From the Exposition to World War I. Part 2
The Apartment House in Portland: From the Exposition to World War I.
Part 2
Overview
As demand and competition increased, apartment house design embraced larger brick buildings in the more expensive residential parts of the city. These buildings were designed by architects who employed various decorative approaches such as Tudor or Jacobethan and the more classical Beaux Arts traditions. Different building footprints emerged, such as the L-shape and the U-shape designs which accommodated more light and landscaping. Leading apartment designers emerged during this time. They included Alexander C. Ewart, Emil Schacht, Claussen and Claussen, and Carl Linde. Although minimally involved in apartment design, major architects such as Ellis Lawrence, William C. Knighton, and Whitehouse and Fouilhoux also contributed major works during this period. Portland's interurban rail system expanded as the population grew, and new or rebuilt bridges across the Willamette River enabled further development of Portland’s east side. Apartment construction in Portland was negatively affected by the world at war, 1914 to 1916, but regained building activity in 1917 when the United States entered the war which revived employment.
Prominent architect William C. Knighton was selected by the Trinity Place Investment Company to design the Trinity Place apartments, 117 NW Trinity Place, which opened in May 1911. Knighton, who was born in Indianapolis in 1864, settled in Portland in 1902 and formed a brief partnership with Edward T. Root. He served as Oregon's first state architect from 1913 to 1917. By the time Knighton was involved with the Trinity Place plans -- apparently his only apartment house design -- he had already completed his most iconic work, the Governor Hotel (now the Sentinel Hotel) of 1908. He died in 1938.
Built at a cost of $150,000, Trinity Place, consisting of brick masonry construction, is five stories in height including full basement, and designed in a U-shaped configuration. The original design included twenty-four one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom apartments with the largest unit being approximately 1000 square feet. Eight rooms were available for servants, an office, rooms for storage, and tradesmen. While the building appears to be a typical symmetrical U shape design with a central entrance, each wing actually has a separate entrance recessed from the central portico. The exterior of Trinity Place is detailed in Jacobethan style with red brick wall planes contrasted with cast stone trim elements, projecting bays, and abundant use of quoins. An added flair is Knighton's signature motif, the bell-shape keystone which can be found on any of his building designs. (1)
Designed for a middle class clientele, the Villa Saint Clara Apartments, 909 SW 12th Avenue, was ready for occupancy in November 1911 and featured amenities normally found in more expensive apartment buildings. These features included a front desk, party room, banquet hall, roof garden, central vacuum system, mahogany finishes, and art glass in the built-in buffets. The availability of the social spaces, more common in Southern California apartments, might have been a first for the city. Known today as the Gentry Apartments, this apartment house was designed by architect Frank Benchley whose home town, Fullerton, California, is the site of many of his works, some on the National Register of Historic Places. The Villa Saint Clara is five stories high, built of brick masonry construction, and designed in a slight L-shape configuration. The interior originally consisted of twenty-seven one bedroom apartments and thirty-three studios. The owner, Fred Fritz, was an interesting character of the time. Fritz, a German immigrant, partnered with Jim Russell to purchase the Erickson Saloon, also known as the Workingman’s Club. This famous or infamous Erickson's occupied an entire block and in addition to the bar, which was staffed by thirty, featured card games, variety shows, and more intimate adventures with working girls. There are numerous articles in the Oregonian about Fritz’s skirmishes with the police. Fritz also owned movie arcades that ran afoul of the law because they apparently showed something akin to pornography. When Oregon's alcohol prohibition starting in 1916, Fritz tried to transformed the Erickson into a liquor-free Workingman's Resort serving only soft drinks. It didn’t succeed. Fritz died in 1921 and his wife Clara, for whom the apartment is named, carried on as apartment owner/manager. (2)
The Alvarado Apartments, 2232 NW Everett Street, is an example of an apartment house which deserves further recognition. The City of Portland Historic Resource Survey of 1991 erroneously gives the apartment house the historic name of Nortonia Hotel which isn’t accurate. There were two Nortonia Hotels (the current Mark Spencer Hotel and the current Taft residential facility, originally named the Ramapo Hotel) but this building wasn’t a third. Also the architect is not identified. Research reveals that the Alvarado apartment house has significance for at least two reasons: It is the first example of a Portland apartment house with two stories, and it was designed by architects of some significance. The Alvarado opened in August 1911 as a spacious apartment house with only eight units, each having two floors housing six or seven rooms. A two-story unit was called a duplex during those years. According to news pieces, the architects of the Alvarado was the partnership of Harvey and Hogner. Hogner was educated at Harvard University and studied further at the University of Paris. In 1909, he moved to Seattle where he worked with Carl F. Gould, designer of important buildings in that city including works on the University of Washington campus. In July 1910 Hogner formed a partnership in Portland with Arthur E. Harvey from Boston, perhaps a former classmate, which lasted only two years. Hogner moved on to Chicago to practice architecture. Harvey became a well-established architect in Los Angeles, creating many iconic works for that city. (5) Harvey died in 1971 and Hogner in 1966. Another discovery: Harvey and Hogner designed Portland’s Evelyn Apartments, 1215 NW 21st Avenue, a 1911 building with distinctive Tudor treatment. (6)
