Restoration




Portland had been incorporated for two years in 1853 when W.S. Ladd commissioned Absalom Hallock to design a brick building on Front street, between Washington and Stark. The use of brick added a sense of permanence to the cluster of white-washed wooden, frame and false-fronted buildings rising between the river and the towering fir trees. It was a vote of confidence for Portland's long term prospects.

Absalom Hallock arrived two years earlier. He went into business as an architect, the city's first, on July 21 1851. A year after the Ladd commission he began to incorporate cast-iron into the buildings he designed, which encouraged a modular construction of repetitive elements and tall entryways and windows to let in light. At the same time Hallock became the Portland representative of the Phoenix Iron Works of San Francisco.

His own building, in partnership with contractor William McMillan, was constructed on the northwest corner of Front and Oak in 1857.






The Hallock and McMillan building was typical of the eighteen brick structures built or retrofitted with cast-iron that Absalom Hallock designed in Portland prior to the Civil War. Its fabricated columns and arches allowed a light filled work space. (click on images to expand..)






Minor White photograph of the corner of Front and Oak, circa 1939, shortly before the remodel that would radically alter the Hallock and McMillan building. The neighboring Fechheimer building (1885, existent) is followed by the Snow building, likely designed by Hallock, torn down shortly after the photograph was taken. The last building on the block appears to be in the process of being demolished.



The Hallock and McMillan building is the oldest commercial structure in Portland. In its one hundred fifty four years, it has survived numerous floods and spared the reach of the Great Fire of 1872. The Harbor Drive freeway destroyed its grand descendants across Front Avenue and ramps off the Morrison Bridge, accompanied by surface parking lots, cut a wide swath through its neighbors to the south. Since the 1940s its historic significance has been obscured by a remodel that altered its east facade. This is about to change.





The Hallock and McMillan building has faced down floods, fire and freeway.




In December the Hallock and McMillan building was purchased by developer John Russell, with the goal of restoring it to its original appearance.

With his company, Russell Development, John Russell is known for major projects in Portland, such as Pacwest Center and the renovation of the 200 Market Building, bestowed America's first LEED award for sustainability in the Existing Multi-Tenant category. Less known is his work on a smaller scale; a decades long restoration of a quarter block bounded by Front (Naito Parkway), Oak and First. It can be seen as a template for the revival of the Skidmore / Old Town National Historic District, which, he states, could be made the best place in Portland to live and work. It is a sentiment born of direct personal experience.





The Delschneider building on Oak street (1859) is Portland's second oldest commercial structure. Its third floor was added in 1876. The Hallock and McMillan building neighbors it to the east.



The Delschneider building was "an empty pigeon roost" when John Russell purchased it in 1974. Inspired by the brick-built historic Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston, where he lived while in grad school, he renovated the building for mixed use by adding an apartment space on the third floor. Upon completion, he and his family moved in. His children still count it as their favorite residence while growing up.

In 1980 he acquired the Fechheimer building (1885), an early preservation success in Portland that had been restored by Ralph Walstrom and Jeff Holbrook. At the same time he inquired into purchasing the Hallock and McMillan building, the start of what would play out to be a thirty year long series of conversations over dinner with its owner, Peter Corvallis.






The Freimann Building (Oak street facing segment) neighbors the Delshneider building to the west.


His next acquisition ushered a historic reconstruction that could have positive potential implications for redevelopment in Skidmore / Old Town, an area that has been blighted for decades by acres of surface parking lots.





First and Oak, prior to 2004. -Portland Maps.


The run down building, on the corner of First and Oak was purchased, in two segments in 1999 and 2004, to arrest the decay of property that neighbored the Delschneider building. Shortly thereafter, Portland historian Donald R. Nelson found a 19th century illustration of the corner. It was realized that, beneath layers of Roman brick and stucco, was entombed remnants of a 1880s building. Using the picture as a guide, Russell decided to return it to its original appearance.

