Mappy Monday - Portland Oregon: The Age of A City

Another cool tool I've been using in my research on the buildings designed by my architect first-cousin-twice-removed, Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976), is this cool one at http://labratrevenge.com/pdx/

Justin Palmer created the map using a dataset provided by the City of Portland that included information on the year most structures in the city were built.  Each color in the map indicates a different decade (while gray indicates that no year of construction was available), ranging from pre-1900 to 2010 and later.

You can zoom in on different areas on the map - here are some examples:

Above:  Zooming in on SE Madison St., between SE 20th Ave. and SE 26th Ave.

Below:  Zooming in on SE Caruthers St., between SE 20th Ave. and SE 26th Ave.  This area is due south of SE Madison St.

This map can help me in cases where I know, from an old newspaper article, the rough location of a building Ewald designed, but not the exact address or site.  For example, on the map below, centered on NE U.S. Grant Place, I know that Ewald designed four homes on this street in 1931, according to an article on page 26 of the June 7, 1931 Portland Oregonian.  The lighter-blue houses on that street are too old (built in the 1920s), while those that are purple or pink are too young.  I use it in conjunction with the City's PortlandMaps.com site, to quickly rule out properties so I only have to check the images of historic building permits there for the true possibilities, trying to match up the dates of the permits and the listed owners with the information in the newspaper article.

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: "Mediterranean Type House Designed for West Side Hills District" by Ewald Pape, 1930

This lovely house, designed by my first-cousin-twice-removed Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976), is at 2880 NW Ariel Terrace in the Kings Heights neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.  This area is west of the Willamette River, and many of the homes here have great views of the river, downtown, and nearby mountains such as Mt. Hood.




This house is in the Oregon Historic Sites Database as the Alvin C. Greenwood House.  The two-story structure was built in 1930 and Greenwood was the general contractor.  A building permits list published in the July 18, 1930 Oregonian includes the house, estimated to cost $25,000.  The plumbing permits from August 28, 1930, and September 29, 1930, pictured below, indicate the house originally had seven bathrooms, three with bathtubs and one with a shower.  The address was 1126 Ariel Terrace before the 1931-1933 Portland street renumbering.

The December 28, 1930 Sunday Oregonian has a sketch of the house, no doubt done by Ewald, with the same title as this blog post.  It has the following caption:  "Stucco [walls], tile [roof], and wrought iron will be used in this fine home planned for Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Greenwood on Ariel terrace, Westover, at the end of the Westover [street]car line.  E. T. Pape is the designer."  The family was living in the home by October 19, 1931, as there was a reference to them at that address.

Subsequent newspaper articles indicate the Greenwood family lived in the house until 1972, when it first shows up in real estate ads.  Alvin Charles Greenwood was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1885, but came to Portland in 1909 with his wife, the former Lillian M. Caesar, who born in Wisconsin in 1884.  Greenwood was involved in highway construction in the Pacific Northwest.  An article in the May 2, 1933 Oregonian indicated he suffered a serious injury when a truck from his Greenwood Construction Company backed over both his legs at a worksite in Lockwood, Oregon.

Numerous newspaper notices detail Lillian's involvement with such groups as the University of Oregon Mothers Club, the Allied Arts Club, Kappa Xi, the Delphian Society, and Chi Omega Mothers Club.  She apparently was also a professional artist, winning first place in the professional division at the 1947 Multnomah County Fair for an oil painting of flowers (according to the August 20 Oregonian).

The couple had five children:  Keith Charles (1909-1937, who died in an auto accident), John Alvin (1911-1987), Kathryn M. (Mrs. Charles Curtis Smith, 1913-2000), Jane (Mrs. Joydon Claridge, 1914-2006), and Robert Lawrence (1917-1982), as well as at least 12 grandchildren and at least 21 great-grandchildren, according to their obituaries.  Alvin died May 3, 1954, and Lillian died on Christmas Day, 1971. 

The 1940 Census shows Alvin and Lillian living in the big house with daughter Kathryn, her husband, and their three children.

The house was not sold until 1972, after Lillian's death and 41 years of occupancy by the Greenwoods.  An August 20 real estate ad from that year notes that the house has approximately 2300 square feet of living area on each level, five spacious bedrooms, four full baths, three half baths, a 22' by 34' living room, a formal dining room, a breakfast room, a library, a studio, a recreation room, three fireplaces, and a beautiful curving staircase.  The asking price then was $85,000.

In April 1985, the asking price was $399,000, but it sold for $310,000 that October.  It sold twice in 2006, in January for $1,510,000 and in May for $2,450,000.

