New on the Honeyman Hardware Block

 

NW Park Ave/ frontage shows new apartments above the creamy brick facade of the historic bindery building at lower left.  (TVA Architects)

What started out as a potential glassy, 23-story apartment tower has been trimmed to eight stories on the historic Honeyman Hardware block in Northwest Portland under revised plans approved by the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission.

 If erected, the new building would contain 165 apartments and sit partially above the two story 1920s structure known as the bindery building that was part of the three-block Honeyman complex in the 500 block of NW Park Avenue.

The proposed addition to the Honeyman block follows the demise of another apartment project approved by the landmarks commission in 2007, but died as a consequence of the 2008 recession.

Under the new plan, the oldest component of the Honeyman complex, a livery stable called the Metro building built in 1903 and remodeled many times, would be demolished.  It fronts on NW Park and Hoyt Sttreet. Its place would be taken by a new half-block frontage erected as part of the apartment complex.

 A third building on the block, built as a Honeyman warehouse in 1912, has seen been converted to apartments and will remain. The top of the new apartment, rising 87 feet, roughly matches the height of the former warehouse now called the Cotter Building.

Hoyt Street frontage shows Cotter Building, right, and north facade of new apartments (TVA Architects)

Robert Thompson, a principle of TVA Architects, said the two remaining historic buildings “are in really good shape,” though dirty.  He said their exteriors will be cleaned and the Cotter Building will be repainted as part of the development.

The eastern frontage of the block faces on what is planned to be an extension of the North Park Blocks.  Directly north lies the large vacant site that formerly housed the Main U.S. Post Office.  No development plans have been announced for that multi-block site, but zoning rules could allow high-rise buildings as tall as 400 feet.

The block at present (TVA Architects)

Honeyman Hardware was a leading Pacific Northwest hardware dealer for many years a century ago.  Although built at different times, the three buildings on the block were linked together for commercial purposes.  The full block was added to the National Register of Historic Places in regard for its commercial importance in the era.

Eran Fields, who owns the Honeyman block, met several times with residents and the Pearl District Neighborhood Association.  Despite some quibbles from the neighborhood group, four people testified in favor of the latest plan.  Fields earned compliments for his willingness to listen to concerns and to make changes.  “I think we have come up with the best iteration yet,” he said.

Upper stories of the new apartment feature large windows and a horizontal emphasis on its structure.  The horizontality is a nod to the industrial architecture of the early 20th Century as reflected in the Cotter Building.  Composite metal cladding in a red shade will cover the vertical and horizontal structural members.

 -----Fred Leeson

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'Old' Becomes New on Division

 

A new layer of entertainment history awaits a 97-year old lately-vacant theater that will bring more life to SE Division Street.

 The former Northwest Film Study Center, now going under the new name of PAM CUT, (whatever that means) plans to offer videos and multimedia events at the former Oregon Theater at 3510 SE Division St.  Until three years ago, the old theater was best known as a long-running home of explicit sexual movies.

Tomorrow Theater, as it will be called, expects to begin programming in the 300-seat venue in the fall. The film group will no longer be using the Whitsell Auditorium in the Portland Art Museum. 

 It will be roughly the fourth iteration for the building erected in 1926 by an early Portland movie operator, Isaac Geller.  The theater originally was intended for vaudeville, but soon shifted to movies.   Geller also built and operated the Aladdin and Walnut Park theaters in the 1920s.

All three of Geller’s theaters later operated as porn houses, run by his son-in-law, Sol Maizels.  The Aladdin was the most famous of the three, largely because of a 1975 court case in which Maizels was accused of violating an obscenity law by running the movie “Deep Throat.”

 He testified that he sold more than 100,000 tickets to the movie from 1973 to 1975, a number that helped convince jurors that the move had not violated “community standards --” and thus had not broken the law. (And yes, the movie was played for the jury.)

Geller died in 1976 at age 83.  The Walnut Park Theater closed in the late 1980s and later was torn down.  The Aladdin changed hands and has become a successful concert venue for popular music.