In 1912, two apartment houses designed to be more commodious than existing apartment buildings were concurrently under construction: Belle Court and 705 Davis. Located at 120 Northwest Trinity Place the Belle Court was designed by Ellis F. Lawrence of the firm Lawrence and Holford and constructed for the Metropolitan Investment and Improvement Company organized by the Fred A. Jacobs Company. Belle Court opened in March 1913. Four stories in height plus a basement, the building is configured in a U shaped that has wings projecting to create a courtyard. As to be seen with the 705 Davis apartments, an identical, four-story structure was planned to create a squared-donut ensemble but the matching building was never constructed. The building features an elaborate central entry with an arched portico with a broken pediment adorned by a cartouche above a cornucopia. The framed entrance, projecting bay windows, stone mullions, tapestry brick exterior facing, and cast stone ornament contrasting against red brick facade are characteristic elements of the Jacobethan style. As designed, the building housed thirty units in two, three, or four-room plans. There were twelve 'disappearing beds' called for in the specifications that were ventilated as well. The Belle Court was built with the latest fire-proofing innovations which included tin clad fire doors, and tin flashed fire walls. The elevator shafts, dumb waiter shafts and the ventilation shafts were lined with galvanized iron. (7)
Born in Massachusetts, in 1879, Ellis Fuller Lawrence graduate from MIT in 1902. He settled in Portland in 1906, diverted from his original goal of working in San Francisco. He partnered with Ernest MacNaughton and Herbert Raymond that year and contributed to the design of the Cumberland Apartments, a visual landmark of the South Park blocks. Lawrence formed a long partnership with William G. Holford in 1913, a team that was expanded to include Frederick Allyn and Ormond Bean. Approximately 500 projects are attributed to Lawrence and his associates but few of them are apartment buildings. One of his major achievements was serving as first dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon, Eugene, as well as the university architect from 1914 until his death in 1946. Among Lawrence's major designs on the University of Oregon campus are the 1937 library (renamed Knight Library in 1990) and the 1930 art museum, renamed the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in 2003. (8)
Whitehouse and Fouilhoux was the architectural firm selected to design an apartment building for the Wauna Land Company which was founded and primarily owned by Julia Hoffman, a major figure in Portland’s art community, engaged in many civic organizations. The goal of Mrs. Hoffman was to build a unique luxury apartment house on the company’s Davis Street property. In April 1913, the Oregonian announced that 705 Davis was ready for occupancy and described it as "among the most modern and finest apartment houses on the Pacific Coast. "
The original design consisted of a square with a central courtyard. However, the west half of the plan was never constructed, leaving an uneven U-shaped footprint. Built by Brayton Engineering Company, the apartment house was a reinforced concrete construction. The exterior is in the Beaux Arts or American Renaissance design tradition in which classical decorative details are applied with different degrees of exuberance in a fairly systematic way. The Benson Hotel, also completed in 1913, is another example. The abundant use of terra cotta is a striking feature of the exterior decoration. The original nineteen apartments on floors one through seven ranged in size from 630 to 2300 square feet. Six two-story apartments overlooked Davis Street. While the interior common spaces had a classical tone, the interior of the residences revealed an Arts and Crafts ambience as influenced by Mrs. Hoffman. The lobby was ornately designed with marble floors, and walls and columns decorated with classical motifs. The elevator features an impressively decorated metal door. Each apartment has one or more fireplaces sometimes decorated with tiles created by the famous Ernest Batchelder firm of California. Many original mahogany interior doors and cabinets survive, as do the cut glass doorknobs and brass escutcheons. The penthouse apartment was the home of Julia Hoffman and family, and included some special design features. The basement originally included apartments for the manager and servants, a laundry room, and various utility and storage rooms. The tenants of the building included prominent individuals of Portland society. Among them was architect Edgar Lazarus, who moved to 705 Davis with his wife after living in the Wickersham for several years. (9)
