Portal:Oregon/Selected article/108

The Yale Union Laundry Building, also known as the Yale Laundry Building, the City Linen Supply Co. Building, Perfect Fit Manufacturing and the YU Contemporary Arts Center, in southeast Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon is a two-story commercial structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built largely of brick in 1908 and embellished with Italian Revival and Egyptian Revival decorations, it was added to the register in 2007. Two-story additions in 1927 and 1929 changed the original building into an L-shaped structure that shares a party wall with a commercial building to the east. Preservation of elements of Portland's industrial laundry era and its relation to the women’s labor movement and the rise of the middle class in the United States are factors in the building's listing on the National Register. Built and first operated by Charles F. Brown, an individual businessman, the building was bought in 1927 by Home Services Company, a power-laundry consortium. American Linen Supply and then Perfect Fit Manufacturing, a maker of automotive fabrics, used the building after Home Services sold it in 1950. Acquired by Alter LLC in 2008, the building is home to YU, a contemporary arts center.