In the course of restoration work, it became evident that little of the building's original material was in suitable condition to be reincorporated. This meant the project would go forward without incentives such as Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits from the National Park Service or the Oregon Special Assessment program from the State Historic Preservation Office, eligibility of which is set by rules drawn from a distinctly western view of preservation that places a high value on original fabric. An eastern view, born of the use of less permanent materials, might place less; where a temple built of wood or bamboo can be seen as five hundred years old, with most of its components dating back only a quarter century, yet suffer no loss of authenticity.




Genuine upper-strata Rocky Butte basalt.


New hand-made brick from South Carolina was used to duplicate the original. The damaged iron corner column, previously hidden, was removed, measured and reproduced. A lone surviving piece of stone work on the foundation level presented a singular problem. It came from the long defunct Rocky Butte quarry which provided rock for many local buildings such as the Hotel Portland. The basalt's light color placed it from the early years of the quarry's excavations; as depth increased the rock darkened. Incredibly, matching stone was found, available from the foundation of the Simon Benson house, made surplus after its move to Portland State University due to differences in site profile.

The building is a meticulous recreation of when Friemann's Restaurant and Cafe occupied the corner in 1889. It illustrates the potential of infill that is respectful to its surroundings, should the parking lots in the area be redeveloped.






The Hallock and McMillan restoration. -Emerick Architects.



As in the case of his earlier earlier restorations, painstaking attention to historic detail is being applied to the Hallock and McMillan building. The assembled team for the project: Emerick Architects and Bremik Construction, in consultation with Jessica Engeman of Venerable Development and architect and historian Bill Hawkins, author of The Grand Era of Cast-Iron Architecture in Portland Oregon, have as their goal to returning it to its original nineteenth century appearance. Like prior restorations throughout Skidmore / Old Town, the missing cast-iron pieces will be fabricated in fiberglass or aluminum. Work on the project began immediately upon Russell assuming possession.





The Feccheimer and Hallock & McMillan buildings.



John Russell's quartet of buildings, two of which were built before Oregon was a state, provide a tangible link to Portland's early past. Their incredible survival, against all odds, is rivaled only by the amount of care and effort spent on their restoration. With his patient pursuit of authenticity, he has shown how Skidmore / Old Town's potential can be drawn upon to revive an area that can indeed be made the best place in Portland to live and work. It a long term vision that would be familiar to W.S. Ladd and Absalom Hallock.




Sincere thanks to John Russell for sitting down with me. Peggy Moretti of the Historic Preservation League of Oregon and, as always, Bill Hawkins, a constant source of information and inspiration for this website.



The Hallock & McMillan and Fechheimer buildings. October 31 1953. Marion Dean Ross photograph. University of Oregon Libraries, digital collections.






The Delschneider building, before the purchase and renovation by John Russell that restored to it the missing cornice. Also visible is the rear segment of the building on First and Oak (Freimann building) prior to its being stuccoed (the First Avenue facing segment was covered up in Roman brick). -Marion Dean Ross photograph. University of Oregon Libraries, digital collections.






Portland's notable buildings, 1858, just five years after Absalom Hallock designed the first brick building in the city for W.S. Ladd. The Hallock & McMillan building is at the top, center.

Alder Street Station






"For all sad words of tongue or pen / The saddest are these: It might have been!" -John Greenleaf Whittier

Less prosaic, but more tantalizing: It almost was.






In the long run, Ben Holladay was right; grass would grow on Front street. At the time of his infamous quip, delivered as he touted his plans for East Portland, it seemed unlikely. Lined by grand iron fronted merchant houses, such as Starr, Allan and Lewis and most importantly, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Front street drew commerce directly from the river and pushed it into the heart of the city. Its enterprises were at the root of the Portland establishment's fortunes.





In the century that followed, Front would morph from street, to avenue, to parkway and witness the rise and fall of the Harbor Drive freeway and the birth of Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Prior to both, a very different waterfront nearly came into being.





