Knights of the Portland Chess Club
The Portland Chess Club in 1914, above the Circle Theater, with spitoons. Twenty-five years ago, lawyer and chess expert, Michael Morris, tried to mediate the eviction of the Portland Chess Club (PCC) for keeping late hours at its headquarters in Southeast Portland. He lost the case, but since that time has been instrumental in housing and maintaining a cultural institution which dates back to 1861 when another legal mind, federal judge Matthew Deady, was the first president of the PCC. Deady was interested in bringing Eastern culture to the Wild West and is also credited with being the founder the Multnomah County Library. In 1913, another lawyer, G.T. Woodlaw, secured PCC’s first “permanent” quarters above the Circle Theater on SW 4th next to the Dekum Building. After several decades, the stability provided by Colonel Woodlaw eventually spawned a champion who was sent out to conquer the world. The link between…