One of the grand beauties of architectural preservation is
that a dedicated single individual can save a historic building and assure its
continued cultural benefit to the community.
Take Mike Lyons, for instance. Twenty years ago he stepped up to buy a large
but deteriorating Queen Anne Victorian-era house and move it four miles from
its original lot in Irvington to the Woodlawn neighborhood.
True, he was able to buy the house for $1 because a
developer planned to demolish it to make way for row houses as a result of a city
of Portland zone change. The development
value of the 10,000-square foot lot made the future impossible at that location
impossible for the house, no matter how attractive it was architecturally. Several people had been interested in
acquiring the house, but Lyons was the only one to step forward with a proposal
to move it.
It was not an easy move, however. The top story had to be removed in order to
fit under power lines and not damage trees during the four-mile trek up Martin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard. For a fee of
$80,000 in 2000, the bottom portion was placed on dollies for towing. Giant forklifts carted the upper story and
eventually hoisted it back into place.
“The hardest part was placing no-parking signs along the
route,” Lyons said. “There had to be
three or four signs per block. That is a
lot of blocks.”
The house, often referred to as the Postmaster’s House for
reasons we shall discuss in a bit, was built in 1895, during the peak of the
Queen Anne architectural style of Victorian era. The building displays several prominent
elements of Queen Anne residences, including the unbalanced or asymmetrical
front façade composed of a large gable and the smaller gabled dormer; a fancy
wooden decoration at the gable’s peak; fish-scale shingles in addition to horizontal
siding; and numerous turned spindles in spandrels decorating the front porch.
We can think of these decorations as celebrations of the industrial
revolution, when machines were perfected to crank out the decorative
pieces. The intellectual and artistic
rebellion that followed brought us the Arts and Crafts movement, when designs
reverted to much simpler creations created by human hands rather than machines.
It took about a year’s worth of work replacing the stripped
interior and all utilities before Lyons could begin living in the 1895-era
residence. “I still love the house,” he
said. But like any old house, the
restoration is still not finished. “I
keep telling myself one more year,” he said.
The house has historical interest in addition to its
architectural values. It was the home of
Portland postmaster Frank S. Myers, who was appointed to that job in 1913 by
President Woodrow Wilson and reappointed by Wilson in 1917. Wilson subsequently had second thoughts about
Myers and fired him in 1920.
The source of Wilson’s discontent is not firmly
established. It may have been because
Myers was slow to rehire soldiers return from World War I, or because of
conflicts Myers had with Portland Mayor George Baker. Regardless, Myers challenged his termination
in court, contending that since his job was filled with “advice and consent”
from the Senate, he could not be fired without the Senate’s approval. Myers asked for the pay that he believed
should be coming to him.
Alas, the case wasn’t decided by the U.S. Supreme Court
until 1926. By then Myers had died, but
his wife stood in line in case he won his back pay. In a split decision, the court said the
president had authority to fire anyone in his administration. The case firmly established the separation of
the president’s executive power from the legislative authority of Congress.
Over the following decades, the Postmaster’s House fell into
decline, like many large houses of the Victorian era. It had been used as a boarding house
for many years before Lyons acquired it. Though its exterior looked forlorn, Lyons said the building was still structurally sound and that much of its original interior woodwork remained.
Twenty years after the move, we can
still thank Lyons for his dedication and hard work in the spirit of
preservation. Lyons, who runs a paint-removal and architectural woodworking business, hasn't given up on preservation. He's currently working on a long-vacant rural farmhouse nearly overrun by blackberries.
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Original site of Postmaster's House
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What is the address of this house? should it be on the AHC Piedmont Walking Tour?
ReplyDeleteI told the owner I would not disclose his address. If the AHC wants to know, it is welcome to ask.
DeleteAn enjoyable account of a great accomplishment. We need to hear more positive stories about preservation like this.
ReplyDeletePositively Portland Walking Tours would also like to add this site to the Historic Woodlawn Walking Tour!
ReplyDelete