Those Places Thursday: 2209 SE Bybee Blvd., Portland, Oregon - An Ewald Pape Design?

Here is another house that *may* have been designed by my architect first-cousin-twice-removed, Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976), in Portland, Oregon, in 1931.  This one is located at 2209 SE Bybee Boulevard, but unfortunately I don't have many photographs of it (click on each image to view it larger):

What I *think* is the first reference to this house is on page 22 of the May 24, 1931, Oregonian, in an article entitled "House Building Gains."  

Residential construction is picking up with the advance of the spring and summer season, according to E. T. Pape, designer, who says he is finishing plans on almost $80,000 worth of house construction that is to be under way at once....
...A one-story house for M. D. Hawes at East Twenty-second street and Bybee avenue, in Westmoreland, will cost about $6,500.  It will contain six rooms and will be English in exterior design.

I'm not sure what was meant in that era by "six rooms."  Below is a main floor plan of this house dated March 2014, of the layout before a planned renovation later that year.  I count seven rooms, not including the foyer.  Was the bath or another room not normally counted?  It's entirely possible this floor was remodeled sometime between 1931 and 2014.  Perhaps the second bedroom was part of the master, or the nook was part of the kitchen.

Here is the March 2014 before-renovation plan for the upper level.  I don't know if the bedroom up there was original to the 1931 plans, or if the room was added later.

What makes this a bit confusing is that the house next door, at 6916 SE 22nd Avenue, was built the same year, and perhaps about the same time.  Unfortunately, there are no historic plumbing permits for either house available at the PortlandMaps.com website, so it's not clear which house was built first.

A real estate ad in the September 8, 1943 Oregonian described the 6916 SE  22nd house as

Modern 3 bedroom, English-type, Hardwood floors, tile bath and kitchen, sunken living rm., oil heat, Patio, inclosed [sic] yard.  Across street from park and Eastmoreland golf course.

An ad for 2209 SE Bybee in the December 21, 1941 Oregonian described that house as

6 rms., genuine gumwood, 3 bedrms., large closets, beautiful time bath and kitchen, large living rm., leaded art glass studio window, all hardwood, fireplace, efficient heating plant, landscaped grounds.

A key difference appears to be the sunken living room.  Based on interior photos from recent real estate ads, the Bybee house definitely does not have that.

A May 10, 1931 Oregonian ad (two weeks before the article discussing Ewald's design for M. [Mark] D. Hawes at this intersection) is for a house, also owned by Hawes, at this intersection that is described as having a "shake, stucco, and brick exterior."  There is NO brick on the exterior of the 2209 SE Bybee house, but there is some on the 6916 SE 22nd house.  However, this ad does not mention the sunken living room, and while it describes the house as being five rooms, another ad (on August 23, 1931) for a house on the "corner lot" once again mentions shakes and brick (but not stucco), and describes the house as having seven rooms.

Ads on January 30 and February 1, 1932, specifically mention the 6916 SE 22nd house (with its old number of 1356) and its rake shakes, brick front, six rooms...and sunken living room.

The Portland city directories for 1932 and 1933 have street guides (criss-cross directories) in them, and those provide another clue.  In 1932, the 6916 house is listed as vacant - but the Bybee house is not listed at all.  In the 1933 directory, both houses exist and are occupied.

I think the house now at 6916 SE 22nd was there first.  I think Mark D. Hawes was the original owner/builder for both houses.   I think he purchased Lots 1 and 2 of Block 37 of the Westmoreland subdivision, as indicated in the highlighted portion of this October 1923 survey of the plat:

As highlighted on the 1939 sewer assets map #3732 below, these two tracts, as well as the section of undeveloped North Bybee Place just north of it, were apparently viewed as one lot.

In February 1950, a survey (#2156, below) was done in preparation for formally vacating SE Evergreen Street (formerly North Bybee Place) so that a house could be built on it (which was completed in 1951).  I highlighted Lots 1 and 2 of Block 37 below.

In February 1958, another survey (#27464) was done, this time to redraw the lot lines within Lots 1 and 2 of Block 37 to match reality.  So 2209 SE Bybee sits on the south half of Lots 1 and 2 of Block 37, and 6916 SE 22nd sits on the north half.

