Classic Houses Of Portland, Oregon, 1850-1950

The majority of Portland's classic houses are still standing, a rich legacy and essential link to a time of stunning architectural accomplishment. This lavishly illustrated volume features more than 300 residences representing twenty-three distinct architectural styles from Greek Revival, Queen Anne, and Tudor to Bungalow, Prairie, Craftsman, and the uniquely regional Northwest Style. In a fascinating home tour, the history of the city comes to life as well, with key information about the architects, original owners, and distinguishing features of each structure. These homes are the work of the most talented architects of Portland's first century, and each reflects the careful blending of national and international influences with local trends and tastes. In more than 200 plans and drawings and over 600 photographs both historical and contemporary, Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, presents both the houses that remain and some vanished glories of the past. All take on a new importance today, as historical treasures and as exemplars of design values and quality that are now so rare. A useful appendix lists the houses by neighborhood for those who wish to explore the riches of Portland's architectural heritage.

The duration of the Tudor style in Portland left a wide collection of houses bearing its characteristics. The Tudor style began at the turn of the century and lasted well into the depression years of the 1930s. Although exhibiting other stylistic influences, such as from the Craftsman and Arts and Crafts styles, even Norman architecture, the houses grouped into this category have at least some elements of the Tudor style in common. The development of the style has a long history, beginning in the Tudor period (1485-1603) in medieval England, resurfacing in England in the 1860's, and coming to the United States shortly thereafter.The architectural characteristics of the Tudor style have remained fairly constant since the fifteenth century. The most readily recognizable characteristic is the half-timbering, where the post-and-beam construction is revealed on the exterior of the house and is infilled with nogging of stuccoed brick or stone. Even the bracing is revealed, often elaborated into designs and giving a highly decorative effect. Second floors often cantilevered out over the narrow streets of old England, providing additional floor space on the crowded lots ... The second defining characteristic of the Tudor style is the decorated and fanciful bargeboards. Those found in the fifteenth-century Ockwells Manor House in Berkshire, England, for example, are especially attractive, and such historic designs also greatly influenced design in the Gothic Revival period of the 1840s and 1850s. Other bargeboards, such as that on Leycester's Hospital (1571) in Warwick, were simpler, but they had highly carved surfaces. These bargeboards influenced the Queen Anne style houses in Portland during the 1880s and 1890s as well as many of the Tudor style houses after the turn of the century.

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Excerpted from Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, 1850-1950 by William J. Hawkins, William F. Willingham, William J. Hawkins, III
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.