Architecture – Dear Liza

Walkin’ the Neighborhood

Dear Liza,

I love where we live! Sunnyside, in Southeast Portland, is the best!

There are hundred year old houses, townhouses like ours, and brand new builds. Some of the trees were planted last year, and others have been here a long, long time. Heritage tree number 241, a Japanese maple, has probably been in the front yard of this house since it was built in the 1920s.

Because of how closely the trees and houses are spaced, winter, when the trees are bare, is the only time to get a picture of it.

Sunnyside was started in the 1890s as a trolley car neighborhood. Folks would live here, a few miles from the mud and stink of downtown, and be able to take the newly installed trolley cars to work.

Back then, the houses and lots were bigger.

As the city became more crowded, newer houses were built in between the original ones. Each was built in its own style. These three very different houses stand within two blocks of each other.

There are some industrial buildings that are being up-cycled, as well. Jacob’s Garage, which housed the trucks for the Belmont Dairy, is now a set of very cool condominiums, having kept its brick-Ish charm.

Every walkabout shows us new things! As flowers come up and trees leaf out, some of the hard lines are masked and softened, but the architecture of the turn of the century is still here if you know how to look.

Besides, where else can you find a tiny free library right next to a dinosaur-infested dogwood tree?

I can’t wait to share it with you!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Answers to Questions

Dear Liza,

Do you know what my favorite thing is?
Learning stuff!

For months now, I have seen and photographed this interesting, tree covered blue building going up right beside the Morrison Bridge. I see it everytime I take the bus to downtown. I even walked right by it when we went under the bridge.

Well, there was a news story yesterday that helped answer lots of questions.

Profile, showing how close the Morrison Bridge is!

Q. Who is building it? The architect is Ben Carr.

Q. Does it have a name? The building is called The Tree Farm.

Q. What kind of trees are they? How will they be watered?
They called Strawberry Trees, though their scientific name is arbutus unedo. This kind of tree only gets to be ten feet high or so, and they are watered by individually controlled drip irrigation systems that allow for different watering needs depending on the side of the building, the floor of the building, and what the weather is like.

Q. How will the building support the trees as they get bigger? The framework of the building has been designed to support the extra 2,200 pounds that each tree is expected to weigh.

Q. Why was this building put here, in industrial Southeast Portland? This part of the city used to be factories and lumber mills. It is now warehouses and train yards, and has almost no trees at all. This building adds 56 trees, which will not only be pretty, but help clean the air and make habitats for birds. Also, when the people inside the building look out the window, they will look out over a canopy of trees instead of just freeways and rail yards.

Pretty neat, huh?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Architecture, History, and Beer

Dear Liza,

Last week I took the good old number 14 downtown to the Oregon Historical Society. The weather was a cold but clear, and everything looked so pretty!

As I get to know more about the architecture of Portland, I recognize certain styles of decoration. One of my favorite architects of Portland is A. E. Doyle. He designed the Central Library and the Bank of California building, as well as dozens of others, working in Portland from 1907 to his death in 1928.

Mr. Doyle used fired ceramic details to give his buildings a lovely artistic look, delicate against the dark stone or brick. It has stayed bright because of the glaze and reflects even the smallest bit of sunlight.

After admiring old and new buildings, I looked for more details for my story about 1903. How many synagogues were there? (Three). Was Jiggs Parrot’s father’s music store still open? (Sadly, no.) was there mail service between Brownsville and Portland? (Yes, and telegraph service…but no phone lines until 1908). The more I write my story, the more I need to know.

When I needed a snack, I went down to the lobby to eat. No sticky fingers in the library! The current exhibit on the first floor is called……. and is all about the history of brewing in Oregon.

This isn’t really surprising. Portland is famous for all our different beers, and we have learned that the McMinamen Brothers helped change liquor laws here so that small brewers could be in business.

The exhibit had all sorts of things… buckets for bringing “suds” (beer) home from the tavern, old Blitz Weinhard bottles, and a video explaining the devastating effects seventeen years of Prohibition had on the beer industry. It turns out, some brewers, like Henry Weinhard, were able to stay in business making root beer and other soft drinks (this was actually the beginning of the soft drink industry).

There was a interactive display of the brewing process and recognition of Mr. Eckhardt, who taught the McMenamins all they know about beer. The displays were interesting and amusing, with the lights being large hop flowers.

The last exhibit was about the future of the brewing industry: Women! The Pink Boots Society works for education and inclusivity for women in the industry.

When it was almost 2 and I couldn’t put off lunch any more, I headed for the bus stop and home.

I spent a few hours putting the new information into the story, and found more things that are needed.

This whole writing process may take a while…

Love,

Grandma Judy

Gearing up for Christmas!

cat tree up .jpg — **Kitten showing proper respect for tree**

Dear Liza,

We have the house all decorated. Most of the presents are wrapped. Cookie strategies are being worked out. Christmas is coming!