So, what does all this mean?  It means I'm not 100% sure, but I feel pretty confident that Ewald T. Pape designed the house at 2209 SE Bybee Boulevard in Portland, Oregon.

Just from these exterior views, it looks like Ewald's style.

 © Amanda Pape - 2019 - e-mail me!

Military Monday: Kodachrome In Korea V

Last year, while cleaning out the study of my late father, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017), I found a paper bag containing a number of Kodachrome slides from the early and mid-1950s, taken during his time in Korea and also in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. Kodachrome is extremely stable, and the color on these slides is near pristine. I'll be sharing more of the images in the future.

This picture is from Dad's time in Korea, from October 1952 through March 1953.  I'm not sure if it is K-1 (Pusan West), where he was stationed through December 20, or K-9 (Pusan East) Air Base, where he was stationed the rest of the time (being at K-1 while a runway was rebuilt at K-9).

The building behind him (seen better in the enlargement below) seems to be under construction, so I'm guessing this is K-9.  I wish Dad was still around, so I could just ask him.  In one more week, he would have been celebrating his 90th birthday.

© Amanda Pape - 2019 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: Del Mar Apartments, Portland, Oregon - An Ewald Pape Design

Nearly a mirror image to the San Farlando Apartments just west of it, the Del Mar Apartments, at the northeast corner of SE Hawthorne and SE 30th Avenue in Portlan, Oregon, were also constructed by Robert S. McFarland.  It appears that McFarland took the San Farlando design by my architect first cousin twice removed, Ewald Theodore Pape (1894-1976), and flipped it on the vertical axis.  Below is a view of the 30th Avenue side of the building (click on all photos to make them larger).

And below is the sign identifying the building as the "Del-Mar Apts." on the Hawthorne side of the building's corner on 30th.

A notice in the November 30, 1930 Oregonian indicated McFarland obtained a building permit for a "dwelling" at "900 Hawthorne [the pre-renumbering address of the site] between East Twenty-ninths and East Thirtieth" for what looks like a building valued either $50,000 or $60,000. A few days later, on December 11, a plumbing permit was obtained (pictured below), indicating another 14-unit building.

Interestingly, articles in the Oregonian on November 23 and 28, 1930, show that the building was permitted under planned changes to the city of Portland's housing code.  The first article, "Change in Code Favored," subtitled "Amendment in Housing Laws to Permit Closets Under Stairways," said:

Amendment of the housing code so as to permit the use of closets under wooden stairways in some cases has been recommended to the city council by the advisory board of the housing council, which also recommended an exemption from the present provisions for R. S. McFarland, who plans to build a multiple dwelling at 900 Hawthorne avenue.

The board recommended that the code be amended so that when a stairway served but one family and when each family in the multiple dwelling has its own entrance, closets may be built under the stairs if metal lath and plaster are used.  Under these conditions, the board also recommended that an exemption be granted to Mr. McFarland.  

All five units on 30th avenue are accessed from one stairway up a short slope.  At the top of the steps, just below the soldier course of bricks at the bottom of the building, are signs pointing which way to go for each unit.

Here are the entrances to units 1435 (far left), 1433 (next to it), and 1431 (near the center of the photo).  You can also see one of the corbelled brick diamond spandrel motifs in the brickwork above the Chicago School living room window - tripartite windows where the central window is a fixed pane of leaded glass (in this case, with false muntins on that pane), flanked by sash windows (in this case, four-over-one double-hung).

And here are the entrances to 1427 and 1425, which, like all the entrances on the 30th Avenue side, have pent roof tile hoods supported by decorative wrought iron brackets:

Photos of interiors can be found by clicking on these links: 1425, 1427, 1433, and 1435 SE 30th; 2933, 2935, 2949, and 2953 SE Hawthorne.  Each unit is a little different, both in size and configurations.