The 705 Davis apartment house was among the many fine works designed by Whitehouse and Fouilhoux who established their own office in 1910 after their partnership with Edgar Lazarus ended. While working on the Davis Street apartments, they were concurrently designing another major work, a new building for the prestigious University Club. The firm lasted until 1920 when Fouilhoux moved to New York; in 1930-34, the firm of Harrison, Fouilhoux, and Abramovitz designed Rockefeller Center. He died in 1945. Whitehouse carried on the Portland office until his death in 1944 with the name of the firm changing depending on his partnerships. The work of Whitehouse and his collaborators include the Waverly Country Club, Temple Beth Israel, and the Federal Courthouse. (10)
The Tudor Arms apartment building, 1811 NW Couch Street, was designed by Carl L. Linde for Royal Arms Associates. Architectural plans were ready by early April 1915 and the building opened for occupancy the following September. The Royal Arms partnership, led by Richard F. Wassell, also built the Rex Arms, Royal Arms, and the Ambassador apartments. The building is five stories including the ground floor, organized in a U-shape, and cost $125,000 to build. Described as Tudor or Jacobethan in style (although it lacks arches), a hallmark of the building is its exuberant terracotta. Residents enter through an archway elaborately decorated in terra cotta featuring a double entablature and obelisks. The ground floor is decorated in rusticated concrete capped by terra cotta. Terra cotta decorates the windows, is used in the quoins, and in bands that surround the building. The brick on the facade is a dark red while it is lighter on the west and north ends. The interior includes fifty-four apartments: six apartments on the ground floor which also houses a laundry, utility rooms, and storage rooms; floors two through five have twelve apartments each. The apartments consist of two or four rooms of varying size all with a separate room for the kitchen. (11)
The Tudor Arms is among the first works of Carl L. Linde when he started his own architectural practice in 1915. Born in Germany in 1864, Linde immigrated to Wisconsin with his family in 1870. After service in the Navy, he worked in Milwaukee and Chicago as a supervising architect, working for the Pabst Brewing Company in that capacity from 1892 to 1900. In 1906, Linde moved to Portland where he first worked for Edgar M. Lazarus. At the time, Lazarus was engaged with designing the Electric Building for the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company, but eventually architect David C. Lewis took over the project and prepared the final plans in 1910. Throughout the project, Linde presumably contributed to the design and ultimately served Linde as superintendent of construction of the building which earned him much recognition. After working for several of Portland’s leading architects, Linde carried out his own practice from about 1915 on and designed many residences, hotels, and apartment buildings (12)
By 1913, William Morgan had built at least thirty-five apartment houses in addition to several commercial structures. He is also remembered for his home base, the Morgan Building, one of the finest office buildings of the time in Portland, designed by Doyle and Patterson and constructed in 1913. In a news article commemorating the construction of the Morgan Building, the Oregon Journal described him as Portland's "Apartment House King." In 1916, Morgan moved to Detroit and then Ohio where he continued in the construction business, and then to Lost Angeles in 1924. He returned to Portland in 1925 to join his son in the insurance business. Morgan died in Los Angeles in 1928 after a period of ill health. (13)
The building now housing the Wilshire Apartments is example of William Morgan’s early efforts to develop Portland’s east side. The building was originally the Grandesta Apartments, 420 SE Grand Avenue, which opened in 1911 and is typical of east side apartment houses which often had businesses of some kind on the first floor. At this intersection is the 1906 building that once housed Morgan’s Morgan-Atcheley Furniture Co., now Schiefer Furniture, and to be reconstructed as the Hotel Chamberlain. (14)
The Brown Apartments building [807 SW 14th Ave] was designed by the architectural firm of Claussen and Claussen for Mrs. Christina Brown and built by contractors Green and Green in 1915. The U-shape building is four stories in height plus basement. This was the second apartment house designed by Claussen and Claussen for the entrepreneurial Mrs. Brown. The first Brown Apartment Building, now known as the May Apartments, was built in 1911 and is located at 1410 SW Taylor Street, a few blocks away. The second Brown Apartments is more elaborate and larger than the 1911 structure. It features decorative elements characteristic of the American Renaissance, or Beaux Arts style. The exterior façade is of dark brick and contrasting cast stone and wooden decorative elements. The elevation is enlivened by three-story polygonal bays, the spandrels of which are decorated with swags, or garlands. Window openings in the main wall are decorated with eye-catching voussoirs and raised keystones. The original interior had sixty-six living units configured as sixteen one-bedrooms and 50 studios. All had a full bathroom; a small kitchen; a central room with a roll-out bed hidden in a false hutch; and a dressing room. One-bedroom units differ from the studios by having an additional room separated from the main room by a tall pair of sliding doors. The basement had a total of seven units, with the remainder of the floor being utility and storage rooms. (15)