This week your Great Aunt Christy and Cousin Kyle are coming all the way from Torrance to visit us. I am looking forward to showing them our lovely Laurelhurst Park, taking a bus downtown, and maybe even going to the Lights up at The Grotto.

kitten tree down2.jpg — **Baaaad kitten**

But first, there has been preparation. Our kitten Mouse has helped, of course….as kittens do. She left the main tree alone, but decided a smaller one was withing her grasp…and so she grasped it. Oh well, kitten, no harm done.

Last night we snuggled down with some Bargetto pinot noir gifted us by Auntie Bridgett’s Mom and watched my favorite Christmas movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol. It makes the often dark story very accessible, and I used it for years in my third grade classroom as a way of studying story outline. Besides that, Rizzo the rat cracks me up and Michael Caine is a fabulous Scrooge.

Today we are going to walk down to Hawthorne Street and look at some houses that are on the market….we aren’t ready to BUY yet, but we sure can look! We are figuring out which neighborhoods we like. So far, Belmont, Sunnyside, Kerns, and Richmond are on our radar, so we keep getting to know them.

Looking forward to seeing you next month!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Cloudy with a Chance of Legos

Dear Liza,

The grey has settled in pretty well today, a slow solid rain. Lucky for me, I have hot soup, fresh bread and music, and writing to you, to keep me company.

moss between cobbles.jpg — **Mossy cobblestones**

Now that almost all of the leaves are down, I am noticing the houses more. In summer, it sometimes felt like the houses were being eaten by their landscaping! 100 year old trees, bushes, fruit trees and annual bulbs exploded and covered everything with a heavy swath of green.

House through bare trees 1.jpg — **Noticing the houses**

But with the leaves, even the brilliant yellow ones, gone, the houses are emerging to be appreciated in their own right. Lovely pointy Victorians, square and true Craftsmans, even mid-century bungalows are coming into their own. It allows me to see the yards and shape of the houses and wonder which type of yard and house we will move into!

street sign through bare apples.jpg — **Bare naked Street Sign**

After a nice walk out, Grandpa Nelson and I met Auntie Katie and cousins Jasper and Kestrel at The Lego Minifigs place I told you about during the summer. We were there to have the kids choose a bag of Legos each as their gifts for Jasper ‘s birthday.

Actually, we offered Jasper two bags and he said Kestrel should get one of his.

I love that boy!

big lego dude.jpg — **Lego dude made out of Legos**

After an hour of hard choosing, including Auntie Katie finding a great book with design information and advice for the budding lego-engineer, we headed over to Blackbird Pizza for dinner and pinball. This nifty place is on the corner of 20th and Hawthorne, right next door to Dr. Locke’s House that I wrote about the other day, so Grandpa Nelson got to see the stepping stone.

Off to bed and dream of coming to see you!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Downtown again

Dear Liza,

Yesterday I went downtown to do some more research at the Oregon Historical Society Library. The ladies there were very helpful and I learned about the horse pulled and electric trolley car lines of 1880’s Portland.

Because the streets were so muddy before the days of storm drains and paving, street cars made getting around easier. They let the city grow and have room for more people. The lines ran north and south from downtown and east across the Willamette River, opening up East Portland for housing and businesses. I am glad they did, because that’s where we are living now. Except we take buses to get downtown.

There was rain this morning, but it cleared up and then didn’t rain again until afternoon. I enjoyed having some time to look around downtown. I like how the lovely old stone buildings and the shiny new ones seem to get along.

I also enjoyed a nice cool drink of water from one of the Benson Bubblers.There are 20 of these lovely drinking fountains in downtown Portland, and they run all day and all night, year round. There is no water shortage here in the rainy northwest like there is in California, so this isn’t a problem.

The bubblers were a gift to the city from Simon Benson, a man who came to Portland with nothing and ended up being very rich. He chopped trees, built buildings, and eventually owned a lot of land and even some banks. Being so successful, he wanted to give something nice to the city.

One thing he noticed was that, except for saloons and bars, there was no where to go to get a drink of water. This bothered him because once a man was in a saloon, he tended to order a beer or two, and wasn’t much use for the afternoon. He had the bubblers installed in downtown and people have been enjoying them ever since. People still drink beer, though. Sorry, Mr. Benson.

Mr. Benson did a lot of other good things with his money. He said that no rich man should die without giving some of his money away, and he wanted to give it away when he was still around to enjoy seeing the results. He donated $100,000 for a high school, now called Benson High School, on the east side of Portland. He donated some property in the Columbia Gorge, called Wakeenah Falls, to the city as a park.

Portland has many people who have been successful and donated nice things to the city. I will tell you about them as I come across their stories.

Love,

Grandma Judy