Date: To: From:

May 3, 2012 Salem Historic Landmarks Commissioners Barbara Bonnem 825 Kingwood Drive NW, Salem, OR 97304 Historic Review Case No. 12-02

Re:

You have received a number of letters and personal testimony in opposition to this proposal. While your charge is to ensure that the historic Building 60 on the OSH campus is only changed in ways that uphold its integrity, the issue of why the radical changes to the building are being proposed is paramount as well. We are opposed for the following reasons: 1. A Broken Promise Building 60 was promised by OSH as the place that that would safely and permanently house the cremated remains of 3,500 former patients of OSH and other local institutions. After their rediscovery in 2005, Senate President Courtney created the Memorial Work Group to determine where the final resting place should be for these individuals. Members included cemetery volunteers, mortuary professionals, former OSH patients, legislators and concerned citizens. I was a member of the work group and its volunteer recorder. On August 17, 2009, when Building 60 and another possible site in the former chapel were determined by OSH to be where the cremains could be housed, the following notice was sent to the Memorial Work Group members to find out their wishes: Members of the Memorial Workgroup, Below is some additional information related to the attached photos, which should hopefully help you give your input on a permanent location for the cremains and memorial. If you are planning on joining us for the tour on Wednesday please make sure to wear CLOSED TOED SHOES. If you are unable to attend the tour please be sure to get any feedback to us by Thursday August 20th. Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions between now and then. Again the location and time of the tour is: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 3-5 pm Brooks Conference Room - Bldg 29 Oregon State Hospital Here is the message from Jodie (Jones) on the replacement team: We have located two opportunities for the placement of the cremains of former OSH patients. With both options, it is suggested that an area of the museum (that will be located in the center of the Kirkbride U), be dedicated to a small memorial to those who passed at the hospital. This memorial would include reference to where the cremains are

kept along with information on how to seek additional information if one is searching for a family member. The first possible site is located on the 2nd floor of the Kirkbride building in a room that was used as a chapel. This room would be large enough to store the cremains but would leave little room for any kind of meditation. Access to this room would be limited as it is within the secure perimeter of the hospital and an appointment would need to be made with administration to access the room. The second option is to place the cremains in the relocated Building 60. This building is being located in the garden area just south of the Kirkbride U and would give a tranquil setting for an outdoor memorial as well as potential ability to be closer to the actual columbarium. This memorial could be accessed any time of day and would lend itself to telling the story of the cremains to more people. Please look at the attached photos of Building 60, contemplate your vision and give us your feedback. Sasha Pollack, Policy Analyst, Senate President's Office, 503-986-1604 On September 9, 2009, we were notified that the preference of the Memorial Work Group was Building 60. OSH then moved the building adjacent to the entrance of the new hospital in preparation to complete the building to permanently house the cremains, giving them the safe, clean and climate controlled environment always envisioned for them. A request was then made to the Oregon Arts Commission for financial and artistic assistance in creating a memorial near Building 60 through its Oregon Percent for Art in Public Places program. So, we were very shocked, when the Lead Pencil Group's proposal became public recently, to learn that these 3,500 individuals would be emptied out of their copper urns (many which date back almost a hundred years). Building 60 would be used, through its new aquarium-sized window, as a display case to exhibit empty urns as an art installation rather than become the final resting place for these individuals as promised. The cremated remains would be moved to outdoor receptacles, exposed to the weather, almost as an afterthought. The OSH Replacement Hospital web site says that this proposal is "...one of the most important public art projects in the states history...". The bottom line: The request for financial and artistic assistance in creating a memorial adjacent to Building 60 has burgeoned into displacing these individuals from their promised permanent and respectful home inside Building 60.

2. There Is No Urgency To "Save" the Copper Urns From Further Deterioration: In 2005, the Memorial Work Group contacted metallurgists who explained to us that there was no way to stop the deterioration, but that each individual's ashes could easily be made permanently intact by placing each copper urn in a high quality, slightly larger urn made from a permanent material. We then consulted with several mortuary members of the Memorial Work Group and learned that there were high quality plastic urns that will remain intact for hundreds of years in which we could place the cremated human remains without removing them from their copper urns. The plastic urns were ordered by OSH and with the help of OSH staff and volunteer mortuary directors, each of the 3,500 sets of cremains with their unique copper urns were first placed in individual plastic bags, then in the black plastic urns where they are now, completely intact for each individual. While the artists do not find the black plastic urns aesthetic enough for their purposes, there is no urgency and absolutely no need to remove the individual's ashes from their urns. Moreover, since many of them date back to 1914 and their ashes have melded with their urns, showcasing the empty copper urns as the art installation in Building 60 would also mean displaying partial human remains. 3. The Questionable Ethics of Exhibiting Human Remains: Actions like these are rapidly falling out of favor with organizations such as museums as they are becoming increasingly recognized as part of disrespectful practices. In a few years, this display will likely be considered disgraceful and regrettable. 4. The Temporary Life of This Art Installation: If the copper urns were removed from their plastic containers to be showcased in Building 60, the artists acknowledge that they will turn to dust, and then this art installation, with its $500,000 budget in tax payer dollars, will be pointless after a relatively short period of time. Chances are slim that there would be money to restore the building for another use. According to a metallurgist consulted by the Memorial Work Group, climate control such as the artists intend to install in Building 60 will only somewhat slow the degradation of the copper urns into metal oxide dust. Despite the state hospitals efforts to control the climate in areas that the cremains have occupied in the last 7 years, obvious deterioration has occurred over that time. Summary: I urge the Salem Historic Landmarks Commissioners to reject the unnecessary, over-thetop art installation proposed for Building 60 as it is an aberration from the initial permanent, dignified, non-political memorial for the cremated remains. Instead, it sets them aside, without their permission, and appropriates their urns for use in a art display in the building that was set aside for them. The proposal is disrespectful to the memories and human rights of these individuals.