches of deflection), all the doors and window frames were severely out of square due to the substantial lean, there was a 70 foot elm tree growing into the basement, and the owner was a hoarder - packed to the gills with a century’s worth of archeological kipple. The property was deemed a scarlet letter branded dangerous building - uninhabitable and was at threat of being torn down if steps weren’t made to correct all the structural concerns. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I grew up working in the electrical construction industry (my dad has been the proud owner of Sirianni Electric since the 70’s), yet had zero experience in Victorian era carpentry, but quite miraculously I was able to navigate through all the red tape and procure a construction loan to fix the main structural issues. What I didn’t foresee and severely underestimated, is that the building needed literally everything, and I spent the next three and a half years spending every single penny I had, every single penny I didn’t have, leveraging every angle I could muster to save her. For the curious, the Oblique Coffee Roasters’ website shows a growing window into the renovation:
On March 6th 2008, close to a year into the renovation, on the day I wrote the final check to the sheetrockers, I was involved in a very serious accident where a car pulled in front of me while I was riding my motorcycle on the way to dinner with a friend. Closest ever to death’s door. No insurance, Just past Trader Joe’s in Northwest on Glisan. Hit so hard, hurt so bad I bit my tongue in half, hanging by a thread, shattered teeth, lacerations all over my body, backward folded fingers, broken back, ribs, leg, shattered arm, internal bleeding, peeing blood for days, traumatic brain injury, blood clot formed in my broken leg that almost killed me in my sleep four months after the initial trauma. Ongoing complications and multiple surgeries from residual damage to my body; every day I have gratitude I am not in a wheelchair or pushing daisies taking a dirt nap. In early spring I’m scheduled to have some of the veins damaged from the blood clot in my right leg roadblocked, cauterized, lasered, and glued to repair some of the vascular damage. Since that miserable day, I have now had five blood clots form in my body - four in my leg and a subclavian clot between my ribs and left clavicle, most likely from vascular scar tissue that formed from the initial impact (my body moved the car laterally close to four feet). I am a walking miracle of survival. Even before I opened my doors to the public, I was so close to failure; always a step away from losing everything. Ever since that life altering moment, I keep taking step by step, as far away as I can get from that day that irretrievably affected my life.
Today, in this post-pandemic retail wasteland, after 15 long years of paying down all the debt, where so many brick & mortars both big and small have silently vanished due to the myriad changes that have permanently transformed how we all engage in our respective communities - I find myself raising two very young and amazing daughters - essentially on my own as their primary custodian, running the small family business that I built from scratch. In the last two years, I have had to work 7 days a week with no time off. I’ve been forced to substantially curtail my hours of operation so that I can take my kids to and from school with no end in sight. Due to a profoundly contentious divorce that has proven incredibly sad to see someone I selflessly committed myself to detach from everything we built and ghost our fragile little world, I now am under a significant burden to come up with a large cash settlement in a very short time period, otherwise I will be forced to shut down my coffee roastery and liquidate, essentially losing my family home, business, and my ability to provide for my children. Even after my 2008 life altering accident where I still experience residual damage and chronic pain on a daily basis, I have been fiercely independent, rarely asking for help. Today I am writing this to my little world to ask for some much needed relief.
Without help with this monumental lift, I will in all likelihood be forced to sell and shutter what has proven to be such a magical place to witness all the first dates, all the marriages, all the sprouting littles - before my very eyes, ..., all the last cups of really good coffee before hitting the road, off to the airport, saying goodbye to such a unique, beautiful city, …, all the last cups of coffee before last rites from residents across the street, wheeled over by loved ones, sitting in the garden patio on a warm summers’ day, …, all the books written, all the meet ups and neighborhood events, all the block parties and soup nights, all the album release parties, all the beautiful expressions of artistic individuality and communal fellowship that independent family owned and operated cafes engender. I am humbly beseeching you for help.
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your empathy, compassion, and understanding.
Jack, Celeste, Della, and Jingle Belle Noel (cutest Xmas pup pup in da worl’)
Organizer
Nicole Wood
Organizer
Portland, OR