The second learning hub, the Mayo House ARTchive is a space for the Black community as historians, artists, and members to preserve and create culture. The ARTchive is envisioned, owned, and operated by local artists and activists, Cleo Davis and Kayin Talton Davis. Funding from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) will support life, health, and safety repairs to the ARTchive classroom and workshop.

There is a deep, indelible line of history connecting the Mayo House and the land on which it sits to the Black community. In the early 1980s, Cleo’s grandmother bought a historic apartment building in the lower Albina neighborhood, with the idea that the rental property was an investment that would continue to provide for her children and grandchildren. She purchased the property in the height of Portland’s urban renewal and the City of Portland targeted the Davis’ building with seizure attempts in the 1980s and early 1990s, just one of numerous Black-owned homes the City considered “blighted” or “chronic nuisance properties.” These homes were fined or condemned, and the City forced families to move under the guise of urban renewal schemes. For two years Cleo’s grandmother fought against the City for her right to repair the apartments, but the City refused her permit applications and in the late 1980s they demolished the building. The Davis family continued to own the land, renting out a small house at the back of the lot, but with the apartment building demolished, they estimate to have lost $2M of potential rental income over the last four decades. Years after the apartment was demolished, it was recognized by the City as a key historical building for Portland’s Black community.