An end unit, 2931 SE Hawthorne, is almost 1300 square feet; it has a small addition that was apparently added in 1956 to put a half bath on the main floor, according to this plumbing permit dated March 2 of that year:

Here is the addition, the other side of which is just visible from Hawthorne through the space between the San Farlando and Del Mar buildings:




The "H. Angell" who did this was Homer Daniel Angell (1875-1968), a state representative (1929-1937), state senator (1937-1938), and United States Congressman (1939-1955).  He owned the building in 1940, according to a November 24 article in the Oregonian about improvements he was making there.  He was probably the "unnamed Portland investor" who bought the building in March 1932 for $70,000, based on an Oregonian interview in 1964 where he stated he had owned the building "for some 30 years."  On the 1940 census, Margaret Ray Calderwood Claggett (1899-1980), Angell's Portland office secretary since 1930, was living there (at address 2937 SE Hawthorne) with her first husband Forrest.  She became the second Mrs. Angell in January 1952 after the deaths of both of their spouses, and by March 1956 they moved into 2931 SE Hawthorne.  According to an obituary, Angell was a past president of the Oregon Apartment House Association, and a member of its board of managers.

Behind the building is a set of eight single garages, part of eight of the units.  A similar building for the San Farlando apartments was torn down some time ago.

© Amanda Pape - 2019 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday: Kodachrome in Korea IV

Last year, while cleaning out the study of my late father, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017), I found a paper bag containing a number of Kodachrome slides from the early and mid-1950s, taken during his time in Korea and also in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. Kodachrome is extremely stable, and the color on these slides is near pristine. I'll be sharing more of the images in the future.

The two photos below show Dad at what I believe were anti-aircraft gun emplacements in the hills above the K-9 (Pusan East) Air Base in Korea, where he was stationed from October 1952 through March 1953.  You can see the Suyeong River in the background in the upper right, with the buildings and tents of the base next to it, and beyond that, the runway lined with aircraft.  

Unfortunately, I don't know who any of the other men in the pictures with Dad are.  I wish I could ask Dad.  Had he lived, in two more weeks, he would have been 90 years old.

Here's another view looking north from this hill, a little closer to the river.

© Amanda Pape - 2019 - click here to e-mail me.

Those Places Thursday: San Farlando Apartments, Portland, Oregon - An Ewald Pape Design

One of three apartment buildings designed by my architect first-cousin-twice-removed, Ewald Theodore Pape (1891-1976), that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the San Farlando Apartments at 2903-2925 SE Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland, Oregon:




The L-shaped building has 14 two-story, two-bedroom, one bathroom townhouse-style apartments, all with unique floor plans and individual addresses.  Five of the units face SE 29th Avenue and have addresses on that street, as indicated by the building sign pictured below:




An article on page 2, section 2 of the Sunday Oregonian dated December 30, 1928, was headlined "Apartment Plans Made," and part of the subtitle read "McFarland Will Build on Hawthorne Avenue.  Two-Story and Basement House Will Cost $50,000."  It stated,

E. T. Pape, designer, has completed plans for a two-story and basement apartment house to be erected by R. S. McFarland at 881 Hawthorne avenue [the street name and address before a 1932 renaming and renumbering].

The building will be 28x190 in dimensions, of brick and reinforced concrete, and will cost about $50,000, according to estimates.  Mr. McFarland will erect the structure himself.

A little less than two weeks later, a plumbing permit was obtained, pictured below:

The City of Portland Archives has a photograph (below) from about 1939 with this building in the background, taken from SE Hawthorne looking west towards SE 29th Avenue.  You can also view a then-and-now image at the What Was There website.

City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2005-001.1166

According to the National Register nomination form, "Stylistically, and in terms of layout, there is little difference between the Burrell Heights and San Farlando projects except that in the San Farlando building a low tile-clad hip roof and some minor relief elements on the brick exterior have been added. The decorative elements include corbelled brick diamond spandrel motifs, a corbel course at the cornice line [better described as a denticulated brick cornice], and an "I" motif in sunk relief in gable pediments."  You can see all those features in the photograph below, of the entrances to the easternmost units in the complex, 2923 and 2925 SE Hawthorne.  The alternating pattern of projecting bricks just below the roof line is the denticulated brick cornice.