The architectural firm Claussen and Claussen was formed in Portland in 1908 by brothers William E. Claussen and H. Fred Claussen who had moved to the city from Chicago. The firm was responsible for many important Portland buildings, including the Roosevelt Hotel (1925), the Old Heathman Hotel (1926), and the Loyalty Building (1929). In addition to the Brown, their apartment designs include the Bretnor (1916), the Wilmar, or Marshall (1911), and the Newton (1924). Fred Claussen died in 1942 and William Claussen in 1953. (16) Both Fred and William wrote articles giving practical advice on apartment house design. These articles appeared in 1914 and 1915 in the regional periodical Pacific Coast Architect, and in the The American Architect. By using Portland examples he enabled greater attention to developments in this city. Walter Claussen's article in American Architect, June 30 1915 (online via the HathiTrust) featured examples of floor plans and illustrations of furniture arrangements. one can see in the plans how beds were hidden under the elevated dressing closets. (17)
The 1914 Portland City Directory listed 257 apartment houses, a substantial increase from the 90 listed in 1910. During the beginning years of World War I, from 1914 to 1916, World War I negatively influenced Portland’s economy as trade with Europe declined. Exports from the port dropped 77% from 1915 to 1916. Building construction suffered, not just in the diminished labor force, but also through conservation efforts. The State Council of Defense for Oregon, at the request of the federal War Industries Board, limited new construction projects in Oregon to those deemed essential to the war effort. (18)
By 1916, the apartment house in Portland had evolved into an acceptable form of residence with many fine examples in the city. A full page display of the city's amazing apartment construction appeared in the Morning Oregonian on January 1, 1916. Still, only 8% of the population lived in such buildings. Seventy-five percent lived in residences, 10% in duplexes or flats, and 6% in lodging houses. (19)
When the United States entered the war in 1917, the economy strengthened as the country increased production of resources that would assist in the war effort. Built in 1918, the Silver Court Apartments, 2170 NE Hancock Street, featuring studios and one-bedroom units, was designed by F. Manson White and is an attractive example of the apartment house in east Portland, in this case in the Irvington neighborhood. Located near Broadway, the new or rebuilt bridges connecting east and west Portland and the growing use of automobiles facilitated further development of the east side. Frederick Manson White came to Portland in the late 1890s and worked with architects William F. McCaw and Richard Martin, Jr., to design such works as the still extant Dekum Building in distinctive Romanesque style. White became highly-regarded in the 1920s and 1930s as an architect of public schools, churches, and apartment buildings throughout Oregon. He died in 1952. Following a post-war recession.in 1918-1919, apartment house construction expanded in the years up to the Great Depression. (20)
Notes:
1. Demuth, Kimberly, and Kim Lakin, Patty Sackett. Trinity Place Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1990.
2. Heritage Consulting Group. Villa St. Clara Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 2002.
3. "2232 N. W. Everett Street," Historic Resource Inventory City of Portland, 1980. Misidentified as "Nortonia Hotel" in Oregon Historic Sites Database as of December 2016.
5. Embassy Gulf Service Station, Washington, D. C., National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. 1993, section 8, p. 26.
6. "Modern English Half-Tiber Style Will Make Apartment Striking," Sunday Oregonian, Oct. 9, 1910, 11.
7. O'Brien, Elizabeth J. and Melissa J. Darby. Belle Court Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1986.
8. Ritz, Richard. "Ellis Fuller Lawrence," Architecture of Oregon: Biographic Dictionary of Architects Deceased (Lair Hill, 2002), 242-6.
9. McMath, George A. Seven Hundred Five Davis Street Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1980.
10. Ritz, Richard. "Morris Homans Whitehouse," Architecture of Oregon: Biographic Dictionary of Architects Deceased (Lair Hill, 2002), 421-3.
11. Heritage Investment Corporation. Tudor Arms, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1995.
12. Ritz, Richard. "Carl Linde," Architecture of Oregon: Biographic Dictionary of Architects Deceased (Lair Hill, 2002), 256-8.
13. "Sagacity in Investments Responsible for Success of 'Apartment House King, ' " Oregon Journal, October 5, 1913, section 7, page 2.
15. Demuth, Kimberly and David Mayfield. Brown Apartments, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Salem: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1991.
16. Ritz, Richard. "H. Fred Claussen," Architecture of Oregon: Biographic Dictionary of Architects Deceased (Lair Hill, 2002), 79-80.
17. Claussen, Walter, "Two and Three-room Apartments of the Pacific Coast," American Architect 107, pt.2, n. 2062 (June 30 1915): 410-412.
18. Abbott, Carl. Portland: Planning and Growth in a Twentieth-Century City (University of Nebraska, 1982), 85.
19. MacColl, E. Kimbark. The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon, 1915-1950 (Georgian Press, 1979), 38.
20. Teague, Edward, and Leland Roth. "F. Manson White, 1863-1952," Oregon Encyclopedia.
These buildings illustrated below are referenced 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.
Benchley: Villa St. Clara Apartments (Wikipedia Commons)
Claussen: Brown Apartments (Wikipedia Commons)
White: Silver Court Apartments (Wikipedia Commons)