 Kevin Cavenaugh, a creative designer and developer, bought the Oregon Theater in 2020.  The name he chose for his ownership papers – Double Scrub LLC – hints at the interior condition as he found it.  Cavenaugh’s other notable buildings include the Fair-Haired Dumbell and the Zipper on Sandy Boulevard.

Osmose Design of Portland is designing the internal theater space.  The theater building also includes two storefronts that will remain facing on Division.  This follows a trend in that era when theaters had their front doors on a busy street, but the auditorium was tucked in behind so other uses could be offered on the high-traffic street.  

 In the past 15 years, Division Street has emerged as one of Portland’s leading new urban streets with many apartments and new storefronts.  It is encouraging to see a viable old building be retained for something close to its original purpose.  The theater obviously will add even more vitality to the neighborhood.

 But the vitality comes with a warning: Good luck finding parking.

 ----Fred Leeson

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The Case of the Missing Statues

 

For three years after the illegal removal of several historic Portland statutes by hooligans, the city government has dithered and dawdled about creating a public process to determine how or whether these landmarks should be reinstated.  

 The “easy” way out would be for the City Council to delegate the decision to the nonprofit Regional Arts and Culture Council.  That would be a dreadful mistake, since 1) the decision should be made by elected officials and 2) the nonprofit organization has already made its position clear without any public comment.

 Planning for public involvement has received a new boost, however, in the form of a $350,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation support a “robust series of community engagement activities to discuss current and future monuments,” according to a city statement.

This should not be a difficult mission.  Here is Building on History’s proposal for carrying out public engagement.  Its goal is to provide open, inclusive access for all thoughts and opinions and to provide the best possible information for the ultimate decision makers.

1.  This is an important issue of public policy.  It must be decided by the City Council in a process that is open and transparent.
2. The City Council should appoint an independent hearings officer to take testimony.  The testimony should be recorded and any written comments should be accepted and saved.  The role of the hearings officer is NOT to make a decision, but to take testimony under open, fair conditions.  The hearings officer should be polite at all times but be willing to maintain decorum if necessary.  
3. Any group may submit testimony as a group, if they so choose.  This could include RACC or any other arts or history-related, civic or fraternal organization.
4. At the end of the testimony, the hearings office should compile a summary of testimony for the City Council.  This summary should include all significant issues raised in the testimony.  This summary does NOT include a recommendation from the hearings officer.
5. All testimony and written comments should be submitted to the City Council for council review.  The council could then request any additional testimony it might seek.
6. The City Council then makes its decisions.

The City Council is expected to discuss the public process on July 20.  Anyone supporting the plan outlined above is encouraged to submit written or oral testimony to the City Council.

 -----Fred Leeson

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An Interesting Possibility?

 

Doom often awaits an old building when its “for sale” sign lists potential development possibilities instead of the structure’s own assets.  It’s a not-so-subtle hint that the value lies in the land, not the building.

Such may be the case at 1326 SW 12th Ave., where one of downtown’s few remaining wooden houses dating to the late 1800s is offered for sale at $689,000.  The building currently contains two apartments on the second floor, a framing shop on the main floor and a basement that has been used as a beauty salon.

The sales pitch celebrates the fact that the land is zoned for high or medium-rise condos or apartments, which could be coupled with retail or commercial service space.  In other words, goodbye old house.

Fortunately, the exterior of the house retains its original characteristics with a two-story bay and a double-sided entrance.  Though not n outstanding architectural gem, it represents the tasteful Italianate design in a balloon-frame residence that used to be common fabric downtown.  Many of its original interior details where shorn off in 1973 (if not earlier) when the upper apartments were remodeled.

If there is any hope for saving this building, it sits next door.  The northern neighbor is the more architecturally interesting John S. Honeyman house, now used as a law office.  These two neighbors were erected in 1890.  The Honeyman house is a Portland landmark as well as a member of the National Register of Historic Places.  These designations make its demolition much more difficult to achieve.lot. 

One would think that a developer really wanting to build a serious high-rise would need both lots; if so, the Honeyman acts as a protective shield for its neighbor on a 5,000 square-foot lot. 

