Julia Hoffman (1856-1934) founded the Arts and Crafts Society of Portland in Portland, Oregon, in either 1906 or 1907; the society officially adopted a constitution and elected officers in October 1907. The society was one of a number of arts and crafts societies that formed in Britain and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to the perceived decline in artistic quality caused by industrialization. For its first few decades of existence, the society often held classes in the homes of members, and in the early 1930s Hoffman opened up workshops on property she owned on Barnes Road as a place for artists to work and interact. In 1934, the society opened a permanent school space, which offered classes in metal work, pottery, sculpture, and weaving. It would later also offer calligraphy and book arts classes. The school was originally located in the Ainsworth Building on SW Oak, and then in the Kraemer building on SW Washington Street. In the 1950s, it moved to NW Flanders Street, and in the 1960s it moved to NW 18th and Hoyt.

By the 1970s, the school was serving as many as 400 students. In 1979, the society changed its name to the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, and moved to a seven-acre campus on SW Barnes Road. In 1994, the school added an undergraduate degree program, and in 1996, it changed its name once more, to the Oregon College of Art and Craft. In 2019, the school closed permanently due to financial difficulties.

Sources: Christen, Richard S., "Julia Hoffman and the Arts and Crafts Society of Portland: An Aesthetic Response to Industrialization," Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 109, No. 4, 2008; articles in the Oregonian, 1907-2019; Portland city directories, 1936-1964.