Vestige of buggy era yielding to apartments
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Fred Leeson
The Oregonian
One of the last vestiges of Portland's horse-and-buggy era will give way soon to a nine-story apartment building in the Pearl.
A Seattle investment team plans to demolish what remains of a former horse stable at Northwest Hoyt Street and Park Avenue. Little remains of the original red-brick stable, and the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission -- usually an aggressive defender of old buildings -- isn't bemoaning its loss.
"It's a good replacement for something that none of us is very fond of," Commissioner Richard Engeman says of the redevelopment plan.
The old stable, built in 1909, sits on the northeast corner of the Honeyman Hardware block, named for the wholesale distribution company that occupied it for more than half a century. Two other buildings on the block have been converted to retail and residences; they'll be connected to the proposed new apartments.
Experts tried to learn about the stable, to little avail. "There's no documentation from the original building, and photography is horrible," says Mark Simpson, a Seattle architect working on the project. "We don't know what is original and what isn't. We don't even know where the main entry was."
Cars were already showing up on Portland streets when the stable opened as parking for horseback commuters. By 1912, the building was converted to a warehouse and years later into a parking garage.
In 1989, all three Honeyman block structures were converted to lofts, helping spark conversion of the old warehouse district into the trendy Pearl. A few lofts were added to the roof of the stable, giving it what John Baymiller, a Pearl resident and architect, calls a "shantytown" effect.
An early plan for the new apartment building included a major portion of the remaining stable wall, which appears to contain bricks of several vintages. "We were real clear the wall could go away," says Peter Meijer, a landmarks commissioner.
Still, Simpson plans to include a sliver of the old brick as part of a 550-square-foot plaza that would honor the stable's history. What to put in it? Plaques and maybe a horse-trough water fountain and some hoof prints. Brass horse heads?
"You've got to be careful about not getting tacky or kitschy," says Simpson, who is asking the landmarks commission for suggestions. "We don't want to be silly about it."
The new building is the first of several dramatic changes looming on the Pearl's eastern fringe. One block away, the Pacific Northwest College of Art hopes to revamp the old Federal Building at 511 N.W. Broadway. The parking lot behind it, across the street from the Honeyman block, is tagged to become an addition to the North Park Blocks.
To the north, planners and developers are salivating over a 12-block site that now serves as the city's main U.S. Post Office. The Postal Service hopes, eventually, to move closer to Portland International Airport.
The changes should provide interesting views for tenants in the new apartment building.
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I'd be more into it if that side had an open courtyard with greenery instead of what looks like a one-story wall to the street.
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