Also, like Burrell Heights, the entrances on the 29th Avenue side have pent roof hoods supported by decorative wrought iron brackets, Chicago School style living room window - tripartite windows where the central window is a fixed pane of leaded glass, flanked by sash windows (in this case, four-over-one double-hung).  Both features are pictured below in the entrances to 1426, 1428, and 1430 SE 29th Avenue.

Also, like Burrell Heights, the corner unit (2903 SE Hawthorne) has an arched entryway, pictured below.

This corner unit also has different windows.  There is a projecting bay with a grouping of three elongated double-hung wood sash windows on both the first and second floor.

On the Hawthorne Boulevard side, the hoods over the doors are a different style, and the center panel of the tripartate living room window appears to have a grille (fake muntins), as shown below at the entrances to 2915 and 2917 SE Hawthorne.

The east end of the south facade (2925 SE Hawthorne, pictured below) has a two-story bay with an end gabled roof, a large arched single fixed pane window on the ground floor, and a grouping of three elongated double hung wood sash windows on the second floor, under the "I" motif. 

Here is a sketch of the first floor layouts:

And here is a sketch of the second floor layouts.  Each apartment is unique.

The back side of the building is rather plain.  You can see in the photo below, however, that each apartment has its own separate back entrance.

San Farlando Apartments, PDX 2011 / Another Believer / CC BY-SA 3.0

I couldn't find any recent photos of the interiors of any apartments, but here are links to photos of a living room and a kitchen from the National Register application, probably taken in 1996 or early 1997.  Complete descriptions of the interiors are available in that application.


© Amanda Pape - 2019 - e-mail me!.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: So This Just Happened....

...My nephew Nick Pape (on the right in the photo below) is sitting at the airport, and notices the guy next to him has the same last name.  He messages me and tells me he is sitting next to Casey Pape from Alaska, who says his Pape side is from Illinois and Germany (like ours).  Nick asks me how they are related.

I knew who Casey was, as his dad Larry and I have been corresponding since 2013, and Larry just e-mailed me on New Year's Day.  Nick and Casey are third cousins once removed.  Casey's great-grandfather Lorenz Pape (1862-1932) and Nick's great-great-grandfather John Pape (1851-1945) were brothers.  Casey's grandparents were August Peter Pape (1893-1947) and Frances A. DeMuth Pape (1902-1967).  The common ancestors for Casey and Nick are Jacob Pape and Elizabeth Gierse Pape.


© Amanda Pape - 2019 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday: Fred Pape Military Shadow Box

My brother Brian made the most wonderful shadow box honoring the military service of our dad, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017), as a Christmas gift for our nephew (click on all photos to make them larger):




Starting with the bottom, on the left is the Korean Service Medal, and on the right is the National Defense Service Medal.  Dad earned both of these, but at his death, did not have them in his possession.  Brian was able to find them on eBay.




This is the insignia for the 17th Bomb Group.   The motto "TOUJOURS AU DANGER" is French for "ever into danger."

This is the description of the insignia, from the printed page 63 of the Air Force Combat Units of WWII and from the 17th Bomb Group web page:

"Shield: Or, seven crosses pattee in pale sable.  Crest:  on a wreath of the colors (or and sable) a griffin rampant of the first, beaked, fore-legged and winged of the second, and langued gules."

Here's what all that means:
"Or" indicates that the shield is gold in color.
"Seven crosses pattee" means that the crosses are spread over the height of the shield, "in pale sable" means the crosses are black.  The seven crosses represent the seven campaigns of the units of the 17th during World War I:  Lorraine, Ile-de-France, Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, Oise-Marne, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne.

"Crest" (what's above the shield):  "on a wreath of colors (or and sable)" means that the wreath is a pair of intertwined ropes, alternating gold and black, on which the griffin is standing.
"A griffin" (symbolic of a menace) "rampant" (rising with forepaws in the air) "of the first" (color, that is, gold), "beaked, fore-legged and winged of the second" (means having a bird's beak, forelegs and wings of the second color, black), "and langued" (having the tongue exposed) "gules" (indicates that the tongue is red).

And this is the insignia for the 37th Bomb Squadron:

Along the top, Dad's Distinguished Flying Cross is at the far left, and his Air Medal is at the far right.  He had both of these in his possession throughout his life.  Next to the Air Medal, with the blue-and-white stripes, is the United Nations Service Medal.




