Pittock Mansion

The Pittock Mansion is a French Renaissance-style chateau and historic house museum in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon. It was built in 1914 as a private home for Oregonian publisher Henry Pittock and his wife, Georgiana. The estate tells the story of Portland’s transformation from pioneer town to modern, industrialized city through the history and legacy of one of its most influential families. The property is owned by Portland Parks & Recreation, in collaboration with the Pittock Mansion Society.

On a mission to transform the historic house museum with a renewed focus on relevance, revitalization and reimagination, the Pittock Mansion society identified the need to improve communications to elevate awareness, fundraising, education and  community engagement. To be successful, the nonprofit organization engaged A.wordsmith to craft a comprehensive communications strategy, centered on organic social media management, earned media engagement and editorial direction for internal publications. As part of this, the agency met with organizational leaders to uncover objectives, target audiences, unique differentiators, timely events and exhibitions, and visions for the future. From there, A.wordsmith distributed a survey to elicit valuable perspectives, stories and experiences from members, donors, partners and key constituents. And finally, the agency conducted a comprehensive audit of the Pittock Mansion’s Facebook and Instagram platforms (as well as the social media profiles of three other historic house museums), media relations strategies and internal publications to inform go-forward communications recommendations.

Key Results

Based on the insights gleaned from these conversations and analyses, A.wordsmith developed a forward-facing communications strategy, outlining new and evolved opportunities to improve communications, in alignment with the organization’s focus on relevance, revitalization and reimagination.