Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:32:00

James Beard and Linus Pauling both went to school in this building; the auditorium where they sat assemblies is now the stage. Revolution Hall at 1300 SE Stark Street in Portland's Buckman neighbourhood occupies the 1924 auditorium of Washington High School, a brick landmark that closed with the school in 1981 and sat mostly vacant for three decades. The school - founded in 1906 as Eastside High and rebuilt after a fire - was purchased in 2013 and its 113,000 square feet converted to offices and venue space, with the auditorium renovated into an 850-seat concert hall that kept the original wooden seats on both levels. The operators brought pedigree: Jim Brunberg and Kevin Cradock of Mississippi Studios with Mark Adler of True West Concerts, owner of the Aladdin Theater. The room soft-opened on 12 February 2015 with local acts Wild Ones and the Alialujah Choir, then grand-opened that April with two nights of Neko Case. The seated format defines the booking: singer-songwriters, comedy, podcasts and public-radio tapings sit beside indie rock, with the flexibility to open a standing pit when the bill calls for it - a deliberate contrast to the city's open-floor ballrooms. The building works as a full night out: Martha's cafe-bar and the Assembly Lounge handle pre- and post-show, Show Bar - serving the sister venue's famous Bar Bar burger - hosts smaller acts, and the Roof Deck Bar, open April to October, claims the best 360-degree view of Portland going. Two Nobel Prizes and a culinary empire in the alumni file notwithstanding, the school's most durable legacy may be this second act - rock-n-roll high school made literal, in the phrase the venue itself uses. The neighbourhood negotiated its way into the plan too: owners met with Buckman residents over parking and noise before opening weekend, and the venue's quiet-block manners - early curfews by club standards, no outdoor stages - remain part of the deal.