Next to the Distinguished Flying Cross in the second grouping from the left (next to the Air Force medallion), is the grouping of smaller items pictured below.   At the top are the two lapel pins that came with the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross respectively.  Below that is the ribbon for the National Defense Service Medal.  Just below that is a a single bronze oak leaf that goes with the Air Medal, which means that Dad received an additional citation on top of the Air Medal.

Just below that are Dad's navigator wings from his Air Force uniform.  He had a couple of these, one of which he always wore on his Fredericksburg, Texas,  Ex-Military Flyers Club hat.  Dad told me that after his commissioning as an officer at Ellington Air Force Base in April 1952, he got his brass insignia chrome-plated in Houston for about three or four dollars, so he would never have to polish the wings again.

Finally, at the bottom of this picture are the two silver First Lieutenant bars indicating his rank. The would have been pinned to epaulets on his dress uniform, for example.

In the center of the shadow box is this photograph of Dad in his flight suit, taken in Korea probably in 1953:

Here is how it looks with the case closed - unfortunately, all I had was the phone on my camera, so reflections are bad.

In three more weeks, Dad would have turned 90.

Thank you, brother Brian, for the wonderful job you did on the shadow box!  

 © Amanda Pape - 2019 - e-mail me!

Those Places Thursday: Burrell Heights Apartments, Portland, Oregon - An Ewald Pape Design

The first of three apartment buildings designed by my architect first-cousin-twice-removed, Ewald Theodore Pape (1891-1976), that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the Burrell Heights Apartments at 2903-2919 SE Clay Street in Portland, Oregon.  It is part of the "Middle Class Apartment Buildings In East Portland" Multiple Property Submission (MPS).




An article in the Sunday Oregonian dated April 15, 1928, was headlined "Apartment Permit Issued" with the subtitle "$40,000 Building To Rise On East Clay Street."  It stated,

Application for a permit to build a two-story apartment house at 881 East Clay street [the pre-1932 address] for R. S. McFarland, owner and builder, has been filed at the city hall by E. T. Pape, designer. 

Estimated cost is $40,000.  Ground dimensions will be 103 by 38 feet.

Pictured below is the plumbing permit, issued three days later:

The building, consisting of twelve two-story, two-bedroom, one-bathroom townhouse-style apartments, is roughly L-shaped, as can be seen in the site plan below.  The inset in the inner part of the L is to allow a back door and windows for the corner units:

It was the first apartment complex in Portland to be entirely composed of two-story townhouses.  The building's style is described as Modernistic, with its lack of ornamentation, flat roof, and emphasis on rectangular forms and horizontal and vertical lines.  Below is the north end of the building, on 29th Street, with the driveway on the left leading to the parking area in the back.

By this point, Ewald Pape had done a number of rowhouses and courtyard apartments with separate addresses and back doors for each unit, but they were limited in size (500-700 square feet) due to being single-story.  The Burrell Courts next door included three two-story units among the ten, but Burrell Heights was the first to be all townhouse-style in the Portland area.  This allowed for 800-900 square feet of living space.

Some of the building's features (pictured below) include the decorative concrete panels of contrasting color on the northwest corner, and a flat roofed portico on the entrance to the two northernmost units, 1530 and 1532 SE 29th Avenue.

Another decorative concrete panel is pictured below.  With the exception of the window below the sign in this picture, all of the living room windows are Chicago School style - tripartite windows where the central window is fixed pane (in this case, with a ribbon of small single panes at the top), flanked by sash windows (in this case, four-over-one double-hung).

SE 29th Avenue slopes downward towards Clay Street, resulting in parts of the building being at different levels, and this interesting entrance (pictured below) to 1542 SE 29th.

The Clay Street side of the building has a basement with a laundry room and storage lockers for each apartment.

Some of the entries have red-tile pent roof hoods supported by decorative wrought iron brackets.

I couldn't find any recent photos of the interiors of any apartments, but here is  a link to a photo of the interior of a dining nook from the National Register application, probably taken in 1996 or early 1997.  Complete descriptions of the interiors are available in that application.

© Amanda Pape - 2019 - e-mail me!