In Portland’s real estate market, the asking price does not seem outrageous for a nice old building with two or three rental units plus office space.  A further bonus is a paved rear yard offering parking.

One wonders: Could an entrepreneur with a preservation bent see an opportunity to save this piece of “old Portland’ and make it pencil?

---Fred Leeson

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Home again?

 

An imposing house built in 1907 that has devolved into a neighborhood eyesore might thrive again as a residence a few blocks north of its current home.

 An Irvington couple, whose house they were restoring on N.E. 9th Avenue collapsed during a fire late last year, hope to move the much-abused 1907 house to the the vacant lot created by the fire.  The move would transport the Craftsman-era house from NE 9th and Weidler St. to its new location about 4 1/2 blocks away.

The short distance means less moving expense.  Still, it will require dropping several power lines standing in the way and will necessitate a strategy for minimizing damage to street trees that are heavily protected under city tree-canopy regulations.

The proposed move has survived a preliminary city intake examination.  If all goes well, the move could occur this summer.  If the move is successful, one hopes that the first order of business will be a new exterior paintjob to replace the current graffiti abuse.

 The home has been vacant and the windows boarded up for at least a few years. Graffiti scoundrels appear to have had free reign ever since.

 Squatters have plundered the interior of its hardware and much of its wiring, but much of the original interior woodwork remains intact, according to an article in the Irvington Community Association’s newsletter.

 If the move is successful, the 1907 house would be a good fit in the Irvington National Historic District.  Many of its neighboring houses are of the same vintage, making it a good aesthetic fit at the proposed location.

 The fate of the 1907 house in its current location was essentially sealed in the 1950s, when the City of Portland coverted NE Weidler and Broadway into a one-way couplet.  That sandwiched the house between two high-density traffic arterials.  At roughly the same time, the city changed zoning in the Lloyd Center area to commercial from residential, dooming houses sooner or later to being converted or demolished.

 People often wonder why historic houses are not moved to new sites when threatened. One answer is a scarcity of vacant single-family lots; the other is that the length of can a move  can push costs into the prohibitive zone, given difficulties with power lines and trees.

 A successful move in this case would be good news for the house and good news for beiong a compatible addition to its neighborhood.

 ----Fred Leeson

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Remembering "Broadway"

 

(National Register nomination)

In the middle decades of the 20th Century, Southwest Broadway glowed at night from the blazing signs of Portland’s major theaters – the Paramount, Broadway, Mayfair and Heilig.  Residents sometimes by tens of thousands gathered to see movie stars, parades and new productions.

 Portland’s latest nomination to the National Register of Historic Places recalls that era, not by enshrining a theater but by honoring the enlarged, palatial residence of J.J. and Hazel Parker, who took turns running Oregon’s largest independent theater company.

 “For 50 years, J. J. and then Hazel shaped the entertainment landscape in Portland. The theater buildings and the entertainment offered therein played an important role in the city—architecturally, economically, and socially,” according to the national register nomination.

 J.J. Parker started in the movie business in 1916, parlaying a $5,000 Louisiana Lottery payout -- a substantial amount of money at the time -- into real estate investments.  He came to manage several theaters in Portland and Astoria as part of several business deals before his death in 1941.

The couple visited Los Angeles frequently, where they socialized with the era's biggest stars and film executives.  Their connections help build and sustain their theater chain. 

Hazel Parker had not been involved in her husband’s management before his death.  When she decided to continue the business on her own, theater experts told her a woman wouldn’t survive in the rough-and-tumble movie  business.

“Through several key decisions, she built upon the solid business foundation that her husband had established and, under her leadership, the glitz and glamour of the movie industry was amplified with film premieres and promotions that brought the biggest stars to her palatial downtown theater—the Broadway,” the nomination states.

 Their Colonial Revival house that the Parkers purchased in 1924 was large but not unusually impressive.    The Parkers owned it from 1924 to 1951, and, with the help of architect Harry Herzog, made some dramatic changes to its structure and interior designs.  “Harry Herzog transformed the Parkers’ home from what was likely a typical Colonial Revival home constructed in 1917 to a house with a surprisingly unique and lavish interior,” the nomination states.  His revisions included “unique design elements that were expressive of the Parkers’ lavish taste including French-inspired boiserie paneling and moldings, wrought iron stair details, marble fireplaces, mirrors, and Art Deco bathrooms.” 

