Darcelle XV Showplace among those nominated for National Historic Places

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    PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — The State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation approved on Friday to nominate a 53-year-old Old Town drag club to the National Register of Historic Places.

Darcelle XV Showplace has been a Portland mainstay since 1967 and an icon in the LGBTQ community. The club operates the West Coast’s longest running drag show. Darcelle herself holds the Guinness Book of World Record as the oldest drag performer in the world.

This is the first time a LGBTQ business to be nominated to the register for its role in Portland’s social history.

FOX 12 spoke with the Darcelle XV about what this means for the business and for Portland.

“If they do it, it will be the first gay-owned operation that’s been voted to be on the register. I mean what an honor, right, to be the first?” she said. “All the community service we’ve done with AIDS work, we helped build a community to what it is now.”

Darcelle’s is one of seven sites in Oregon now up for consideration for the National Register of Historic Places. Some of the others include:

The Forest Grove Downtown Historic District.
The Eugene Greyhound bus station
New Fliedner Building
Postal Employees Credit Union
German Baptist Old People’s Home
The National Park Service gets the final say and a decision is expected sometime in November.

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