Sources & About

Primary & federal records

• National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form, “United States Court House (New),” reference no. 79002142, prepared by Kristine Bak, GSA Public Buildings Service; listed April 30, 1979. npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/79002142_text
• Public Law 100-543, 102 Stat. 2723 (October 28, 1988) — designating the Gus J. Solomon United States Courthouse. govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-102/pdf/STATUTE-102-Pg2723.pdf
• U.S. General Services Administration, historic building profile: Gus J. Solomon U.S. Courthouse, Portland, OR. gsa.gov/real-estate/find-a-historic-federal-building/gus-j-solomon-us-courthouse-portland-or
• GSA Building Fact Sheet, Gus J. Solomon Courthouse (June 18, 2014). gsa.gov/cdnstatic/Building_Fact_Sheet_SolomonCH_6-18-2014.pdf
• GSA press release, “GSA announces public sale of historic courthouse in downtown Portland” (May 15, 2025). gsa.gov/about-us/newsroom/former-gsa-regional-news-archive/region-10-newsroom/r10-press-releases/gsa-announces-public-sale-of-historic-courthouse-in-downtown-portland-05152025
• GSA Fine Arts Collection: Manuel Neri, Ventana al Pacifico (1989). art.gsa.gov/artworks/21533/ventana-al-pacifico
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS OR-134), U.S. Courthouse, 620 SW Main Street, Portland — photographs and written historical data, Library of Congress. loc.gov/collections/historic-american-buildings-landscapes-and-engineering-records/

Courts & judicial history

• Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges: Solomon, Gus Jerome; and courthouse history pages for Portland, Oregon (1933 and 1997). fjc.gov/history/judges/solomon-gus-jerome
• United States v. Yasui, 48 F. Supp. 40 (D. Or. 1942); Densho Encyclopedia, “Yasui v. United States.” encyclopedia.densho.org/Yasui_v._United_States/
• Sohappy v. Smith, 302 F. Supp. 899 (D. Or. 1969). law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/302/899/2007176/
• U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society — “Courting History” (2017), Oregon Benchmarks newsletter archive, and oral-history collection (held at the OHS Davies Family Research Library). usdchs.org/2017/07/12/courting-history/
• Gus J. Solomon American Inn of Court, “Who Was Gus J. Solomon?” inns.innsofcourt.org/for-members/inns/the-gus-j-solomon-american-inn-of-court/who-was-gus-j-solomon/

Oregon archives & societies

• Oregon Historical Society Research Library — including Org. Lot 708 (Gus J. Solomon U.S. Courthouse construction photographs, Acme Commercial Studio, 1932–33) and SR 1226 (Gus J. Solomon oral history, 1984). digitalcollections.ohs.org/sr-1226-oral-history-interview-with-gus-j-solomon
• Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE), Gus Solomon oral history (1976). ojmche.org/oral-history-people/gus-solomon/
• Oregon Encyclopedia, “Gus J. Solomon (1906–1987).” oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/solomon_gus_j_1906_1987_/
• Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries — digitized newspaper coverage. oregonnews.uoregon.edu
• Architectural Heritage Center (Fred Leeson), “So Much History. But Now What?” (January 2026). visitahc.org/blog/so-much-history-but-now-what

Books & press

• Oregonian and Oregon Journal construction-era coverage, 1930–1933 (cited in the NRHP nomination; see the Timeline).
• Portland Tribune (May 15, 2025), KOIN, KGW, and PRNewswire/SKB (December 8, 2025) on the building's sale. prnewswire.com/news-releases/skb-acquires-historic-gus-j-solomon-us-courthouse-in-downtown-portland-302635800.html

Scholarship & further reading on Judge Solomon

• Harry H. Stein, Gus J. Solomon: Liberal Politics, Jews, and the Federal Courts (Oregon Historical Society Press, 2006; ISBN 978-0-87595-298-7) — the authoritative biography, called in the Oregon Historical Quarterly the best judicial biography of a federal district judge of its era.
• Harry H. Stein, “Attorney Gus J. Solomon and De Jonge v. Oregon: Supporting Counsel and Landmark Constitutional Decisions,” Western Legal History 16, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2003): 119–134 — open access; Solomon is the issue's cover subject. njchs.org/wp-content/uploads/16.2.pdf
• William R. Long, “Oregon Legal Heritage: Judging Solomon,” Oregon State Bar Bulletin (April 2006) — a free retrospective and review of the Stein biography. osbar.org/publications/bulletin/06apr/heritage.html
• Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, “Solomon's Legacy.” jewishportland.org/solomonslegacy

The Oregon Historical Society documents

Much of this site’s primary-source depth comes from the architects’ own records — the files of Whitehouse, Stanton & Church — held by the Oregon Historical Society and photographed for this project in the Society’s Gresham collections facility. The first tranche, 185 documents from 1930–1933, traces the building’s design and construction letter by letter: the fight for Wilkeson sandstone, the wood-versus-steel window dispute, a judge’s suggestions for his own courtroom, and the scramble to finish the building as Depression budgets were slashed. These documents appear throughout the Archive and are catalogued in the project’s research index. Reproduction rights for OHS collection materials rest with the Oregon Historical Society.

Image rights

Items in the Archive carry individual rights statements. Most photographs and documents are U.S. federal government works or Library of Congress items in the public domain; newspaper pages are drawn from open digitization programs. Photographs taken in the Oregon Historical Society research library are research copies — reproduction rights for OHS collection materials rest with the Oregon Historical Society.

Acknowledgments

With thanks to the Oregon Historical Society research library staff, and to the institutions whose digitization programs make this record publicly available: the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, the U.S. General Services Administration, and the University of Oregon’s Historic Oregon Newspapers program.