A Holiday Treat

During a span of roughly 80 hours this month, motorists and pedestrians numbering in the thousands will flock to see Portland’s newest and smallest National Register Historic District.

Most of them won’t know the historic designation exists, or pay much attention to the architecture upon which it is based.  Nope.  To be cutesy about it, they are coming for enlightenment in its archaic form.

 The street sign shown above is the clue that most Portlanders will recognize.  Peacock Lane, a single street that runs for four blocks with no intersecting streets in Southeast Portland, is widely known as the city’s “Christmas Street.”

Every year since the late 1940s   -- the date is not documented – owners of the 32 houses on both sides of Peacock Lane festoon them with colorful Christmas lights.  Some add music or sometimes even moving decorations.  The lights are on five hours per night from Dec. 15 to 31.  The first mention of Peacock Lane decorations in the Oregonian newspaper was in 1949.

The tradition is maintained only by informal agreement among the neighbors.  As one owner once said, nobody would buy a house on Peacock Lane if they didn’t want to be involved.  The event is not without grief for the owners; aside from the labor of installation, driveways are rendered useless each evening by the steady stream of one-way traffic.  One can only imagine the chaos if an ambulance or fire engine was needed in an emergency.

 Neighbors sought and gained National Register status for Peacock lane in 2017 after a developer demolished one original house and built a larger new one.  Residents hoped the national status would provide protection from further demolitions.  Although changing state and local preservation rules are somewhat in flux, the result is “so far, so good.”

Daytime view 

 For the National Register listing, Peacock Lane is recognized as an early Portland suburb designed as a planned community to include automobiles.  The houses were designed and built by Richard F. Wassell, a designer and building who was associated for a time with Carl Linde, an important Portland architect.

 Wassell’s residential designs were mostly English cottage and Tudor revival styles, generally about 1,900 to 2,000 square feet in size.  He designed the lane to include garages, driveways and curbs and gutters.  Some of those elements were added later to older neighborhoods as cars ascended as the primary mode of transportation over Portland’s elaborate streetcar network. 

 Houses on Peacock Lane were constructed between 1923 and 1930.  Walking the street today (in daylight) gives a very definite feel of how it felt early on.  Most of the houses retain their original architectural form and materials.  One historical analysis states, “The architecture of the district is cohesive without being repetitive, an uncommon trend in the 1920s.” 

Oh, yes.  A few lights...

 In today’s urban geography, Peacock Lane would be considered part of the central rather than as a suburb.  But even with its proximity to heavily travelled and noisy S.E. Cesar Chavez Boulevard, it remains a quiet, tree-lined street.  With cars parked on both sides, there is room only for a single traffic lane.

 Peacock Lane did not turn on the lights in 2020 because of the pandemic.  The visual feast resumes this year.  If you’re looking for the new house that prompted creation of the historic district, it will be hard to recognize at night.  Like the others, it is encrusted with holiday lights. 

-----Fred Leeson

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