Here's a photo of the house from around May 1981, which was included in the City of Portland Historic Resource Inventory:

That inventory notes some of the special features of the house, such as the leaded glass fanlight over the recessed arched entry, and the upper level balconette with a wrought-iron railing just above it, both visible in the picture below:

Other features include decorative wrought iron over a lower level front window (just behind the wall in the picture below), and Art Deco motifs, between the windows just above it.

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: 50th Wedding Anniversary in Lithuania

My third cousin Osvaldas Guokas recently shared this picture.  It was taken in
1979 in Panevėžys, Lithuania.  It is of my first-cousin-twice-removed Juozapas Guokas (born 1902) and his wife, Konstancija Tamošiūnaitė Guokienė, on their 50th wedding anniversary  They are the seated couple.  Behind Konstancija is her relative (haven't figured out yet how they are related), Ona Tamošiūnaitė Radauskienė Marcinkus (1907-1988) Behind Juozapas is Ona's daughter Bernice Ann Radauskas Dylo (1940-2004).  Bernice and Ona were visiting Lithuania at this time.  The man standing in the back is Aleksandras Dura.  His mother and Ona Tamošiūnaite-Radauskienė were sisters.  Ona was between husbands.  My first-cousin-twice-removed Leonas "Leo" Radauskas (1889-1973) had died, and she married her second husband, Michael William Marcinkus (1899-1987), in 1983.


© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Mystery Monday: A Mis-Attribution - Ewald Pape's design at 3257 NE U. S. Grant Place, Portland, Oregon

Two articles in the June 7, 1931, Portland Oregonian mention a house that my architect first-cousin-twice-removed, Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976), designed.  One article, called "Church Gets Permit," says:

"The [city] bureau [of buildings] also issued a permit for a $12,000 residence, to be erected by J. H. Cleland at 985 U. S. Grant place. E. T. Pape prepared the plans."

The second article, called "Six Houses Under Way," said:

"For John H. Cleland, he [E. T. Pape] has designed a two-story colonial of nine rooms, also for U. S. Grant place, that will cost approximately $12,000.  It will contain three baths."

Using PastPortland.com, I determined that the address after the 1932 renumbering was 3257 NE U. S. Grant Place, and this is the house:




So in doing my research, I checked the Oregon Historic Sites Database.  The house is described in the attached City of Portland Historic Resource Inventory form as being a Twentieth Century Colonial, with "gable roof, boxed cornice with return, brick end-wall chimney, pedimented entry with modillioned cornice supported by two sets of double-columns, double doors with elliptical fan light above, round arched window with keystones, and louvered shutters."

A real estate listing from 2013 notes a "gracious formal entry with open staircase is flanked by spacious living and dining rooms with hardwood floors, [period light fixtures, original] leaded [glass] windows and built-ins [like a china hutch in the dining room]. Four large bedrooms up includes grand master suite" with three closets.   "Period baths" have "original tile."

However, I was surprised to find some discrepancies in the City of Portland's Historic Resource Inventory form.  Here's a snippet from the first page for this property:

Architectural plans by Edward J. Green?

This had to be a mistake.  Note that Cleland is also spelled wrong.  Also, on the next page of the form, the wrong address is given as the old address of the property:

I decided to double-check the City of Portland's 1933 index for house and street renumbering. Here's the relevant section from page 90:

As can be seen, the old 991 U. S. Grant Place is today's 3265 NE U. S. Grant Place, which happens to be the house next door, also owned by John Cleland.  Perhaps that is the one designed by Edward J. Green.  If you look at the plumbing permit available on PortlandMaps.com, you can see why the error might have happened:

The card shows 991 crossed out and 985 written just above it, as well as the renumbered/renamed address, 3257 NE.  Other details correspond:  Cleland as the owner, 2 story, 3 baths (water closets or toilets).  The date of the permit is July 11, 1931, just a month after the newspaper articles.  The house next door, today's 3265, was also owned by Cleland, but its plumbing permit is dated September 26, 1931.

Here's a photo of the house at 3257 NE U. S. Grant Place from sometime around May 1981, the date the ownership at that time was noted.  Since then, door and window shutters on the first floor have been removed, as have storm doors on the front:

I'll be contacting the City of Portland and sharing my research, in hopes that the incorrect information can be corrected in the Oregon Historic Sites database immediately as well as when the City of Portland Historic Resource Inventory is updated, as there are plans to do that.

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Ewald Pape's First Portland Design?

