Oregon Historic Sites Database

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Inventory Form
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:1125 SW 12th Ave historic name:Hanthorn Apartments
Portland, Multnomah County current/other names:
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:1S 1E 4
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):6.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1910 second date: date indiv listed:08/25/2014
primary orig use: Multiple Dwelling orig use comments:
second orig use:
primary style: Late 19th/20th Amer. Mvmts: Other prim style comments:
secondary style: Commercial (Type) sec style comments:
primary siding: Brick:Other/Undefined siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:Goodrichm King & Goodrich
builder:
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, MPD MPS 08/11/2004 2004
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 08/25/2014
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
Gen file date: 06/20/2012
Federal Tax Program
Status Start Compl
Complete 07/01/2013  2014
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The Hanthorn Apartments is located at 1125 SW 12th Avenue in downtown, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon. Specifically, it is located on Lot 3 of Block E in the City of Portland. The six-story apartment building is sited within an urban setting surrounded by buildings of a similar use and many of a similar vintage. The building occupies a 50-foot wide by 100-foot deep interior lot and faces east onto 12th Avenue. Designed by Goodrich, King, and Goodrich, the building features a dramatic front façade of tan brick with matching mortar, complemented by a contrasting darker tan brick water-table and lower level belt course, by russet-colored cast stone trim and upper floor belt courses, and by black decorative metal balcony rails. The interior floor plan is largely consistent. Floors two through six are essentially identical with ten apartments organized around a double-loaded east-west corridor that includes a full height, classically detailed, open wood stair. The first floor (or ground floor) has apartments but also includes a meeting room and laundry. In the 1980s, the building was closed by the City for code violations. It was then acquired by the current owners and modernized as affordable housing sponsored by a HUD (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development) program. Exterior alterations included replacement of the eight-over-one window sashes with one-over-one sashes and new commercial grade balcony doors. Interior alterations included system upgrades, installation of a new elevator and modification of the apartment units to increase the number of units per floor from eight to ten. The property was recently modernized again using historic tax credits. Alterations included new energy efficient window sashes, new wood-clad balcony doors, and system upgrades.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The 1910 Hanthorn Apartments is located in downtown Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon. It is significant locally within the context of the updated multiple-property submission (MPS), “Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, 1906-1914." The building is eligible for listing under National Register Criterion A, Community Development, as part of the collection of buildings that redefined downtown Portland. In particular, it illustrates the transition of rental multi-family housing from a design evoking values of a single family home to one that ultimately became commonplace by mid-decade and into the 1920s. This common paradigm includes a building without storefronts, built to the lot lines, organized in an “L” or “U” shape, with plans for both units and floors that are consistent from floor to floor. It also reflected the rise of amenities as an important ingredient to apartment living. The Hanthorn Apartments meet both the general and specific registration requirements of the MPS and is specifically cited in the MPS as a resource for inclusion.
RESEARCH INFORMATION
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:Local government
Bibliography:
Cromley, Elizabeth Collins. Alone Together: A History of New York’s Early Apartments. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1990). Ferriday, Virginia Guest, et. al. Historic Resources Inventory of Portland. Portland, OR: City of Portland, 1984. Groth, Paul. Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. MacColl, E. Kimbark. The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1915-1950. Portland, OR: The Georgian Press, 1979. Polk’s Portland, Oregon City Directory. Portland, OR: R. L. Polk & Co., 1909-1982 Ritz, Richard E., FAIA, Architects of Oregon. Portland, OR: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. (Boston: MIT Press, 1983). Other Sources City of Portland, Office of Planning & Development Review, microform and card files. Heritage Consulting Group. Historic Portland research files. “Morgan Building” files and “Middle Class Apartment Buildings in East Portland.” Multnomah County Tax Assessor Records. The Oregonian, February 4, 2013, August 10, 1904, February 11, 1907, July 1909, October 1, 1909, November 12, 1910, December 21, 1910, December 25, 1910, December 12, 1911, September 1, 1912, August 31, 1924, July 18, 1926, May 3, 1936, August 21, 1955 and August 21, 1981. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Portland, Oregon. Volume 2 (1901 and 1909)