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Oregon Historic Sites Database

address:4420 SE 64th Ave historic name:Arleta Branch Library
Portland, Multnomah County current/other names:Wikman Building
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:1S 2E 8
resource type:Building height (stories):1.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1918 second date:1973 date indiv listed:03/15/2016
primary orig use: Library orig use comments:
second orig use: Professional
primary style: Late 19th/20th Period Revivals: Other prim style comments:
secondary style: Colonial Revival sec style comments:
primary siding: Brick:Other/Undefined siding comments:
secondary siding: Wood:Other/Undefined
plan type: architect:Folger Johnson
builder:McHolland Brothers
comments/notes:
Building now houses a division of the Portland police. Vacant since July 2011, the county has declared the building surplus December 2011 and plans to sell it. There is interest from a local group who is trying to raise the money to buy the building to serve as a community center of some kind. 1/14 Building listed for sale to general public. 10/14: Building bought by private developer who is looking to list on NR and do tax incentives. JES
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Women's History Sites Thematic Grouping 2012
NR date listed: 03/15/2016
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
106 Project(s)
SHPO Case Date Agency Effect Eval
07/09/2001 No Adverse Effect
Federal Tax Program
Status Start Compl
Dormant  
Special Assess Project(s): None
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
Building is associated with Lea Wikman, a local community activist and volunteer, died in the 1980s. Constructed in 1918 using Carnegie Corporation grant funds, the Colonial Revival-style Arleta Branch Library, more recently known as the Wikman Building, was designed by well-known Portland architect Folger Johnson. The one-story, irregularly-shaped building is located at 4420 S.E. 64th Avenue in southeast Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon. Situated on a flat urban lot on the northeast corner of SE 64th Avenue and S.E. Holgate Boulevard, the 5,665-square-foot building occupies nearly all of its .18-acre, 80’ x 100’ lot, with the main facade fronting west onto S.E. 64th Avenue and the secondary facade facing south to Holgate Boulevard. The wood frame structural walls are faced in red brick, and the shallow-pitch hip roof has simple eave details and is crowned with a glazed cupola. The symmetrical fenestration pattern, centrally-placed public entrances on the west and south elevations, and hierarchy of classically-influenced ornament are all illustrative of the Colonial Revival style. The site has minimal landscaping that is composed primarily of two sycamore trees foundation plantings. The building retains a high degree of historical integrity, with exterior alterations limited to removal of the original wood railing along the roofline, the addition of an accessibility ramp and some interior alterations made after the building’s tenure as a library. Because it is no longer used as a library, the Arleta Branch Library building may have lost some integrity of association and feeling. However, it is located on its original lot, and the building’s historic integrity in the areas of setting, design, materials and workmanship are all clearly evident, allowing it to effectively convey its overall historic design, appearance, and function.
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The 1918 Arleta Branch Library is locally significant under National Register Criterion A in the areas of Education and Social History for its association with and illustration of the public library ideals and systems that were in force during the early twentieth century. Utilizing grant funds from the Carnegie Corporation, this is one of thirty-one Carnegie libraries built in Oregon, and one of seven built in the Portland area during the 1910s and early 1920s. Its Colonial Revival style is typical of this period of architecture in general, as well as being reflective of the guidelines set forth by the Carnegie Corporation with regard to library design specifically. Designed by Portland architect Folger Johnson and built by local contractors the McHolland Brothers in 1918, the Arleta Branch Library was the sixth Carnegie library to be constructed as part of the Library Association of Portland’s (now Multnomah County’s) branch library system. The surrounding neighborhood enjoyed the Arleta Branch both as a source of educational enrichment and as a community meeting place until 1971, when the Arleta and Lents libraries were merged and housed in the newly-constructed Holgate Library. The Library Association of Portland sold the building in 1973 to Multnomah County, who converted the building to a new commercial/office use. The years during which the building served as a library form the period of significance, 1918 to 1971. During this period the library apparently underwent few, if any, alterations to the interior or the exterior; the changes evident today were made after the building was sold and converted from library to office use. Mid- to late twentieth-century alterations to the exterior and the interior of the building do not detract from its associative significance under Criterion A, and it continues to clearly reflect its original design and function.
