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The Apartment House in Portland: From the Exposition to World War I.
Part 1
Overview
From about 1900 to World War I, the apartment house emerged as a response to the immense population growth experienced by Portland as a consequence of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. During this period, capitalist entrepreneurs like William L. Morgan built apartment houses because they were profitable investments. The apartment houses tended to be wood frame structures having square or rectangular footprints with the stylistic character, usual with Colonial Revival elements, of a single family home. Many of the less substantial earlier apartment houses, located downtown or in what is now Portland State University, were destroyed.
The inauguration of apartment house construction in Portland can be described as a consequence of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair which was expected to boost the regional economy. In anticipation of this major exposition, local businessmen, politicians, builders, and other tradesmen started preparation as early as 1901 when the event obtained endorsement from state government and financial backing from many individuals and entities. The construction of hotels and other lodging to house visitors moved rapidly ahead and interurban transportation was improved.
The Lewis and Clark Exposition took place from June 1 through October 15, 1905, and during that brief time, over 1,500,000 visited the fairgrounds located around Guild’s Lake in northwest Portland. The number of visitors was enormous for a city with a population of about 120,000 people. The exposition was widely marketed, and in addition to increasing recognition of the city, it contributed to a doubling of Portland’s population within a decade of the fair. In 1900, Portland’s population was about 90,500; by 1910, it had boomed to approximately 207,250.(1) In short, the demand for housing concomitantly increased, and as better examples were built, the apartment house was seen as an acceptable type of permanent residence. For entrepreneurs and real estate developers, the apartment house was a profitable enterprise increasing the population density with more substantial rental units downtown or in adjacent residential areas. Northwest Portland, the home of many stately residences on large lots, was the ideal location for more expensive apartment houses with an implication that the finer apartment building in that area was part of a legacy of affluence. A 1910 advertisement for the most elegant apartments ever built in Portland proudly noted that the new building “was once the location of a swell aristocratic residence of that cultivated neighborhood.”(2)
The construction of the first purpose-built apartment house in Portland is typically credited to William L. Morgan. Morgan was born in Tennessee in 1856 and came to Portland in 1896 as an insurance salesman. In 1903, he obtained a law degree from the University of Oregon. In 1904 he began to acquire real estate and added W. F. Fliedner as a business partner. Joseph Boyce, a law school classmate, was hired to run the fire insurance end of the business, and in 1910 the firm of Morgan, Fliedner and Boyce was formed. Subsequently other entities associated with William Morgan were created, such as the Apartment Building Company, and the Morgan-Atchley Furniture Company.
According to Morgan, it was in January 1904 that construction began on what is often reported as the first apartment house in Portland, a wood frame building which stood at what is now SW 16th Avenue and Jefferson Street. The Jeffersonian housed thirteen apartments organized as ten three-room apartments and three two-room units. Only after he furnished the apartments could Morgan find an individual interested in leasing the building. In what seems to be a pattern in early apartment history, the individual is described as a landlady. On June 21, 1904, the Jeffersonian opened and was quickly rented, generating the interest of investors and developers. Building on that success, Morgan built two more apartment houses (Wellington Court and Wellington Court Annex) at 15th Avenue and Everett Street which, like the Jeffersonian, no longer exist. (3)
While there is no surviving picture of the Jeffersonian, it probably looked like the modest Oneonta Apartments, a wood-framed clapboard apartment house constructed during the same time symmetrically organized with a prominent central entrance with apartments featuring bay windows on each side. In fact, the Oneonta appears to have preceded the Jeffersonian as the first apartment house to open for occupancy. An advertisement for the Oneonta appeared in the Oregonian newspaper as early as June 12, 1904. These ads described the Oneonta as having suites of two, three, and four rooms, hot and cold water, a gas range, and refrigerator for each kitchen, steam heat, and baths. (4) The Oneonta was renamed the Belknap Apartments in the 1920s and no longer exists. Another example of an apartment house built at this time, the Russell Apartments (illustrated on the Introduction page), was presented in the Oregonian as an elevation drawing on 1905 with architect Henry Hefty identified as the designer. That architect Hefty, a highy regarded architect at the time, was involved in apartment house design signified a move toward more refined structures. A photograph of the building dating from 1925 reflects the early tendency to create home-like structures with wooden siding and prominent bay windows; the Hefty design shows some flair in the use of arches, decoration, and balconies. (5)
