The WHA's 2026 conference will be held at the Hilton Portland Downtown in the heart of Portland. Learn more about the hotel and its amenities through this link. 

Room rates at the Hilton Portland Downtown are $220/night. Reservations opened to *WHA members and exhibitors only* on June 22 and will be made available to all other attendees on July 20. WHA members must log in using the link below to access the reservation link. 

WHA: MEMBERS ONLY

Transportation/Parking

Portland International Airport is approximately 12.2 miles from the Hilton Portland Downtown. The MAX Red Line runs directly from PDX to Pioneer Square, which is blocks from the conference hotel. Taxis and rideshare services are also available at the airport, so please plan ahead. 

Need accessible transportation? Learn more on our Accessibility page. 

Self-parking is not available at the Hilton Portland Downtown. Valet parking will be available at a rate of $59/night. Public parking near the hotel includes the garage at 545 SW Taylor Street (attached to the Duniway Hotel) at a rate of $35/night and City Center Parking at 1000 SW Broadway for $32/night.

Stories from Portland's Historic Parks, Greenspaces, and Monuments

Thursday, October 22, 1:45 P.M. | Meet in Hilton lobby at 1:30 P.M.

Accessibility: This walking tour, roughly two miles in total, requires mobility on narrow sidewalks and uneven park spaces throughout downtown Portland. Tour attendees will also be exposed to weather and the public and should plan accordingly. Hearing may be difficult on noisy downtown streets.

Cost: $15 | Transportation: N/A – Walking Tour | Capacity: 35

The focus of the tour is on urban environmental history. In this walking tour of Downtown Portland's historic parks, greenspaces, and monuments, independent history consultant David-Paul B. Hedberg will lead attendees through public spaces in the vicinity of the hotel. The tour is based on Hedberg's award-winning publication, “From Stumptown to Treetown: A Field Guide for Interpreting Portland's History Through its Heritage Trees.” It includes a ten-stop walking tour of Portland Heritage Trees in the downtown core, features findings from regional archival collections, and is developed through Portland Parks & Recreation.

Tour attendees should wear appropriate walking shoes and bring water. Plan to be on foot for 2-3 hours. Attendees can expect to arrive back at the hotel lobby by 4:45 P.M.

The Soul of Portland

Thursday, October 22, 1:45 P.M. | Meet in Hilton lobby at 1:30 P.M.

Accessibility: The Portland Tri-Met system indicates that 100% of its buses and trains are accessible for people with limited mobility, vision impairments, and hearing impairments. See: https://trimet.org/access/. The Meyer Memorial Trust headquarters building, where the Albina Music Trust archives are located, is a recent construction that was deliberately designed for accessibility. The self-guided audio tour encompasses streets that are accessible to people with mobility devices, but it is in an historic urban neighborhood that may include bumps, uneven pavement, and sloping streets. The tour has a visual transcript for hearing impaired people.

Cost: $25 | Transportation: Public transportation at own expense (approx. $6) | Capacity: 20

Experience the soul of Portland by exploring the musical history of Albina, the city’s oldest historically-Black neighborhood. The tour group will take public transit from the conference hotel to the Albina Music Trust where Executive Director Bobby Smith will provide a tour of the Pacific Northwest’s largest soul and jazz archive. Afterward, attendees will embark on the critically-acclaimed Albina Soul Walk, a self-guided audio tour of some of the major historical sites associated with Portland’s Black musical scene from the Cotton Club to the Texas Playhouse to Fred’s Place.

The tour involves roughly a mile of walking over uneven pavement, so be sure to bring sturdy walking shoes, rain gear, and a well-charged cell phone for streaming the audio track. No food or drink will be allowed in the archive. The tour group will arrive back at the conference hotel by 5:00 P.M. via public transit.

Learn more at https://www.albinamusictrust.org/.

Portland Chinatown Museum & Lan Su Chinese Garden Tour

Thursday, October 22, 1:45 P.M. | Meet in Hilton lobby at 1:30 P.M.

Accessibility: All aspects of the tour are wheelchair accessible, though attendees may encounter bumps, uneven pavement, and sloping streets in downtown Portland. Individuals may choose to utilize the MAX Light Rail to travel from the Hilton Portland Downtown to the Chinatown neighborhood. The Portland Tri-Met system indicates that 100% of its buses and trains are accessible for people with limited mobility, vision impairments, and hearing impairments. Accessibility resources for the Max Light Rail are available here: https://trimet.org/access/max.htm. Tour attendees will also be exposed to weather and the public and should plan accordingly.

Cost: $25 | Transportation: N/A – Public transportation optional | Capacity: 30

Come experience Portland’s Chinatown in Old Town, the original urban core in the city’s northwest section. Old Town straddles West Burnside Street with the Willamette River as its eastern boundary and the Broadway Bridge as its boundary to the north. On a tour of Portland’s Chinatown Museum, the group will explore the untold stories of early Chinese immigrants and their enduring legacy in the Pacific Northwest through a rich collection of historical artifacts, oral histories, and rotating contemporary Asian American art. From there the tour will visit nearby Lan Su Chinese Garden, which offers a tranquil urban oasis where guests can experience a Ming Dynasty-style scholar's garden featuring covered walkways, ornate pavilions, and a serene lake surrounded by hundreds of Chinese plant species.  The combined tour of Portland’s Chinatown (second-oldest Chinatown in the United States) will give visitors a chance to explore the city’s rich immigration history and reflect on its memory and legacy in the present.

The walk from the conference hotel to the first tour stop, the Portland Chinatown Museum, is 0.7 miles (about 15 minutes). Attendees are also welcome to take the MAX Light Rail or an Uber at their own expense. Attendees can expect to arrive back at the hotel lobby by 4:30 P.M.

For more information on both locations, please visit https://www.portlandchinatownmuseum.org/ and https://lansugarden.org/.

Early Oregon Histories

Thursday, October 22, 1:45 P.M. | Meet in the Hilton lobby at 1:30 P.M.

Accessibility: The Museum of the Oregon Territory is completely ADA accessible. The McLoughlin Promenade is paved, but it can be rough and there are some hills. Still, it is accessible by wheelchair, as is the municipal elevator at the end of the tour. A wheelchair lift will be available on the shuttle bus upon request. Please note this request in your registration by September 7.

Cost: $60 | Transportation: Bus shuttle will be provided | Capacity: 50

Explore Oregon’s Indigenous and early settler colonial history in Oregon City. This small town sits alongside Willamette Falls, or tumwata to the Indigenous people who lived there for millennia. After removing its Indigenous inhabitants, white settlers transformed tumwata into Oregon’s territorial capital and a hub for the paper industry. Attendees will explore these histories with a visit to the Museum of the Oregon Territory followed by a one-mile walking tour along the scenic McLoughlin Promenade, which skirts the basalt cliffs above the falls. Along the way, members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde will share about their efforts to heal the blighted industrial land at tumwata and to tell its story. Attendees will also visit a new monument to the five Cayuse men executed after the Whitman Massacre and see the home of Oregon’s most famous fur trader, John McLoughlin.

Food and drink are not allowed in the museum. Bring sturdy walking shoes and rain gear. Attendees can expect to arrive back at the conference hotel by 5:00 P.M.

Learn more at https://clackamashistory.org/museumoftheoregonterritory and https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide.