Architectural Heritage Center’s Heritage Home Tour (this Saturday) spans five decades of fine design

By Zack Semke

The tour, sponsored by Hammer & Hand, will feature five exemplars of Portland’s residential design heritage.

The Architectural Heritage Center’s second annual Heritage Home Tour runs this Saturday, July 30, 2011, from 10am to 4pm.  Tickets are still available: www.visitahc.org, 503.231.7264, or 701 SE Grand Ave (Portland).

It’s the Tour’s second year, and Hammer & Hand’s second year as lead sponsor for the event.  (Check out this blog post about the four reasons the tour is relevant today.)  Saturday’s tour showcases five homes spanning five decades of residential architecture in Portland:

  1. a 1916 Colonial Revival by Boston architect Charles Coolidge.
  2. a 1900 Colonial Revival that belonged to Portland’s first Superintendent of Public Schools.
  3. a 1906 Arts & Crafts by local architect Emil Schacht.
  4. a 1926 Tudor Revival designed by Joseph Jacobberger.
  5. the 1948 Belluschi House designed by the famed Portland modernist Pietro Belluschi.

One of the perks of being a sponsoring organization is that we get a sneak peek at the featured homes before the tour actually takes place.  Last Sunday, Hammer & Hand’s Kevin Guinn attended the pre-tour, and he shared a couple highlights with me.

Of the Belluschi House:

“It’s so unique and so amazing, both the house itself and its siting.  The house has a breathtaking view of Mount Hood with floor to ceiling windows, simple fir finish, and woven fir ceilings in the bedrooms.  It’s just glorious … yet completely nondescript from the street.

“It was very interesting to have Belluschi’s son, Tony, be the tour guide and talk about the broad-stroke design plans that he and his dad worked out for the evolving needs of Tony and his family.  And the jewel-like tea house out back is gorgeous.”

Of the 1906 Arts & Crafts home:

“The Arts & Crafts house is so big and so imposing, sitting on Cornell staring out over Portland.  It’s a really powerful house, a ‘home run’ in the Arts & Crafts style.”

Please join Sam Hagerman and me this Saturday for the Tour.  It’ll should be a beautiful day for beautiful architecture.

– Zack

P.S. I’ll be taking my camera along for the tour, and will share photos next week.

Back to Field Notes