In 1905, Morgan built the Weist Apartments for Lena Weist to provide finer accommodations for visitors to the Lewis & Clark exposition. As many as eight different Portland streetcar lines ran within a block of the Weist Apartment making it convenient for fair-goers as well as future tenants. This apartment house featured a kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, and baths in each unit. The extravagantly detailed Weist is still a landmark of NW 23rd Avenue and the now heavily populated Nob Hill district. Like many early apartment houses, the Weist shows characteristics of the Colonial Revival style and takes on the impression of a large home rather than a multi-unit dwelling. The architect who designed this apartment building is not known. Morgan is sometimes cited as an architect in news accounts, and signed architectural plans commissioned by his companies, but he was more accurately a contractor who employed other architects, draftsmen, and engineers to carry out his projects. (6) One of Morgan’s designers is known to be Jacob D. Dautoff, an engineering graduate of Stanford University, whose 1920 obituary states that he worked for Morgan, Fliedner, and Boyce for many years, and was responsible for many of the larger apartment houses in Portland. The 1906 Gloria Apartments (now Mediterranean Arms) is another work built by Morgan in a style typical of the early years.(7)
The Harrison Court Apartments, 1834 SW 5th Avenue, represents a more austere variation of the apartment house built in 1905. The historic building is one of the few early apartment houses left remaining adjacent to the Portland State University campus. The apartment originally consisted of twenty units holding a total of sixty rooms. It currently consists of studio, one, and two bedroom units ranging in size from 500 to 850 square feet. (8) While the National Register nomination does not list an architect, a contemporary Oregonian article illustrated the newly opened building reveals that the architect was Eric Hendricks who later became associated with John V. Bennes to form the firm Bennes & Hendricks. (9)
Morgan continued his apartment building enterprises with the construction of the 1906 Dayton [2056 NW Flanders St.] and in 1907, the adjacent Ormonde [2046 NW Flanders St.] and Day [2068 NW Flanders St.] apartment buildings which are still in use. These three-story apartment houses form an ensemble that displays the variations possible in the Colonial Revival idiom. Each one houses large apartments with separate living and dining rooms, two to three bedrooms, a butler's pantry, kitchen, and bathroom. (10)
What is now called the Bronaugh Apartments [1424-34 Southwest Morrison Street is another example of an apartment house built for investment purposes to accommodate Portland’s growing population. The Bronaugh was built by James Isaac Marshall in 1905 for Araminta Payne Bronaugh, wife of the highly respected Judge Earl C. Bronaugh. A contemporary of the Oneonta and the Weist apartments, the Bronaugh -- featuring projecting polygonal bay windows, applied decoration, bracketed eaves, and brick masonry construction – reveals that early on a variety of design options were being employed for apartment buildings. In 1928, the Bronaugh's sixteen units were converted into ninety apartments substantially altering its initial design and intent. A subsidized housing residence for many years, the Bronaugh is popularly considered as Portland’s oldest existing apartment house. It was renovated again in 2014.(11)
City directories up to the 1930s did not use the Bronaugh as the name of this apartment house and the evolution of this building as one identity, coalescing at some point three connected apartment houses, remains to be sorted out. While it is common to regard the original names of the three units as the Hyland, Olive, and Ellsworth Apartments, the early city directories for many years identified two apartment houses, one named the Hart Apartments and Rooms on the Morrison Street side of the building and the other the Ellsworth on the Lownsdale Avenue side of the building, wedded together according to Sanborn maps. (12)