A modest house at 2027 N. Skidmore Court in Portland, Oregon's older Overlook neighborhood may be one of the first, if not *the* first, house designed in Portland by my architect first-cousin-twice-removed Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976).  It is listed in the Oregon Historic Sites Database.

Above and below:  Photos of 2027 N. Skidmore Ct., Portland, Oregon, June 13, 2018

The English Cottage style house features shingle siding, a gable roof with an assymetrical gable front entrance, and a massive chimney.  The 1,449-square-foot single-story house has three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a gas fireplace, an unfinished basement, and a detached garage (the current one is a replacement for one there prior to 2003, although it might also not be original).  

The house was originally built for Guy Edward Jaques Sr., shortly after his marriage to Evalyn L. Bailey in Portland on June 24, 1925.  Here is its August 14, 1925 plumbing permit, from the PortlandMaps.com City site:

Guy Jaques is probably the bigger reason the house is in the Historic Sites database.  Jaques was born in Dowes, Iowa, in 1896, but by 1910 his family was in Washington state.  He graduated from the University of Washington in 1924 and worked for a steamship and logging company until 1926.  From 1926 to 1934 he was employed by various savings and loan companies in Portland.  In 1934, he founded Portland Federal Savings and Loan, later called Far West Federal.  He served on the Portland School Board, 1944-1948; as a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank, from 1944; and on the Portland Planning Commission.  He also started the Fifth Avenue Investment Company.  He died in 1978.

The original address for the home was 129 Griswold Avenue.  Jaques was living here still at the 1940 Census, along with his wife and son Guy Jr.  Later Guy Sr. moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon, but Guy Jr. continued to live in the house through 1956, then he also moved to Lake Oswego.  Interestingly, another architect, Simon G. Stanich (1920-1996), with Jacobberger Franks & Norman, lived in the house in at least 1962.  Likely longer, because nearby there is a very small park  with a monument, named for him because he was a community activist. 

 

The picture above was taken sometime around May 1981 and is from the City of Portland Historic Resources Inventory completed in 1984.


© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Mystery Monday: What Happened to One of Ewald's Houses?

I recently returned from a trip to Portland, Oregon, where I spent some time driving around and taking photographs of houses, apartment buildings, and other structures designed by my architect first-cousin-twice removed Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976).

So what did I photograph?  In some cases, I started with an article in the Portland Oregonian, found a few years back when I won a one-year subscription to GenealogyBank.

An article in the October 20, 1929 issue entitled "Turner Will Build Home" states "E. T. Pape, designer, has completed plans for a new house for F. B. Turner on Varnell drive in Burlingame.  It will cost approximately $15,000.

The building will be 30x56 in dimensions, and because of the sloping terrain it will be two stories in front and three stories high in the rear.  Stucco, brick, and shingles will be used for exterior finish.  It will contain ten rooms."

I searched for a Varnell Drive in Burlingame, but couldn't find it.  This told me the street name had changed.  I consulted a spreadsheet produced by the Portland Department of Transportation that told me Varnell had been changed to SW Burlingame Place in May 1933, after the construction of this house.

Burlingame Place is a pretty small street, so I started looking at historical records for houses on this street at PortlandMaps.com, also a City product.  I was looking for houses with a 1929 or 1930 Year Built with a plumbing permit from 1929 listing F. B. Turner as the owner.  I used Google Maps Street View to help me narrow down the search to houses that seemed to fit the description in the news article, as well as Ewald's style.

Six houses on the street were built in 1929 or 1930, but only two of those were originally owned by builder F. B. Turner.  One house (at 6476) had a plumbing permit dated in May 1928, too early to be the house referenced in this article, I felt.  The house is listed in the Oregon Historic Sites Database, and may very well have been designed by Ewald (it looks like his style), it's just not the one in the article.

So I looked at the other house, at 6438 SW Burlingame Place.  Its plumbing permit is dated November 18, 1929, so the timing is right for the newspaper article:

But I was disappointed to see, both on PortlandMaps.com and on Google Map Street View, that the property was now vacant land (click on the map below to make it larger - the property is outlined in blue):

So I started doing a little more research, and discovered that the house slid down the hill in October 2008!  It took out the house just below it, that used to be on the now-vacant 6305 SW Terwilliger Boulevard, and heavily damaged a house next to that one.  Here's an article about and photos of the landslide, as well as the aftermath.  The theory in the latter is "that broken sprinkler pipes saturated the earth trapped behind concrete retaining walls," evidenced by "huge spikes in water use," that "pulled the home down."

