Donations Promise New Life for Hopewell House

About 10,000 people have died there over three decades and another 9,000 received care there before returning home to die.

Powell Butte Nature Park. (Brian Burk)
By Nigel Jaquiss

Cash gifts could well mean hope for Hopewell House, a pioneering end-of-life center in the Hillsdale neighborhood closed by Legacy Health in September after 30 years of operation.

About 10,000 people have died there over three decades and another 9,000 received care there before returning home to die. The closure left Portland without a hospice—so a group called Friends of Hopewell House set out to buy the 12-room structure from Legacy.

Last month, real estate investor Joe Weston gave the group $500,000, which came on top of $500,000 from Priscilla Wieden, whose husband co-founded the city's leading ad agency, and $1 million from the Marcia H. Randall Foundation.

The group hopes to reopen Hopewell House and is still raising money through a crowdfunding campaign. With Weston's gift, the Friends made Legacy a bid.

"We have received a proposal from FOHH to purchase the land," says Legacy spokeswoman Vicki Guinn, "and will evaluate that proposal over the next month."

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