A Walk In Willamette Heights - Portland, OR

I went for a walk in the Willamette Heights neighborhood of Northwest Portland with a friend of mine and found two houses that were featured in the Oregonian the year they were built! The first images are ones that I took during our walk and the second images are from the 1906 Oregonian.

Check this out:

The home above is a 5 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home that is 3,900 sq ft and is located in Willamette Heights. I would describe this home as a craftsman, and while it does have some Foursquare elements, the tower style bump out on the right side behind the side porch references a Queen Anne Victorian style home. Interestingly, the year built is listed on Portland Maps as 1908. Given that the second photo appears in the 1906 Oregonian, it was clearly built before 1908. Most of the home's exterior remains the same, but there have been some changes to the front/side porch. In the photo from 1906, it looks like the porch off the right side of the home wrapped around to the front entry. At some point in the last century a homeowner must have decided to remove the front facing portion of the porch and they added screens to enclose the porch from bugs etc. It also appears that the covered portion of the porch had a second story in 1906.

And another one:

This is a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home located in Willamette Heights. I would also describe this home as a craftsman, but this one is a bungalow. Similarly to the last home, the year built is listed on Portland Maps as 1909, but the second photo was in the 1906 Oregonian! This home was easy to recognize from the street because of the two unique rounded bump outs on the facade of the front porch. (The little white square openings on the facade of the porch are also helpful!) It is difficult to discern exactly what the right side of the home looks like in the old newspaper photo, but it seems like the porch coming off the right side in the present day photo was added on at some point.

Nextdoor, we also spotted a particularly intriguing old garage in front of a craftsman home. At first I assumed it was an old carriage house and thought it was probably original to the home, but my research proved otherwise. Here is a photo of it:

You can see the house that this garage belongs to up to the right. (MANY stairs above it... I'm counting 46.) The home was supposedly built in 1894. The images from the Sanborn Maps below, show that the garage was not original.

1908 Sanborn Map

1950 Sanborn Map

The Sanborn Maps above show both the dark teal bungalow (pictured towards the bottom of the map) and the 1894 craftsman with the brick garage (pictured towarsd the top of the map). These maps show that in 1908 neither house has a garage, but in 1950 they both do. It appears that at some point between 1908 and 1950, both houses built garages on the empty lot between them. The pink color on the front of the 'top' garage indicates that the facade was brick, as it still is today. The blue color indicates concrete.

Here is a screenshot from Google Maps showing the street view of both homes with their garages today:

Unfortunately, there is no Sanborn Map available for this area between 1908 and 1950, so it would be challenging to know when the garages were built. That said... I was able to find evidence that the garages likely existed as early as 1915. Below I have included a clipping from the Oregonian in 1915. This is an advertisement seeking renters for the dark teal bungalow and the garage is mentioned. This means that the garages were likely constructed at some point between 1908 and 1915.

Stay tuned for more discoveries!