By the second decade of the the twentieth century Portland had turned its back on the river. Behind the impressive facades, the warehouses and wharfs of the old city had become a decrepit, disused warren as the harbor moved down stream. In 1919 the City Council called for a massive reworking of the waterfront. The resulting plan, by City Engineer Olaf Laurgaard, was released in 1923.




The Report of City Engineer, Pursuant to Resolution No. 11130, With Plans and Estimates For Water Front Project , March 29 1923 was an ambitious recasting of the riverfront that sought to address multiple municipal ills. For flood control and fire abatement, the old docks were to be removed and a sea wall installed from Jefferson to Glisan streets, back-filled by material dredged from the Willamette. Behind the wall a new interceptor sewer would serve downtown. The area from the Hawthorne to Morrison bridges was set aside for a public market. Between the Morrison and Steel bridges a new wholesale district of large, modern warehouses would be built, accessed by trucks from the west and rail from the east.





The proposed public market at the foot of the Hawthorne Bridge.
-Multnomah County Library (non-circulating collection). Photo courtesy of Alexander Craghead.





The report's transportation amenities balanced auto, rail and pedestrian modes. Bridge approaches were to be raised. Madison, Morrison, Burnside, Glisan and Front widened. Thousands of parking spaces were to be provided to alleviate downtown congestion. On top of the sea wall, a twenty five foot wide esplanade would "create a very pleasing recreational walk for the citizens of the city."


Chief among the proposal was a consolidated terminal for the region's interurban electric rail lines and ocean going travelers to be located on First and Alder, with a breezeway over Front to the river.








Alder Street Station. (click on images to expand). -Multnomah County Library (non circulating desk). Photo courtesy of Alexander Craghead.




Portland was served by three interurban lines: The Portland Railway Light and Power Company and its affiliates ran to Troutdale, Estacada, Oregon City, Mount Angel and over the Interstate Bridge to Vancouver Washington. The Oregon Electric Railway served Woodburn, Salem, Eugene, Albany and Forest Grove. Southern Pacific's "Red Electrics" connected Portland to Lake Oswego, Hillsboro, Newburg, McMinnville and Corvallis. The new terminal would provide a single boarding point for all three networks and remove the trains from downtown streets.


"At the present time a great deal of time is lost by these interurban lines crossing the business district of the City. As much time is consumed in traversing the business district as is consumed in traveling 15 or 20 miles after the City limits have been reached."
-The Report of City Engineer, Pursuant to Resolution No. 11130, With Plans and Estimates For Water Front Project







The "Red Electric" steel cars boarded at Union Station, while the Oregon Electric operated from North Bank Station in what is now the Pearl District and from a station near the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge. The PRL&P Lines loaded at First and Washington.









At river's edge the terminal would also serve ocean bound traffic such as from the Pacific Steamship Company, aka the Admiral Line.
-Images courtesy of Timetable Images , Bjorn Larsson.






The plan called for the Red Electrics and the Oregon Electric to share the latter's tracks out of town to a point near Burlingame. The vacated Red Electric right of way would then be used as a new route for the Pacific Highway into Portland.




The placement of the terminal, market, esplanade and parking facilities was anticipated to generate large amounts of pedestrian traffic that would revitalize the lower downtown district as people crossed back and forth to the city center. But the components of the plan were never to fully coalesce.


It is tempting to view the Laurgaard plan as another instance of Portland dreaming big and spending small, alongside the Olmstead parks plan, Bennet's city beautiful re-design, the initial response to the Robert Moses report and the stadium proposals of the 1960s. Much of the plan though was implemented in relatively a short time. Work on the sea wall, interceptor sewer and esplanade, Oregon's largest public works project to that date, was completed in less than four years. Bridge access improvements, street widening and a public market were finished within a decade.






The proposed sewer was hardly a panacea. Back ups into downtown basements ended as hundreds of makeshift outlets into the river were replaced- by a single overflow.
-City of Portland Archives.




The Public Market building opened in 1933 on the site proposed by the Laurgaard Plan. Initially a success, its popularity with customers and vendors soon dropped off. It closed in 1942. From 1948 to 1961 it was home to the Oregon Journal. The building was demolished in 1968.
-City of Portland Archives.