(National Register nomination)

In 1933, J.J. Parker took control of the seven-year-old Broadway Theater.  He transformed its interior, added bold exterior signs and converted it to a full-time movie theater as stage entertainment was dying out. The Broadway became the Parkers' crown jewel, bearing a tagline on the marquee that said, “There’s always a better show at Parker’s Broadway.”

1940

Hazel Parker’s life changed as a corporate executive.  “I had to reach a decision in my life, and it was that if I were going to be a businesswoman, I’d give all my time to my business. It meant an end to my social life, which I had always enjoyed, particularly the entertaining part, but that’s the way it had to be.”

 She steered the theaters through a successful decade in the 1950s, but by the 1960s television had radically changed the movie business.  Hazel Parker gradually sold her various interests in the 1960s and 1970s.  Yet she had proved herself as one of Oregon’s top female entrepreneurs. “For these reasons, the Parker House also has significance in local women’s history,” the nomination states.

 Hazel Parker died in 1976 when she was 87.

Except for the Hollywood Theatre and the small Guild theater, all theaters managed by the Parkers in Portland have been demolished. 

 The National Register nomination will be presented to the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation in mid-June.  Assuming approval, it will be forwarded to the federal Department of Interior for final consideration.

 -------Fred Leeson

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"Ground Floor, Otis Elevator"

 

Jokesters used to tease Portland as being a city where the Otis Elevator Company was headquartered in a one-story building.

 

Well, true dat.

 

The company in 1920 built its one-story building with Italian Renaissance styling on a 5,000-square foot lot at N.W. 10^th Ave. and Everett St. The west end served as the office and the rear portion of the building was used for storage and fabrication.

 

The charming little building – which survives today in excellent condition – belies the importance of elevators in modern architecture. Paired with the advent of steel-frame construction, the elevator industry helped the world advance into the skyscraper era. The Portland Otis office was instrumental in assisting Portland’s early high-rise buildings such as the Wells Fargo Building, Meier & Frank, Jackson Tower, Benson Hotel, American Bank Building as well as many newer tall buildings.

Portland’s stylish Otis office was designed by an Otis company architect whose identity is now known. The firm was building many buildings around the nation at the time. The 1920 date is interesting because it came near the end of architecture’s tradition of using historic styles.

  

“Its classical facade expresses a central tenet of the Beaux Art influenced, classically derived architecture of the time, i.e., that even mundane uses should be housed in nobly-designed

structures,” states a history compiled for the National Register of Historic Places. “The Otis Building is noteworthy as a relatively late example of this tenet, since by the time of its construction it was already becoming common to house industrial uses in more functionally-designed structures.”

 

The west facade contains tall Romanesque arched windows office entry is decorated with an arched terra cotta pediment.  Above, a frieze, cornice and red tile roof are customary Italian Renaissance details.  The northern facade reflects the warehouse portion of the building with simpler design and fewer architectural details.

 

Otis used the building until 1975. The former office space is now home to a certified public accountant, and the interior by visual inspection (peeking in the windows) appears largely intact. The former warehouse is contains an artist-run art gallery.

 

Elisha Graves Otis invented his first elevator in 1852. The early ones were intended for hoisting machinery. By 1857 Otis elevators were adapted for carrying people; Otis also invented a safety mechanism that prevented the elevator from falling if its supporting ropes were severed.  His successful demonstration of the safety device launched his elevators as people carriers.

 

After 123 years, Portland’s Otis building reflects design, materials and craftsmanship of an architectural era that no longer exists. We should appreciate its presence and its charm --
and hope that its long life continues without harmful alterations.

And that’s no joke.

 

----Fred Leeson

 

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Remembering the Barlow Wagon Road

 

Venturing outside our normal geographic  boundaries, an opportunity presented itself to take a quick look at the William Barlow House south of Canby. It was built in 1885 by William Barlow who, in his early 20s, helped his father Samuel create the Barlow Road wagon route from The Dalles to Oregon City.

