Researching House History - Part 6
In Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 we walked through the process of researching your house's history, using readily available and (mostly) free resources available online and at publicly-accessible archives and libraries in Portland. We'll wrap up with a list of resources, and - in case you're curious - a brief summary of what we learned about our example house. Online Resources PortlandMaps - starting point to find the historical plumbing permit cards. Multnomah C
Intensive Level Survey Report Submitted
Another part of the nomination process is researching the history of some representative Laurelhurst houses and preparing an Intensive Level Survey report. A dozen neighborhood volunteers did this work, with help from the LNA's consultant, and the report has been posted to the LNA's website. Read about: The house of Dr Henry Coe, for whom Coe Circle is named Where the term "swimsuit" came from and how Laurelhurst was involved Heritage Trees in Laurelhurst and how the neighbo
Final Draft Laurelhurst Nomination Complete
The neighborhood's consultant, with the help of many neighborhood volunteers as well as students from the University of Oregon's Historic Preservation graduate program, has completed Laurelhurst's nomination for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The "final draft" version of the nomination is posted on the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association's website. Or click the image below: The survey data and survey report are also available at the LNA's website. This
Researching House History - Part 5
In Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 we determined when our example house was built and by whom, found historical maps and photos documenting its original configuration, learned about the builder, and identified some of the prior occupants. Now we'll try to find information about some of those occupants. Let's start with "Robert B. Flack", who hosted a meeting of the composer's guild at our example house in March 1932. Census Records At the Multonmah County Library website,
Researching House History- Part 4
In Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 we determined when our example house was built and by whom, found historical maps and photos documenting its original configuration, and identified some of the prior occupants. Now we'll try to learn a little bit about the builder and those prior occupants. Start with the builder. The builder of our example house was the "Provident Investment & Trust Co". Searching newspapers turns up many references to this company around that time, such as thi
Researching House History - Part 3
In Part 1 we located the original plumbing card for our example house, which confirms the date of construction and the initial owner. In Part 2 we found the house on some historical maps, which revealed the owner in 1914, hinted that the house was leased in its early years, and showed the original configuration of the house's entry and porch was oriented toward Glisan. Now we'll starting researching who lived in the house. Polk City Directories You've probably identified a
Researching House History - Part 2
In Part 1, we found the original plumbing card for our example house. Now let's find the house in historical maps and photos. This can yield clues about past owners and any additions made over the last century. Historical Plat Maps The Laurelhurst Company prepared maps of Laurelhurst at various times in the neighborhood's early decades, sometimes showing which houses had been built at the time. Don't rely on the illustrations of the houses to be accurate in detail. We have
Researching House History - Part 1
In recent months, an intrepid crew of Laurelhurst neighbors have been researching the history of a dozen Laurelhurst houses, for the historic district nomination. We're going to share some sources and methods for doing this research in this series of posts. PortlandMaps - the starting point. Go to the city's very useful website, PortlandMaps, and enter the house address. The lot and house is shown on the map, and the year built. "Year built" is the year the property went on
