| Properties Recently Listed in the National Register of Historic Places |
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Full text nominations for Oregon properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places within the last six months can be found below. If a property is not listed below, please contact Kimarie Lamb at (503) 986-0690 for an electronic or paper copy.
A complete list of inventoried and National Register-listed properties is available online through the Oregon Historic Sites Database.
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| Willamette Falls Neighborhood, Clackamas Co., Listed September 24, 2009 |
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Willamette Falls Neighborhood Historic District
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Platted by the Willamette Falls Company in 1893, the community of Willamette Falls was designed by businessman and real estate speculator Nicholas O. Walden. Walden’s ambitious plan for the town called for a modern and bustling trade and manufacturing center complete with underground utilities, including water and sewer systems, and electricity generated at Willamette Falls. Soon after its founding, the town boasted a number of fine homes, busy downtown, modern shoe factory, and an electric trolley line. The town was incorporated in 1908. While Willamette Falls never grew into the boomtown its founders envisioned, the community is important as an example of the many towns that developed along the banks of the Willamette River in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Willamette Falls is recognized as the largest and most developed of these communities and one of the very few towns in the nation during the late1900s that incorporated modern utilities into the original city design. The neighborhood also boasts one of the best collections of historic housing in West Linn.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Upper Sandy Guard Station Cabin, Clackamas Co., Listed September 9, 2009 |
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Upper Sandy Guard Station Cabin
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Constructed in 1935, and located near the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail within the Mount Hood National Forest, the Upper Sandy Guard Station Cabin was listed in the National Register for its association with early USDA Forest Service recreation management, its role in the protection of the Bull Run watershed, and its association with one of the many New Deal work-relief programs offered during the Depression-era. The log and mortared stone cabin was also listed for its architecture as a rare and exemplary expression of “rugged” Rustic style architecture developed by the Forest Service during the 1930s. The Upper Sandy Guard Station Cabin utilizes locally available materials, and features irreplaceable labor-intensive methods and finely crafted details characterized by its environmentally sensitive and nonintrusive design in its wilderness surroundings. The cabin is also believed to be the only existing cabin with its unique battered corners and mortared stone extension in the Pacific Northwest.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Hotel Alma, Portland, Multnomah Co., Listed Septemer 9, 2009 |
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Designed by architect Hans Hanselman and constructed in 1911, the 4-story Hotel Alma was listed for its important association with the real estate boom following the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland that came to redefine downtown. Classified as a business-class hotel, buildings such as the Hotel Alma collectively added roughly 900,000 square feet of real estate during the building boom. The building also played a critical role as Portland’s population doubled within a short period, providing affordable and available accommodations and housing for emerging retailers. The Hotel Alma is one of over 90 historic buildings in downtown Portland built between 1915 and 1931 and identified as eligible for listing in the National Register in a recent study.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Memorial Coliseum, Multnomah Co., Listed September 10, 2009 |
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The Memorial Coliseum in northeast Portland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on September 10 for its architectural importance to the state of Oregon. Designed by the notable architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and constructed in 1960, the glass-walled Memorial Coliseum is a spatially unique example of the International Style in a public building within the state. Utilizing an innovative structural system, the building’s entire weight is carried by four large concrete columns, allowing for its four walls to be constructed of glass panels. Since no interior supports for the building are present, a curving seating bowl was constructed which allowed spectators the unusual ability to simultaneously watch an event and see outside. At its time of completion, the Memorial Coliseum was the only large-scale, glass-walled, and public structure in the Pacific Northwest.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Iron Workers' Cottage, Clackamas Co., Listed July 16, 2009 |