A street level view of the Portland Public Market and the smaller Sea Wall Public Market at Taylor and Front Avenue, prior to 1943. The railroad tracks were freight only, operated by the United Railway, an Oregon Electric Railway affiliate.




Only the interurban / ocean terminal and the wholesale district proposals were not acted upon at all. With each recasting of the plan through the 1920s the rail component shrank as the popularity of the automobile grew. By 1930 it was gone. In 1933 the Pacific Highway would be built on the former Red Electric right of way as Barbur Blvd. In the early 1940s the waterfront would be used for transportation, in the form of the Harbor Drive freeway.





Portland takes on a Le Corbusier tinge with the 1932 Bartholomew Plan. Intermediate between rail and freeway, it featured a park along the river.



What if the report had been fully implemented? Any counterfactualist historic revelry has to be tempered by trends already in place at the time. As attractive as a regional electric rail network emanating from downtown would be today, Alder Street Station was unlikely to have arrested the decline of the interurban systems in the 1920s and 1930s.


Perhaps the city envisioned in the Laurgaard plan is best viewed along the lines of the many Portland's dreamed in Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven, familiar elements recast to form alternate realities -made all the more intriguing by how close it actually came to pass.






The proposed waterfront of 1923, a fold out in the report.
-Multnomah County Library (non-circulating collection). Photo courtesy of Alexander Craghead.






The Portland Railway Light and Power (later the Portland Railroad and Terminal Division of Portland Traction) lines continued to load at First and Washington for another thirty three years, until its tracks were removed from the Hawthorne Bridge, cutting access to downtown. The rare view above was possible only between 1954, when the Dekum Block (1871) was demolished to make a parking lot, and the end of downtown interurban service in September 1956.

The surface lot expanded upon the city's first, on the site of the Labbe Block, immediately next door. It is still there.

Cyclorama!









It appears on the peripheral in photographs of Portland from the 1890s, a large circular building on the block bounded by Third, Fourth, Pine and Ash. A roundhouse perhaps, or a giant carousel? A Sanborn Insurance map from 1889 provides a name, Cyclorama, but not its function. Could it have been a velodrome?





A Portland City Directory from the same year gives another hint:

The Cyclorama (Gettysburg) west side of 3rd, north of PIne.

Gettysburg; a clue leading to a entertainment phenomenon that transported audiences across space and time to distant vistas, surrounding them with a 360 degree view. Cyclorama: it was the IMAX theater of its day.




The Robert R. Thompson mansion on Third street between PIne and Ash.


A decade earlier, the upper end of Third street was home to a wealthy neighborhood of Portland's financial elite, anchored by the neighboring mansions of Oregon Steam Navigation magnates John C. Ainsworth and Robert R. Thompson that faced each other across Pine. A letter from Oregon pioneer Jesse Applegate, written from Yoncalla to Ainsworth on September 3rd 1869 hints at the genteel elegance of the district, just four years after the end of the Civil War:


"In my morning walks through the city, I remarked on the good taste displayed in the selection and arrangement of the trees, shrubs and other ornaments, and their adaptation to mansion and grounds the were intended to beautify- and when I learned the place was yours I promised myself the pleasure of a closer inspection."



The John C Ainsworth and Robert R Thompson (far right) mansions.


As downtown expanded inland, the enclave was pressured by commercial uses. The arrival of the grandly named Transcontinental Street Railway horse-car line in 1883 signaled its end as a bucolic retreat, as noted in the Portland City Directory of 1884:


"A most remarkable change in the present volume, as compared to its predecessors, is the removal of many families whose names are familiar in the history of Portland from the localities which, but a year or two ago, were reckoned to be the most aristocratic and desirable residences in Portland, North Third and Fourth streets, which were the sites of our most elegant residences, have been abandoned to business..."


