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Inventory Form
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:850 NE 81st Ave historic name:German Baptist Old People's Home
Portland, Multnomah County current/other names:Baptist Home for the Aged; Baptist Manor
assoc addresses:823 NE 82nd Avenue
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:1N 2E 33
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):2.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1928 second date: date indiv listed:10/23/2020
primary orig use: Sanitarium orig use comments:
second orig use: Multiple Dwelling
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:
plan type: architect:J.W. Huget (1928), Howard L. Gifford (1941), Annand, Kennedy, and Boone (1950)
builder:
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Not associated with any surveys or groupings.
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 10/23/2020
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
Federal Tax Program
Status Start Compl
Complete 09/15/2018  2020
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 German Baptist Old People’s Home is located in Portland’s Montavilla Neighborhood and fronts NE 82nd Avenue—a busy commercial arterial road. The character of the surrounding neighborhood is one of single-family residences. The building is set back from the street and includes non-contributing landscaping on all four sides. With a total of 50,763 square feet, the building is two stories above a daylight basement. The home was constructed in phases in 1928, 1931, 1941, and 1950 and therefore has multiple wings creating a donut-shaped plan around a central courtyard. All wings were designed in the Colonial Revival style and the exterior appearance is homogenous both in terms of materials and stylistic elements. Character-defining features of the exterior include a concrete foundation, brick walls, wood windows and doors, a main entry portico, and a slate roof. Character-defining features of the interior include a double-loaded corridor with entry doors to the individual rooms, main wood staircase, and common area spaces like the dining room and chapel. The building has a high level of integrity on the exterior, retaining most of its original materials and features, except for an original circular driveway. The interior of the building has a moderate level of integrity, retaining the original plan type and some original materials and features.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The German Baptist Old People’s Home is locally significant under National Register Criterion A for social history as a retirement facility constructed beginning in 1928 to house elder German immigrants in Portland, Oregon. While other retirement homes existed in Portland, this facility is reflective of the German community’s initiatives to care for their elders around the turn of the 20th century. The act of supporting their seniors was one way in which German Americas furthered their cultural values and kept their community connected. The period of significance for the property starts in 1928 with the construction of the first wing and ends in 1950 with the construction of the fourth and final wing. The German Baptist Old People’s Home also meets Criteria Consideration A as a religious property that has significance due to its place in the social history of elder care. In the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, private elder care homes came about as a means of providing seniors with comfortable and dignified housing rather than spending their final years in the poorhouse. These facilities also provided meals, activities, social and religious connections, and varying degrees of caregiving and medical support. At the turn of the century, Germans made up the largest percentage of Portland and Oregon’s foreign-born population. They were an organized and enterprising ethnic group that supported a German-language press, numerous social clubs, and immigrant churches. In the 1920s, Portland had one of the largest German Baptist congregations in the United States and Canada—a religious group known for the emphasis they placed on retaining their use of the German language. One of the missions of the German Baptist church was to care for their local community and, in this era of emerging elder care, the church’s leadership decided to raise funds for a state-of-the-art elder care facility that would be planned for future expansion.
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: Other Respository:Property owner; US Department of Labor
Bibliography:
Baptist Home for the Aged. "Letter to Women's Missionary Society of Elk Grove." 18 September, 1950. Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910: Volume III – Population. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913. Haber, Carole. "The Old Folks At Home: The Development of Institutionalized Care for the Aged in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia." The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography CI, no. 2 (April 1977): 240-257. Haber, Carole, and Brian Gratton. Old Age and the Search for Security: An American Social History. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. Jonas, W. Glenn. The Baptist River: Essays on Many Tributaries of a Diverse Tradition. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2008. Kratt, Jacob. "The Oregon German Baptists." Baptist Home Mission Monthly (American Baptist Home Mission Society) 21 (1899): 95. Mattoon, Charles Hiram. Baptist Annals of Oregon: 1886-1910. Telephone Register Publishing Company, 1913. Oregonian. "Baptist Home Changes Name." July 13, 1968: 8. Oregonian. "Baptist Home for the Aged." April 20, 1950: 4. Oregonian. "Baptist Home Gains Okay." July 25, 1963: 22. Oregonian. "German Baptists to Open New Home for Old Folks." February 19, 1922: 9. Oregonian. "Home to Add Nursing Facility." December 14, 1967: 7. Oregonian. "Home to Be Dedicated." November 11, 1922: 9. Oregonian. "Open House Held." December 8, 1950: 21. Oregonian. "Tea Scheduled." June 30, 1956: 2. Ramaker, Albert John. The German Baptists in North America: An Outline of Their History. Cleveland: German Baptist Publication Society, 1924. R. L. Polk & Company. Medical and Surgical Register of the United States. R. L. Polk & Co: 1917. Schmalenberger, Roberta Lee. The German-Oregonians, 1850-1918. Portland: Portland State University, 1983. The Baptist Home Mission Monthly. "German Baptist Home for the Aged in Philadelphia." 1898: 336-337. These Glorious Years: The Centenary History of German Baptists of North America 1843-1943. Cleveland: Roger Williams Press, 1943. United States Department of Labor. Homes for the Aged in the United States. Bulletin No. 677. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1941. United States Department of Labor. The Care of Aged Persons in the United States. Bulletin no. 489. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1929. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Directory of Homes for the Aged in the United States. Bulletin no. 505. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1929. Von Skal, Georg. History of German Immigration in the United States and Successful German Americans and Their Descendants. New York: F. T. & J. C. Smiley, 1908. Woyke, Frank H. Heritage and Ministry of the North American Baptist Conference. Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois: North American Baptist Conference, 1979.