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One of Lake Oswego’s most intact and best preserved iron heritage-related sites was recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Iron Workers’ Cottage, built about 1882 and located at 40 Wilbur Street in the Old Town neighborhood, was listed in the National Register on July 16 for its important association with the city’s iron industry during the late 19th century. While lasting only 30 years, Lake Oswego’s iron industry was one of the largest operations west of the Rocky Mountains. Some of the city’s neighborhoods such as Old Town, South Town, and First Addition were developed during this period in response to the industry’s rapid growth. The one-story, two-bedroom Iron Workers’ Cottage of box construction was likely built by the Oregon Iron & Steel Company as part of 100 homes constructed by the company in a similar style throughout the Old Town neighborhood. The cottage originally served as housing for workers of Lake Oswego’s iron companies between 1882 and 1894, and later as a single-family house before it was sold to the City of Lake Oswego in 2002. The Iron Workers’ Cottage is one of the few remnants that show what life was like for an employee in the iron industry in Lake Oswego.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Willamette Community and Grange Hall, Benton Co., Listed May 28, 2009 |
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The Willamette Community and Grange Hall, commonly known as the Willamette Grange, was constructed in 1922 and is located at the intersection of Greenberry Road and Highway 99W at 27555 Greenberry Road in rural Benton County, Oregon. As an organization, the Willamette Grange is the only county Grange remaining from the initial period of organization in the state during the 1870s and the fourth oldest Grange with continuous membership in the state. The Willamette Community and Grange Hall was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural merit as an excellent local example of a grange hall executed in the Georgian Revival Style.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Painter's Woods Historic District, Washington Co., Listed May 28, 2009 |
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The Painter’s Woods Historic District is a well-preserved example of residential architecture in Forest Grove between 1880 and 1948, during which the community grew from a small group of missionaries interested in establishing a local school to a well-developed city with a growing university. The Painter’s Woods District includes the first modern mapped subdivisions in southern Forest Grove and was traditionally a desirable neighborhood where a variety of prominent citizens, professionals, and working class families lived. The growth of the district reflects the overall development of the community and includes two of the city’s earliest hospitals.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Elk Lake Guard Station, Dechutes Co., Listed April 23, 2009 |
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In 1929, employees of the U.S. Forest Service built the Elk Lake Guard Station, described as a “simple cabin” made of logs with a wood-shingle roof. The station is historically important as an early example of the Forest Service’s current management polices that emphasize both recreation and natural resource conservation. In the early-twentieth century Guard Stations were constructed in remote areas as outposts to protect timber, water, wildlife, and fish. At Elk Lake, increasing public recreation led to the construction of a guard station to both protect natural resources and serve visitors. To meet the agency’s goals, the facility was sited to allow for maximum contact between Forest Service personnel and forest users while still allowing backcountry access to the soon-to-be designated Three Sisters Primitive Area. The station was one of the agency’s first efforts to standardize building appearance and its design represents the desire to construct buildings that complemented the natural environment.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Whiteside Theatre, Corvallis, Benton Co., Listed February 25, 2009 |
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Constructed in 1922 by brothers Samuel and George Whiteside in the heart of Corvallis’s commercial core, the Whiteside Theatre was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its distinctive design as a movie palace in the Italian Renaissance style of architecture. Designed to seat over 1,100 patrons when it first opened, the Whiteside Theatre reflected national trends in both architecture and entertainment for a movie palace at the time, including the use of triple-inset arched windows on the building’s front facade and ornate interior decoration. Although the theatre suffered two fires during its early years, the Whiteside family continued operation of the theatre until 1985. The only major alteration made to the building, a large neon marquee was added in 1950.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Clarence and Ethel Boyer House, Eugene, Lane Co., Listed February 25, 2009 |
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Constructed in 1927 in the South University Neighborhood, the Clarence and Ethel Boyer House was recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a striking example of the Georgian Colonial Revival style of architecture in Eugene. Although in a neighborhood with other Colonial Revival houses, the Boyer House embodies the Georgian Colonial Revival style with its accentuated front door, symmetrical brick facade, paired double-hung windows, steep roof, and tall chimneys. Supposedly reminiscent of the Governor’s Palace at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, the Boyer House is an important architectural representation of the history of residential growth and construction in Eugene during the 1920s.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Paul Bunyan Statue, Portland, Multnomah Co., Listed January 28, 2009 |