Google Map Street View now has a historical view feature, and I was able to find the views below of the house at 6438 SW Burlingame Place in August 2007, about 14 months before it slid away.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any other photographs of the inside or the outside of the house.

Views above and below from Google Maps Street View as of August 2007.

The PortlandMaps website recorded 13 permits for various types of work on the home (alterations, additions, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing) from 2004 through 2007.  The drawing below, from a project in October 2004, shows most of the footprint of the home.

I also found a reference to the house on the Vintage Portland website.  Below is an enlargement of the upper left corner of the photo at the beginning of that post, which dates from 1932 or 1933.  In the image below (click on it to make it larger), there is a group of three houses on the right side, in the center of that edge.  The middle house of that three is the one Ewald designed.  That's SW Burlingame Place just above the three, looping around to SW Burlingame Avenue behind it, running along the top of the photo, and SW Terwilliger Boulevard below it, running along the bottom edge of this photo.

City of Portland (OR) Archives, A1999-004.535

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Ainslie Court Apartments in Portland, Oregon - Designed by Ewald Pape?

I recently returned from a trip to Portland, Oregon, where I spent some time driving around and taking photographs of houses, apartment buildings, and other structures designed by my architect first-cousin-twice removed Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976).

So what did I photograph?  In some cases, I started with an article in the Portland Oregonian, found a few years back when I won a one-year subscription to GenealogyBank.

The Sunday issue on February 7, 1926, had a long article entitled "Home Construction Starts in Earnest" on page 2.  One paragraph in that read as follows:

"At a cost of $20,000 a six-suite, three-room bungalow-court will be erected at East Twenty-first and East Madison streets, by R. S. McFarland, from plans by E. T. Pape."

Figuring out exactly where this is has been tricky, and I'm still not sure I have the right location.  I used a number of websites brought to my attention by Val C. Ballestrem, Education Manager at Portland's Architectural Heritage Center, whom I met with one morning during my visit.

The City's property information database, PortlandMaps, has scanned historical plumbing permits.  These show the original owner (but unfortunately, not the architect) and can give a rough date for construction.  Sometimes subsequent owners or other changes are shown with additional permits for plumbing revision work.

The Oregon Historic Sites Database can be used to check addresses to see if they are listed on or were nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.  You can search by a number of criteria, including address and architect (but I quickly learned the architect is often NOT listed on National Register paperwork).  You can also pull up a copy of the National Register paperwork as well as the City of Portland Historic Resource Inventory sheets, if applicable (there's also a spreadsheet with all the information from the latter).

Like Chicago, Portland underwent an extensive street address renumbering, but in the 1931-1933 time period.  PastPortland can be used to convert current addresses to those before the transition, or vice-versa - old addresses into today's.  You can also download a PDF of the renumbering information, as well as a PDF with street name changes over the years.

Using all of this information, I think the Ainslie Court Apartments, at the southwest corner of SE Madison Street and SE 25th Avenue, are the ones described in the Oregonian article.  It is a six-unit bungalow-style apartment building, very much in Ewald's style.  The view below shows four of the units (1403, 1405, 1407, and 1409 SE 25th) as viewed from the 25th Avenue side:

This view is from the corner of SE 25th Avenue and SE Madison Street:

And this view is on the Madison Street side of the apartment building, showing the entrances to 2442 SE Madison and (strangely) 1411 SE 25th:

Here is the February 9, 1926 plumbing permit for the building, clearly showing six units.  The date dovetails well with the newspaper article, and the owner of the building is shown to be R. S. McFarland.

The Portland Historic Resources Inventory notes that the building is English Cottage style garden apartments with primarily stucco siding.  Special features include a low gable roof with returns on gable ends, projecting gable pavilion entrances, and multi-pane windows.  Recent real estate listings (rentals and sales) note hardwood floors.  The six units are each one-bedroom, one-bath (along with a living area and kitchen) and around 700 to 750 square feet.

Below is a map (click on it to make it larger) showing the location of the Ainslie Court Apartments (outlined in blue on the right) along with three nearby apartment buildings originally owned by McFarland.  More on those in a future post - Ewald definitely designed two of those.

The details of Ainslie only differ from the newspaper article with the cross street of [South-]East 21st rather than 25th.  There is a possible property near that point, but I think it's another apartment complex referred to in yet another newspaper article that may *also* have a misprint on the street names.  But more about that in the future too.

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

Talented Tuesday: Happy Birthday to My Brother Brian!

My brother Brian in his 8th grade play, "Foster's Formula," at St. Francis de Sales School, Houston Texas, May 12, 1976.  Brian played Grandpa Foster.

© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.