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society:Oregon Historical Society Other Respository:
Bibliography:
Abbott, Carl. Portland: Gateway to the Northwest. Northridge, California: Windsor Publications, 1985. Bobinski, George. Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development. Chicago: American Library Association, 1969. Carnegie Corporation of New York. “A Short History of Carnegie Corporation’s Library Program,” Carnegie Corporation of New York website, Accessed June 2015. Carter, Liz. “South/North Corridor Project, Historic Context Statement.” Appendix A for the Historic, Archaeological and Cultural Resources Impacts (Section 106) Results Report. Portland: Metro, November 1997. Metro publication number 1997-10238-TRN. Clark, Rosalind. Architecture Oregon Style. Portland: Professional Book Center, Inc., 1983. Dotterrer, Steven. “Railroad Era: Cities and Towns,” Space, Style and Structure: Building in Northwest America. Edited by Thomas Vaughan and Virginia Guest Ferriday. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. Evans-Hatch, Gail and D. Michael Evans-Hatch. “The Development of Sellwood-Moreland: History Context Statement of the Sellwood-Moreland Neighborhood, Portland, Oregon.” Portland, Oregon: Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League, May 1999. Gunselman, Cheryl. “Pioneering Free Library Service for the City, 1864-1902: The Library Association of Portland and the Portland Public Library,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 103, No. 3 (Fall 2002), pp. 320-337. Harrison, Michael, Chief Planner. “Foster Powell Neighborhood Plan.” City of Portland Bureau of Planning. March 1996. Hawkins, William J. III and William F. Willingham. Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon: 1850-1950. Portland: Timber Press, 1999. Hummel, Penny. “Making the library be alive: Portland’s librarian, Mary Frances Isom.” Portland: Multnomah County, Library, December 2009. Johnson, Brian. Personal communication with author. January-April 2015. Brian Johnson is Folger Johnson’s grandson. Johnson, Folger. Architectural drawings for Arleta Branch Library. February-May 1918. Copies made available by current owner. Labbe, John T. Fares Please! Those Portland Trolley Years. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1980. LaViolette, Alice. “Original Locations of all 32 Carnegie Libraries in Oregon.” Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library, August 2012. Library Association of Portland. “Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Library Association of Portland, Oregon.” Portland, Oregon, 1918. MacColl, E. Kimbark. Merchants, Money and Power: The Portland Establishment 1843-1913. Portland: The Georgian Press, 1988. The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1885 to 1915. Portland, Oregon: Georgian Press Co., 1976. McMath, George. “Railroad Era: Lewis and Clark Exposition,” Space, Style and Structure: Building in Northwest America. Edited by Thomas Vaughan and Virginia Guest Ferriday. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. Mickle, Liza and Nicholas Starin, Portland City Planners. “East Portland Historical Overview & Historic Preservation Study.” City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. Revised March 2009. Multnomah County, Oregon. Geographic Information Systems website. Accessed Jun 2015. Multnomah County, Oregon. “Multnomah County Library Administrative History.” nd. Accessed March 2015. Multnomah County, Oregon. “The Wikman Building/Arleta Library Surplus Report.” December 2011. Accessed March 2015. Multnomah County (Oregon) Library. “Central Library History.” Accessed May 2015. “Holgate Library History.” Accessed May 2015. Oregon, State of. “Oregon Library Laws - History,” Library Support and Development Services, Oregon State Library website. Accessed May 2015. Phillips, Steven J. Old House Dictionary. Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1992. Polk, R.L. Portland City Directories. 1908-1912, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1921. Portland Oregonian Newspaper (including Morning Oregonian and Sunday Oregonian) 1903 October 28, Classified Advertisements, “Laurelwood,” page 8. 1903 November 1, Classified Advertisements, “Laurelwood,” page 24. 1903 November 8, Classified Advertisements, “Laurelwood,” page 24. 1906 February 28, “New Books for Library,” page 16. 1909 January 24, “Notes of the Portland Public Library,” section 2, page 10. 1909 January 27, “Will Open Library [at Arleta Station],” page 9. 1909 January 31, “Notes of the Portland Public Library,” section 4, page 10. 1912 June 2, “Public Library Notes,” page 16. Note regarding relocation of Arleta Branch Library. 1912 July 7, “City News in Brief / “Arleta Library Holds Open Meeting,” page 5. Also a note announcing Gresham’s plans for a Carnegie-funded library. 1913 September 28, “Social Center is Opened at Arleta,” page 12. 1913 December 15, “City News in Brief/Arleta Library Grows,” page 7. 1917 October 29, “Campaign to Begin” (includes photo of St. Johns Branch Library), page 10. 1918 February 10, “Arleta Will Have Carnegie Library,” page 59. 1918 September 13, “Arleta Library in New Building,” page 11. 1921 December 15, “Arleta Library Praised...,” page 7. Ritz, Richard Ellison. Architects of Oregon. Portland, Oregon: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. Scheppke, Jim. “Carnegie Libraries in Oregon,” Oregon Encyclopedia Website. (Portland, Oregon: Portland State University and the Oregon Historical Society, 2014). Accessed December 2014. -----. “Public Library Buildings in Oregon: A Historical Sketch,” Oregon Library Association Quarterly Vol. 15 No. 3 (July 2014), pp 8-11. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Forms. Available from Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Historic Sites Database . Accessed March-May, 2015. Beckner, Chrisanne. “Oregon City Carnegie Library.” 2014. Donovan, Sally. “Umatilla County Library.” 1997. Fitzgerald, Kim. “Gresham Carnegie Library.” 2000. Kramer, George. “Willamette River Highway Bridges of Portland, Oregon.” 2012. Staehli, Alfred. “Central Building, Public Library.” 1979. Zisman, Karen, et al. “Portland Oregon’s Eastside Historic and Architectural Resources, 1850-1938,” Multiple Property Documentation Form. 1988. Revised 2012. Van Slyck, Abigail A. Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Zisman, Karen, et al. Portland’s Eastside: Historic Context 1850-1938. Revised from Portland Oregon’s Eastside Historic and Architectural Resources Multiple Properties National Register nomination, 1988.