 Created in 1846, the rugged Barlow Road gave Oregon Trail pioneers an option for leaving the Columbia River and travelling to Oregon City over the Cascade Range instead of journeying around the river’s treacherous falls and rapids.

 The Barlow House is a charming version of the two-bay High Victorian Italianate style.  It evidently was erected by a master carpenter without benefit of an architect. Lumber was cut and milled on the site.

 Preservation Consultant Bo Sullivan reports that the long-time owners, who have done a remarkable job of restoration, recently completed restoration of the iron fencing on the roof.  Known colloquially as a widow’s walk or captain’s walk, the device allows one to appreciate views from a high elevation.  Functionally, it allows easy, safe access for cleaning chimneys.

 Sullivan said the owners found fragments of the original railing, which provided a template for new fabrication.

 One can contemplate that inspiration for the house’s design came from San Francisco rather than Portland.  San Francisco was home to literally hundreds of Italianate houses while Portland had far fewer. Given the California gold rush and the active sea trade between Portland and San Francisco, it is easy to appreciate San Francisco’s influence.

 

(National Register of Historic Places) 

An older black-and-white image (likely from the 1970s) shows porches that were added at some point to the western and northern sides of the house. These greatly impaired the original architecture, and fortunately have been removed.

 The old photograph also shows two long rows of black walnut trees leading from the road to the main entrance.  According to Barlow lore, these were the first black walnut trees imported to Oregon.  Although none survive, Sullivan said the owners are thinking of replanting them.

 Sullivan said the house is occasionally open for viewing, but otherwise the owners wish not to be bothered by sightseers. Given their dedication to preservation and restoration, we should willingly limit our appreciation for their historic house and excellent work by viewing from afar. 

 ----Fred Leeson

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Painted Ladies

NW Glisan Street

“Those Victorians must have had fun,” said my friend who likes old houses.  She was referring to the bright, multi-colored paint jobs on old houses that have come to be known as Painted Ladies.

 Alas, if the Victorians had fun with their houses, it WASN’T because of the vibrant pinks, purples, yellows and other hues applied to the architectural details.  No, the Painted Ladies arose from the Flower Power generation in San Francisco in the 1960s.

 The trend began in 1963 when an artist named Butch Kardum used multiple colors to accentuate the details of his mother’s house on Steiner Street. His creative paint job attracted criticism, but his neieighbors followed suit, creating a street widely photographed by tourists to this day.  The name Painted Ladies comes from a 1978 book written about the phenomenon. 

Steiner Street (Library of Congress)

An example of Painted Ladies in Portland occurs on NW Glisan Street, where four houses dating to 1906 – shown at the top – have four or more colors applied individually to various details.  (The bright yellow digging machine in the street is purely coincidental.)  These houses reflect the Craftsman era, where the overall designs were simpler than the Italianate and Edwardian designs that flourished in Nineteenth Century San Francisco.  Nevertheless, the colors do grab one’s eyes.

 In the original era of Victorian and Edwardian houses, color schemes generally included just one or two colors on the main walls and a third color for brackets, cornices and window and door surrounds.  The colors available at the turn of the 20th Century were more bland than the palette available now.

 Bright colors on the Painted Ladies are eye-catching in themselves.  But if you are accustomed to looking at architectural details, the vibrant colors help an observer appreciate the various parts that contribute to the architectural whole.  They offer a window into design techniques and craftsmanship from the long-gone era.

 In addition, the Painted Ladies also testify to the skill of the color designers and careful work y the painters.  Painted Ladies don’t come from spray guns.  One drawback:  The Sun's radiation makes the bright colors fade faster than the gentler, traditional hues.

If you know of other Painted Ladies worthy of our attention in the Portland area, feel free to add them in a comment. 

 ---Fred Leeson

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Remembering Bosco and Milligan

 

You are probably too late to buy the grand, 138-year old High Victorian Italianate residence on NW Hoyt St., even if you were willing to pay more than the $1.125 million asking price.

