Comments on: SE Portland House, 1929 – Help Us Out!

By: Scot McLean

Scot McLean — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 01:40:09 +0000

Hello Joan, Just found this blog, Thank you for your kind works about the Chown house, I miss [sold] it a lot when I Left P-town. Moving hses was common thing- not this house. Window sashes were made of Port Orford cedar, original Peer glass mirror over the coal fireplace. address renumbering also were a political thing, to what end? it would be interesting to know.

By: Dan Davis

Dan Davis — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:45:37 +0000

I thought I had nailed this one down finally. It’s very close but the details are not quite the same. I’m pretty sure it’s not the one but I had my hopes up for a while!
http://goo.gl/maps/haQ9o

By: joan

joan — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:23:29 +0000

The Francis R. Chown house is 2030 SW Main St. The address was noted as 2030-2032. I was hoping this house was moved here and altered-but not so. I hope this SE Portland mystery house was moved and not demolished.

By: Ryan Thompson (@RyanTee82)

Ryan Thompson (@RyanTee82) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:32:06 +0000

Where IS the Francis R. Chown House? The wikipedia placemarker isn’t accurate. :\ There aren’t any houses near it.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:45:51 +0000

@BuckMan. What’s your source for the meridian? My 1915 Pittmon map clearly shows Patton (Interstate) as the divider between N and NE as well as showing all the block numbers based off of it. It WAS very consistent, you are describing San Francisco.

By: joan

joan — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:28:51 +0000

Francis R. Chown House (see link on Wikipedia page)
I thought I would discover a tie in since the featured house appears to have two front doors.

It is a different house but under Further reading (McLean/Atly) there is a link to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the F. R. Chown House. It gives wonderful history of the F.R.C. house(Italianate), the architect and the Chown family.

By: BuckMan

BuckMan — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:46:57 +0000

Folks, you’re all wrong. The north/south zero point on the east side was Ankeny before 1933. The only role that Stark plays in numbering is in legal descriptions of lots. The east/west zero point was not remarkably consistent, presumably starting at where each particular street hit the Willamette.

I also had a feeling about the 13th and Pine house, but agree it is too small. All these buildings are way too large to be current survivors in Buckman, looks more Alphabet District to me.

By: Lynette

Lynette — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 02:03:37 +0000

Y’all, I’m enjoying the tennis match, mightily. Since I first moved to Portland in June, 2006, I find the determination of those who respect and seek out vintage aspects of this glorious city and their relationship to today’s Portland are an interesting bunch of folks. Thanks!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:38:51 +0000

Went back and checked the document looks the vast majority of streets south of Ankeny did not have south at the end of their names but some like SE 12th did.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:36:52 +0000

I have the book. It’s a good one, If you look on page 109 of the City Archives document you will see that East 11th avenue south was changed to SE 11th. So they did use the south designation. The south designation is all throughout that document.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:32:20 +0000

@Mike – Looks like I was wrong. I checked my 1915 Pittmon map and Ankeny was the N/S dividing line. Renumbering from 6 to 116 supports Ankeny. Six would have been the second house south of Ankeny. 100 is now the Ankeny block (Burnside being 0) so 116 would continue to be the second house south of Ankeny.

Also, please read Portland Names and Neighborhoods by Eugene Snyder, esp. the section on the Great Renaming of 1891, p53. He states that South was not used. You will also not find the directional ‘south’ used in the renumbering part of the City of Portland’s file (cf p216). E.g., East 15th St now SE 15th Ave. Take a look at the street names stamped in curbs (if you can find any that Portland sidewalk crews didn’t rip out years ago for ADA compliant curb ramps.)

Anybody else enjoying the tennis match? Care to weigh in?

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:37:56 +0000

Not to drag this out because it isn’t that important but when you look at say SE 11th which used to be E 11th south according to the file. If Stark was the old line between SE and NE then an old address of say 6 E 11th south should now be something like 506 SE 11th avenue right? But that is not what happened. 6 became 116 SE 11th supporting my claim that stark was never the border between SE and NE Look on page 109 for yourself.