Emil Schacht was one of Portland's most prolific architects and early on included apartment house design in his firm’s large portfolio. Schacht was born in Germany and first immigrated to the United States in 1874 and then again in 1883 following a return to living in Europe. He began practice in Portland in about 1885; his son Martin joined him to form the firm Emil Schacht and Son in 1910. From 1905 to about 1915, Schacht’s office, employing ten to twelve employees at one time, was responsible for numerous building with residences in Portland’s Willamette Heights of particular notice. His practice dwindled during World War I, perhaps because of anti-German prejudices according to one source, although this is documented. Schacht died in 1926. (13)
In 1909, Schacht designed the Wheeldon Apartments [910 SW Park Ave.] for Emil R. Pittelkau (b. 1869- d. 1939), a restaurant proprietor. The five-story brick structure originally held thirty-two apartments of two, three, or four rooms and additionally it had one large suite with five rooms. The building was named for Alice Wheeldon (Mrs. C. L. Horn), the lease-holder and manager. In style the building has Tudor Revival characteristics. Each apartment had dining-rooms, disappearing beds, kitchenettes with appliances modern for the time (fireless cookers and refrigeration equipment), tiled bathrooms, and dumb waiter service to the basement. The Wheeldon (now known as the Admiral Apartments) has for many years been the home of subsidized housing for seniors and people with special needs. (14)
Another impressive and existing work from Schacht, completed in July 1910, is the Lucretia Court at 31 Northwest 22nd Place. This building is an early example of using the L-shaped design for larger buildings with large lots which in Portland were typically 100 feet by 100 feet. This footprint enabled better interior lighting and ventilation, as well as sufficient space for attractively landscaping the exterior grounds which included a fountain. The Lucretia Court apartment house originally had suites of two, three, four, and five rooms, and in addition to the standard features included a phone in each unit. It also featured the latest version of concealed beds, a model in which the beds could be moved from their installation site to different parts of a room. (15)
The architectural firm Lazarus, Whitehouse, & Fouilhoux only lasted a year but the Wickersham Apartments that they designed was a major advance in apartment house design. The principal of the firm, Edgar M. Lazarus, had practiced in Portland since 1893 and had a large body of works to his credit at the time the Wickersham was planned with his superintendence of the still extant United States Customhouse (1901) bringing him wide acclaim. Lazarus is probably best known for the iconic Vista House atop Crown Point, Oregon, overlooking the Columbia Gorge. Morris H. Whitehouse, born in Portland, studied architecture at MIT and spent a year at the American Academy in Rome on scholarship. Jacques Andres Fouilhoux, a graduate of the Sorbonne, immigrated to the United States in 1904 and moved to Portland in 1908. (16)
The Wickersham was ready for occupancy in 1910. It was built by contractors McInnis and Reed for James L. Wickersham and his son. Wickersham was associated with the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company, and his son Lloyd Wickersham was at that time president and chief engineer of the United Railways Company and the Oregon Electric Railway Company. The exterior detailing of brickwork is an outstanding feature of the Wickersham as is the Arts and Crafts detailing of the interior. Lazarus, who always lived in apartments or hotels, moved into the Wickersham in 1911 after following a year-long trip to Europe. The Wickersham was a prelude to another major apartment house design by Whitehouse and Fouilhoux, the 705 Davis apartment house.(17) Of the twenty-two apartments, the seventeen three-bedroom units with 1400 square feet each were exceptionally large for that era. The floor plan was reproduced in American Architect. (18)
When Alexander Charles Ewart died in 1916, he was hailed as a pioneer apartment-house builder. A native of Ontario, Ewart practiced architecture throughout the West Coast. He lived for thirteen years in Corvallis, Oregon, before settling in Portland in 1904 where he practiced until his death. While he is principally known for his existing apartment house designs, Ewart also designed Portland’s first Buddhist Temple (1910), 312 Northwest 10th Avenue. (19)
The Buck Apartments by architect Ewart is a good example of the multiple story apartment house with a small street footprint. Also known in its history as the Goodrich or Margaret apartments, this wood-framed brick masonry building is five stories in height including a basement and houses twelve apartments. Its elaborate facade on 415 Northwest 21st Avenue displays the architect’s design skills in the use of multi-colored brick and cement, and decorative woodwork. The original drawings and early photographs suggest that open porches intended to be behind the segmental arches on the first and second floors. This apartment house, which opened in June 1910, was built for Dr. Louis Buck who practiced medicine in Portland for almost forty years. The original 1910 lobby elevator is still employed in the Buck Apartments. (20)