As the well-to-do vacated Third, a new exclusive neighborhood of palatial homes emerged on the west side of the Couch Addition, centered on 19th street. Ainsworth and Thompson had departed the region entirely, opting for Oakland and San Francisco respectively. Not everyone left. Ben Holladay, former master of flash and finance, ruined in the crash of 1873, remained, stranded, in his Italian-villa styled house on the south west corner of Third and Stark until his death in 1887.




Ben Holladay, exile on Third street.


By that time Third street was a very different place. Banks and business blocks were followed by hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues such as Cordray's Musee & Theatre which advertised opera, comedy and drama. Also slated for Third was the latest in entertainment extravagance; a cyclorama.



The Boston Cyclorama.

Cycloramas were a sort of nineteenth century virtual reality, which transfixed audiences with huge wrap-around 360 degree paintings, lighting, effects, narration and life-size diorama elements, transporting them to historic events, often battles. Gettysburg was a common subject (appearing at Gettysburg, Boston, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and doubtless other locations). The Crucifixion of Christ (Buffalo), the Siege of Paris (Melbourne Australia), the Battle of Atlanta (Atlanta), the Battle of Sedan (Toronto), Waterloo (Melbourne again) and Jerusalem (Quebec) were among many topics portrayed.

The Portland Cyclorama Company was established in 1887. The company's well established board members consisted of L.L. Hawkins, an Ainsworth banking partner, Harvey W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian, Rufus Mallory, a former U.S. Congressman, Geroge P. Frank, a future Portland mayor, Byron P. Cardwell, a member of the Board of Police Commissioners, C.W. Robey, a former postmaster and F.N. Shurtliff.

Midway through the year, construction began on a large three story brick building on the block bordered by Third, Fourth, Pine and Ash, on the grounds of Ainsworth's Oregon Steam Navigation associate Robert R. Thompson's mansion, which had been subdivided into rooms to rent.




The Portland Cyclorama in the early 1890s, part of a warren of interconnected buildings that included the old R.R. Thompson mansion (three peaked windows facing south). Directly across Pine is the Ainsworth mansion (lower right hand corner) then leased to the Arlington Club.



A portion of the existent Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama at Gettysburg Pennsylvania.

To anchor the spectacle, the popular Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama painting by French artist Paul Philoppoteaux, the original of which was debuted in Chicago in 1883, was chosen.

Portland's copy, weighing twelve thousand pounds, arrived December 7 1887, stood on end and by use of a thirty five foot high wheeled tower on tracks, slowly unrolled and hung. Two artists then arrived to add finishing touches such as clouds and smoke to the painting.






The Portland Cyclorama opened to wide acclaim, speeches by notables such as the Reverend Thomas Lamb Elliot and rave reviews on December 29 1887.







"The building in which it is exhibited is circular and the painting covers the entire circuit of the walls from top to bottom. Light is admitted from the roof and a canopy over the platform in the center where spectators stand, cuts the line of vision just below the top of the painting.

The platform is reached by a subterranean passage and a winding stair case and when a person emerges on this platform it is precisely as if he had risen from under the ground in the center of the battlefield of Gettysburg, when the battle was at its height. Nothing is to be seen to show that one is inside a building, no wall, door, window or floor."
-The Morning Oregonian, December 30 1887.


To further the illusion, optical effects, real stone walls, wood fences and other features were blended out of the scene into the viewing area, where a narrator explained the unfolding battle at the moment of Pickett's Charge.



"With entire assurance it may be said that, of the great battle pictures on exhibition in various cities, none surpasses the "Gettysburg" now completed and thrown open to the public in Portland. Everyone who has seen this painting and the "Gettysburg" in Chicago pronounces the Portland picture greatly the superior one."
-The Morning Oregonian, December 30 1887.






Hours were from Ten to Ten with a fifty cent charge of admission (25 cents for children).

It was a immediate region-wide success. Special showings, such as one for a group of 150 Vancouver area school children and a rail excursion from Salem were common. Letters to the editor poured in, asking for the proper pronunciation of cyclorama. A Gettysburg veteran, wounded in the battle, chose to be married there, the ceremony held in front of the place on the painting where he received his injury. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce viewed it accompanied by an interpreter and a army general.