 The well-preserved architectural gem is one of Portland’s last grand Italianate houses, many of which flourished in the city’s most elegant turn-of-the-century neighborhoods.  Portland’s wet weather and development trends eventually spelled doom for these carefully-crafted wooden marvels.

 This house is notable aside from its architectural charm and its lengthy home for a pioneer Portland butcher turned stockman, Joseph Bergman.  It was also the last home of Ben Milligan and Jerry Bosco, two of Portland’s early architectural preservation activists and artifact collectors.

 

From the late 1950s to their deaths in the late 1980s, Bosco and Milligan bought old houses and restored them in Southeast Portland, and spent countless hours retrieving more than 20,000 architectural artifacts from houses and buildings being torn down during those years.

 One of their last real estate purchases included the badly-deteriorated, two-story West’s Block at 701 SE  Grand Ave.   Built in 1883 as a store with housing on the second floor, the building had devolved to a strip club on the ground floor and uninhabitable space above a hundred years later.

 Thanks to a bequest in their wills and long, hard work from many friends, the West Block eventually was restored as the Architectural Heritage Center, which is owned by the Bosco-Milligan Foundation.  The center now houses a small fraction of their artifact collection, including dozens of historic pieces of stained glass.  The building also houses exhibits and offers lectures aimed at Portland’s architectural history and preservation.

 Philip Austin knew Milligan and Bosco during their collecting days and their final years at the Hoyt Street house.  “I was in there a lot, especially after they died,” he said.  “When I was working on cleaning out the house they had two of the bedrooms for storage, a front bedroom was the trunk room full of old trunks full of stuff, and a back bedroom had shelving with boxes filled with things.  In the basement were stain-glass windows and other stuff.  They had put in some ceiling medallions that they made and installed in the front parlors.”

 Austin has looked at the photographs in the recent realty listings.  “It has been upgraded a lot since they were there,” he says.  While the interior shows many tasteful 21st Century changes, the exterior has been beautifully preserved. 

 As well it should have.  Having been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983, any changes to the exterior would have been carefully regulated.

 ----Fred Leeson

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Progress on Restoring the Elk Fountain and Statue

 

Despite a unanimous Portland City Council decision 11 months ago, there has been little public discussion about restoring the historic David P. Thompson elk statue and fountain that was damaged and then removed after public protests in 2020.

Obviously, however, there has been talk and activity in the background aimed at rebuilding the fountain and elk pedestal at its historic location on S.W. Main Street.

 The evidence became clear at a City Council work session on April 10 for the 2023-2024 municipal budget.  The non-profit Portland Park Foundation proposed to raise funds to pay for construction drawings for the restoration project, if the city promises to allocate $1.5 million for construction costs.

 The $1.5 million presumably would come from Water Bureau revenues, given that the Water Bureau is charged with rebuilding the fountain.  The Parks Bureau will be in charge of replacing the elk statue.

 Mary Ruble, the foundation’s treasurer, said $70,000 in commitments already has been raised.  Randy Gragg, the foundation’s executive director, said a crowd-funding campaign would begin if the City Council assures construction costs. “We anticipate widespread approval” by citizens, he said.  The total estimated cost of design and construction drawings is $156,000. 

If the plan comes to fruition, the elk and its fountain would be restored sometime in 2024. 

 Timing is critical.   A new form of city government takes power in 2025, and there is no guarantee that a new, 12-member City Council would carry out a resolution adopted by the five-member council in May, 2022.

The fountain and statue were given to the city in 1900 by David P. Thompson, an early pioneer and one-time Portland mayor who also was a founder of the Oregon Humane Society.

 While it would be inappropriate to assume that City Council reconstruction funding is assured, three of the five council members ---Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioners Mingus Mapps and Dan Ryan -- referred favorably to the fountain in their comments during the budget session.  Wheeler said the elk “symbolically has a great deal of importance to the people of the city.” He said its restoration be a welcome sign of downtown recovery.

 Mayor Ted Wheeler is expected to produce a final proposed budget in mid-May, when it will be sent to the City Council for final approval in June.

---Fred Leeson

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