Ewart’s apartment house designs include the Mordaunt (1906), 1810 NW Everett St.; Guild (1907), 1830 NW 23rd Place; Avalon (1908), 1261 N Ross Avenue, destroyed; Hartford (1908), 2105 NW Flanders; Grandview (other names: Heinz, Baron, Arbor Court) (1908), 1329 SW 14th Avenue; Everett (1910), 2018 NW Everett Street; Lois (other names: Leslie, Horsman) (1910), 2164 NW Hoyt St.; Mt. Vernon Apts. (1910), 631 SE Taylor Street; and Highland Court (1911), 2181 NW Glisan St. He also designed the 1912 Campbell Hotel on NW 23rd Ave. which was later converted to apartments. (21)
Another 1910 building, the Hanthorn Apartments (known today as the Lexington Apartments) of 1125 SW 12th Avenue, is the most recent apartment house add to the National Register of Historic Places. The Hanthorn was built by William L. Morgan for J. O. Hanthorn who became involved in real estate operations after becoming wealthy from cannery operations in Astoria. Built with minimal use of wood, the Hanthorn is six stories in height and houses 38 apartments. Its colorful façade features tan brick with matching mortar, complemented by darker tan brick and russet-colored cast stone trim, and by black decorative metal balcony rails. This building is perhaps the only one built by Morgan in which the architect is identified, in this case, the firm Goodrich King and Goodrich. The National Register documentation points to a the Claypoole apartments [1110 SE Clay St.] as a duplicate of the Hanthorn and while it is similar, I’ve discovered two other apartment houses that are identical as much as building can be: the 1911 Kingsbury [760 SW Vista] built in 1911 and the 1912 Knickerbocker [1024 SW Harrison] which was destroyed. This discovery suggests that more credit is due to Goodrich & Goodrich. (22)
Notes:
1. Abbott, Carl. Planing, Politics, and Growth in a Twentieth-Century City. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982, 40-48..
2. "The Richest Apartments Ever Built in Portland [Re-Ukan Apartments]," Sunday Oregonian, Mar. 28, 1909, 8.
3. Morgan, William L. "Modern Apartment Houses Rise in Portland to Meet Popular Demand," Morning Oregonian, Jan. 1, 1910, 3.
4. "The Oneonta [Advertisement]," Morning Oregonian, June 12, 1904, 11.
5. "Modern Apartment-House of Dr. C. R. Templeton on Washington Street," Morning Oregonian, June 20, 1904, 10.
6. McLean, Scot W., and Elizabeth S. Atly. Weist Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1999.
7. "Local Architect, Apartment House Designer, Dead; Jacob D. Dautoff," Morning Oregonian, Sept. 6, 1920, 5.
8. McFeeters-Krone, Amy. Harrison Court Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 2005.
9. "Handsome Apartment House Erected by Mrs. H. W. Cardwell," Sunday Oregonian, December 3, 1905, 5. [Harrison Court Apartments]
10. Friday, Chris. Dayton Apartment Building, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 2000.; Glazer, Howard. Day Building, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1978.; Heritage investment Corporation. Ormonde Apartment Building, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1987.
11. Evans, Gail E. H. Hyland, Olive and Ellsworth Apartments [Bronaugh Apartment Building], National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1979.
12. Polk City Directory (volumes 1904-1934).
13. Ritz, Richard E. "Emil Schacht," Architects of Oregon (Lair Hill, 2002), 347-351.
14. Tess, John M., and Richard E. Ritz. Wheeldon Apartment Building, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1990.
15. "Lucretia Court," Oregon Historic Sites Database. Web. http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/.
16. Teague, Edward H. Edgar M. Lazarus, Architect: Life and Legacy. Web. http://pages.uoregon.edu/ehteague/lazarus/
17. Liggett, Sarah. Wickersham Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1983.
18. "Wickersham Apartments," American Architect. 1915.
19. Tess, John M., and Richard E. Ritz. Buck Apartment Building, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1990.
20. Ritz, Richard E. "Alexander Charles Ewart," Architects of Oregon (Lair Hill, 2002), 125-126.
21. Oregon Historic Sites Database. Web. http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/.20.
22. Heritage Consulting Group. Hanthorn Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 2014.
These buildings are referenced by bold text in the article. The images are linked to the original source in most cases and will likely enlarge when clicked. Links in parentheses go to the source image with metadata and credit information.
Lazarus Whitehouse Fouilhoux: Wickersham Apartments floor plan
(Source: Building Oregon in Oregon Digital)
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