Remembering David L. Williams

 

Clara McKeyes Inman House

After writing about architect David L. Williams and the Robert L. Lytle mansion (Aug. 26), Jim Heuer, a dedicated preservationist and Portland architectural historian, suggested that I had slighted Williams by suggesting that he had not designed other significant buildings. 

 Indeed.  Jim's knowledge exceeded mine.  Williams was a son of the better-known Portland architect Warren H. Williams.  The younger Williams, who practiced in Portland from the 1883 to 1934, has four houses listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and another one so interesting it could qualify if nominated.  Williams’ architectural talents were described by one historian as “elaborate eclecticism,” meaning that he was adept at adopting and mixing historical styles commonly seen in his era.

 Three of his notable mansions all include tall, elaborate porticos at the main entrance, like the one we saw earlier at the Lytle mansion.  It was a subsequent tenant in the Lytle mansion who asked Williams specifically to include a portico when he designed the grand Clara McKeyes Inman House, shown above, in Northwest Portland in 1926.  Inman is remembered as the inventor of the electric curling iron. 

Frank C. Barnes House

Williams also added a similar portico at the Frank C. Barnes House erected on Northeast Portland’s Alameda Ridge in 1913-14, less than two years after the Lytle residence.  Barnes, whose many achievements included success in the fish-canning business, lived in the 32-room mansion until his death in 1931.

 Williams’ two other National Register houses were designed in the Colonial Revival style in 1910 for Rufus Holman, a Multnomah County Commission chairman and subsequent U.S. senator, and in 1909 for Frank W. Fenton, a prominent 50-year attorney in McMinnville.

The other interesting Williams house was built in Irvington, just one block from the Lytle mansion.  Unlike the rampant eclecticism demonstrated in the mansions, Williams designed the Harry P. Palmer house in 1912 in the then-trendy Arts and Crafts style.  The design showed Williams’ ability to focus on a single esthetic, but with dramatic flairs.  Two bold, curving, clinker brick piers support the front porch roof. 

Harry P. Palmer House

Mostly hidden now by foliage on the north side is an unusual appurtenance that originally likely was for servants.  Architect/historian William J. Hawkins III described it a “most interesting arrangement of intersecting forms, including an angled, gabled projection, a turreted tower, and a polygonal bay window, all protected by wide eaves with beam extensions and exposed rafter tails.”

 The interior was heavily decorated with mahogany and walnut.  Alas, a subsequent owner decades later found some of the woodwork too dark and painted a significant portion of it white.  A silver dining room chandelier reportedly weighed more than 70 pounds.

 Harry Palmer was a real estate dealer and an Irvington promoted in the neighborhood’s early days.  He apparently lived in the house only a few years before moving on.

It often is difficult to pin down the identity of architects of old buildings.  In the case of the Frank Barnes House, Williams was merely suspected as the architect when it was added to the National Register.  Sometimes facts show up later; for that reason alone we cannot close the books on the career of  David L. Williams.

 ----Fred Leeson

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