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Constructed in 1959, Kenton’s Paul Bunyan statue owes its existence to Oregon’s centennial celebrations. Centennial-themed festivals, ceremonies, parades, balls, exhibits, rodeos, and jamborees filled the event schedules of even the smallest towns in Oregon throughout the centennial year, which began on February 14th, 1959. The anchor event for the state’s birthday was the Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair, held in north Portland for 100 days between June 10th and September 17th. North Portland’s Kenton neighborhood, celebrating its proximity to the event site, the neighborhood’s industrial heritage, and Oregon’s timber industry, erected a 31-foot-tall statue of the famed, over-sized lumberjack to welcome Exposition visitors. The statue is recognized for its architectural importance as a highly evocative and well-crafted example of roadside architecture in Oregon. Roadside architecture includes the many themed, and often garish, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and unusual creations that popped up along America’s highways during the mid-twentieth century. Paul Bunyan was among many favorite characters of exaggerated size that cropped up along America’s roads between the 1930s and the 1960s, before freeways and zoning codes limited the popularity of such constructions. The largest of the few purpose-built Paul Bunyans in the state, Kenton’s Paul Bunyan stands alone as an urban marker and a community legacy.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Willakenzie Grange Hall, Eugene, Lane Co., Listed January 22, 2009 |
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Built in 1913 as the meeting hall for Willakenzie Grange #498, this vernacular-style building stands as a reminder of the once-dominant agricultural community that occupied the region since its earliest pioneer settlement. The Grange movement began in 1868 as an outlet for farmers to organize around common political, economic, and social interests. The organization spread quickly across the United States and Oregon. Will Ayres and Frank Harlow, both area farmers and sons of early settlers, organized the Grange in 1913 with sixty-four initial members. The group decided on the name Willakenzie, combining the names of the nearby Willamette and McKenzie Rivers. Grange members themselves constructed the building, and once complete it served as an area meeting place. Grange members were active participants in the annual Lane County Fair, voiced concerns about a number of local issues, and established the Producer’s Public Market in 1915, which later became the Lane County Farmers Market.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Pacific Hardware & Steel Co., Portland, Multnomah Co., Listed December 31, 2008 |
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Built in 1910, the Pacific Hardware & Steel Company Warehouse on NW Nicolai in Portland, Oregon was designed by well-known Portland firm Bennes & Hendricks, and is a good example of the construction and design common in industrial architecture of the early 20th century.
The architectural legacy of John Bennes is undisputed with 20 buildings designed by him and/or with partners currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Bennes and Hendricks firm is probably best known today as the company that designed beautiful residences, hotels, and theaters. However, the Pacific Hardware & Steel Company demonstrates their ability to create cutting-edge architecture meant to serve the industrial powerhouses of Portland’s growing economy. The building is also an outstanding example of slow-burning mill construction — a construction method that was in favor for industrial buildings during the late 1800s and early 1900s because of its cost-effective, fire-resistant technology. The Pacific Hardware & Steel Company Warehouse is the best example of the industrial architecture of Bennes and Hendricks still standing today.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Young House, Portland Vcty, Washington Co., Listed December 31, 2008 |
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Built in 1863, the John Quincy Adams and Elizabeth Young House is the oldest remaining building in Cedar Mill, a small community founded in 1874 in the area of Cornell Road in unincorporated Washington County. The Young family (Elam & Irene Young and their three youngest sons, including John Quincy Adams) came across the Oregon Trail to settle in the Oregon Territory in the late 1840s, surviving the Whitman Massacre. In 1869, John Q. A. Young bought a sawmill next to Cedar Mill Creek with his partner William Everson and constructed this house, just west of the mill. The simply ornamented “saltbox-shape” building is a good example of the utilitarian houses commonly built in mid-19th century in rural Oregon. The Youngs occupied the house until 1874 when they moved to a newer, larger residence across Cornell Road. That same year, John Q. A. Young became postmaster and officially named the settlement “Cedar Mill.” The Young House served as the community’s general store and post office from 1874 until 1881. The property is currently owned by the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District.
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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| Bohnsen Cottages, Portland, Multnomah Co., Listed December 4, 2008 |
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Located in the Portland Heights neighborhood, the Bohnsen Cottages were recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places for their association with the development of multi-family housing in residential neighborhoods in Portland during the 1920s. Constructed in 1926 as rental properties, the five, 550-square foot, single-family detached cottages were designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style with below-grade automobile garages. Although small in plan, the cottages feature many design elements that appealed to the tastes of the middle-class during a time of domestic architectural experimentation, such as unique addresses, separate entries, and individual garages and basements.
Listen to OPB News report (12/17/2008) [mp3]
View the National Register Nomination [pdf]
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