Sight #7: Duniway-Lovejoy Elections Building

What's in an Elections Building name?

'What's in a name?'

1040 SE Morrison St.

Promotional poster for Metropolitan Human Rights Commission with image of Abigail Scott Duniway and a collage of quotes attributed to her
Metropolitan Human Rights Commission, Promotional posters, Multnomah County Archives, Portland (Or.).
A lot actually.

In 2016, the Board of Multnomah County Commissioners voted to rename this building. The Multnomah County Elections Division Building (boring!) became the Multnomah County Duniway-Lovejoy Elections Building.

Who were Duniway and Lovejoy? Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915) traveled to Oregon in 1852 by way of wagon train. She ran several businesses, including The New Northwest newspaper. In the 1870s she became a prominent figure in the suffrage movement. She didn't stop campaigning for women's right to vote for more than 40 years. Who was first woman in Oregon to cast a vote in 1914? You got it. Abigail Scott Duniway.

Physician Esther Pohl Lovejoy (1869-1967) was also a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement. As the director of the Portland Public Health Board, she was the first women appointed to lead a public health department in a major U.S. city. In 1920, she ran for Congress as a Progressive candidate in a primarily Republican state (Oregon). Despite accusations that she held Communist sympathies, she secured 44% of the vote. This was only four years after the first woman, Jeanette Rankin, was elected to Congress.

This poster is one of several promotional materials developed for the Metropolitan Human Rights Commission.

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Last reviewed October 12, 2021