Portland’s legendary architects were busy during the Roaring Twenties, designing estates for powerful bank presidents, timber barons and others who had the means to erect a trophy mansion.
Architect Morris H. Whitehouse was one of the dynamic players. His firm, founded in 1907, continued under his successors for 80 years, making it the longest operating architectural office in the state, according to the Oregon Historical Society.
Whitehouse’s projects helped to established Portland’s reputation for timeless, traditional design, especially his residences for the city’s most influential families.
His name still has cachet and is included in real estate listings.
One of Whitehouse’s residential projects, a stately English Arts and Crafts-style house, on an elevated cul-de-sac shared by only two other homes in Northwest Portland’s Kings Heights neighborhood, is for sale.
The asking price: $5,995,000.
“Masterfully reimagined for modern living,” says broker Marcia Walsh of (W)here real estate, who with (W)here broker Catherine Kelley shares the listing of the 0.82-acre property at 3001 N.W. Luray Circus.
The 93-year-old mansion, with its steeply pitched roof set against a forested backdrop, seems like the setting of a Hollywood movie representing the past. And yet, open the front door to see contemporary furnishings fronting an expansive bay of windows, arched entries under wide, white-painted crown molding, and new-style chandeliers in the foyer and dining room.
The updated kitchen has wood-stained cabinets on one wall, black-painted drawers and cabinets with display shelves on another wall, and a mix of the two styles on a third wall, as if installed over time.
Desired by most every homeowner: Throughout the main level are hardwood floors, high ceilings and views of the city, Willamette and Columbia rivers, and the Cascade Range’s Mount Hood, Saint Helens, Rainier and Adams.
Grand in any decade: Black railings line the staircase and second-level hallway. The four fireplaces are topped by white mantels and French doors open to the outside.
Across three stories is 8,971 square feet of living space.
The lower level is dedicated to entertaining with a game room as well as seating in front of side-by-side sets of double French doors that open to a patio, pool area and landscaped grounds.
“A truly remarkable property like nothing you’ve ever seen,” says Walsh, who told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com that she thinks people wanting to live with extended family or “who want their home to be kid central” would like the property.
“Or someone who just loves to entertain and loves the grand and historic nature and the views, and who really needs and wants privacy,” she says.
The house has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a powder room. There is also guest quarters and a four-car garage.
1930 estate in Northwest Portland’s Kings Heights designed by architect Morris H. Whitehouse is for sale at $6 million.(W)here real estate
A century ago, the property on Luray Circus was owned by the Boston Investment Company and in 1926, architect Whitehouse was hired by investors to build an estate in the new Westover Terrace area.
The land had recently been developed and platted, following the filling of Guild’s Lake in the early 1920s, according to broker and architectural historian Harrison Whitmarsh of Eleete Real Estate.
“Here, with the support of [Whitehouse’s] associates, architects A. Glenn Stanton and Walter E. Church, the house was built from 1927 to 1930,” says Whitmarsh.
Rather than designing in the era’s popular Colonial Revival style, Whitehouse was inspired by the English Arts and Craft movement as refined by Portland architects Joseph Jacobberger, Wade Pipes and others.
“Most notably the design pays homage to Herman Brookman, who was building estates in this very specific blend of styles all over Portland,” says Whitmarsh. “Whitehouse was showing that he could not just participate in this style, but master it.”
Over the home’s history, there have been several owners, including a descendent of plywood inventor Thomas J. Autzen, the main benefactor of University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium, and a descendent of Hoffman Construction Company founder Lee Hawley Hoffman.
Lee Hoffman graduated with a degree in architecture from Harvard in 1906, returned to Portland and worked at Morris H. Whitehouse’s architectural firm in 1908.
In 1922, Hoffman started the Hoffman Construction Company, which has expanded iconic structures such as the Portland Art Museum and, in 2017, the Portland Japanese Garden.
Today, property taxes for 3001 N.W. Luray Circus are about $71,000 a year.
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman
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