By the middle of 1891 the novelty had worn off and the need to revamp the spectacle was apparent. A live "battle" was added, acted in the foreground with cannon fire and muskets. At the finish of the narration the lights would dim and a lightning storm would commence, so real that some patrons were said to reach for there umbrellas. A military band closed the performances. The Oregonian noted that under such management, the Cyclorama would continue to draw for several years to come.

It was an optimistic assessment. On February 28 1892 admission was cut in half. The Oregonian noted that the rates would be for a short time only. Within five days it closed. The Portland Cyclorama had lasted four years and two months.




The Cyclorama building (numbered #198) appears in this post 1893 drawing of downtown Portland.


The building quickly re-opened as the Past Time Athletic Club, a 5,000 seat boxing arena ran by former welterweight champion Jack Dempsey "the Nonpareil" (not to be confused with the heavyweight champion of the same name). The Past Time was the scene of numerous bouts, including three that featured Portland's own Mysterious Billy Smith, on his way to claiming the welterweight championship of 1893.



The Mysterious Billy Smith, Welterweight Champion of the World. Known as one of the dirtiest fighters ever, he was disqualified 13 times, a pro boxing record that holds to this day. He retired to Portland, for many years owning a bar named "The Champions Rest" until his death in 1937.





The roof of the Cyclorama building can be seen, lower center in this picture, circa 1895. The cupola of the Pioneer Courthouse (post office) and the tower of the First Congregational, both still in existence can be seen, along with vanished Perkins Hotel, Hotel Portland, the Marquam on Morrison and the Oregonian's tower on Alder.


The building was reincarnated a second time in 1893 as the Alhambra Music Hall, based on the style of a London Music Hall, and a third time in 1894 as the Trocadero Theatre, a "high class vaudeville.

Blei's Trocadero, as it was also known, featured such national acts as the Mademoiselle Jaguarina, who specialized in knife and sword exercises, Zetta Tuforne, the operatic vocalist, Peppi Sternheim, "the Tyrolean Warbler", Miss Vera Gray, "refined song and dance specialties," Stuart "the male Patti," billed as America's greatest female impersonator, Gus Bruno, "one of the greatest American comedians," Billy Emerson, "the famous popular minstrel" and Sandow the Strongman, aka The Modern Hercules.

Based on San Francisco's Tivoli Theater, the opening performances would close with "the great burlesque of Monte Cristo."



Stuart "the Male Patti"




Sandow the Strongman (poster from the Trocadero in New York').


The Trocadero lasted but one extravagant year. After its close the building went into decline with a series of devolving uses, subdivided for retail space, or opened up for a dog show. In 1909 it was in use as a carpenters shop when the Thompson Estate stated the site would be the home of a new 2,500 seat theater. By the next year, the plans had changed and it was announced a $750,000 hotel would be built instead.

The Cyclorama, aka the Past Time Athletic Club, Alhambra Music Hall and the Trocadero was demolished in September 1910, to make way for the Multnomah Hotel, today known as the Embassy Suites.





"What and where was the Portland cyclorama?"
-Trivia question in the Oregonian, June 6 1927.



Its been awhile
since my last post. The usual summer frenzy was followed by a scare as our toddler had to have cataract surgery on his left eye. The months of check-ups, tests, second opinions and worry were not conducive to research and writing. The fine work of the Casey Eye Institute at OHSU has brought about a happy conclusion (!)



A surprising relic at the Elk's Children's Eye Clinic at the Casey Eye Institute, a stained glass window commemorating the grand Elks Convention of 1912, from the original Elks building at 7th (Broadway) and Stark, which I wrote about in "A Summer Extravaganza."






Be sure and check out Our Portland Story, a project that pairs essays by Portland writers about what they love about Portland with local designers to create a unique book that is great portrait of the city, just in time for the holidays. My essay, Old Portland, is on page 46. Available at Powells, numerous local stores and direct.