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Inventory Form
NR Nomination
Inventory Document

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:813-817 SW Alder St historic name:Woodlark Building
Portland, Multnomah County current/other names:
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:1N 1E 34
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):9.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1912 second date:1924 date indiv listed:08/08/2014
primary orig use: Business orig use comments:
second orig use: Business
primary style: Beaux Arts prim style comments:
secondary style: Late 19th/20th Amer. Mvmts: Other sec style comments:
primary siding: Brick:Other/Undefined siding comments:
secondary siding: Terra Cotta: Other/Undefined
plan type: architect:Doyle, Patterson & Beach
builder:Hurley-Mason Company
comments/notes:
9/15/2015 - Woodlark Building to join the Cornelius Hotel to become one building within 18 months. TZ.
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Portland Downtown Glazed Terra Cotta Buildings Thematic Grouping 1980
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 08/08/2014
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 03/01/1980
Gen file date: 10/28/2015
Special Assessment
Status Term End Yr
Active 1st  2025
Federal Tax Program
Status Start Compl
Complete 02/01/2016  2019
106 Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The Woodlark Building is located at the southwest corner of SW 9th and SW Alder streets, occupying all of Lot 3, Block 2, of the Portland Park Blocks. A nine-story steel and concrete-encased steel framed structure with brick and terra cotta veneer, the building is 50 x 100 feet in size. The Woodlark Building was designed by the Doyle, Patterson and Beach architectural firm in the early 20th century Commercial Style with strong Beaux Arts influence in the elaborate cornice and other detailing. The building was constructed by the Hurley-Mason Company. The developers and longtime occupant/owner was the Woodard, Clarke Drug Company. Construction began in November 1911 and the building was completed and ready for occupancy by August 1912. Originally occupied by a retail pharmacy, with related wholesale operations on the upper floors, the building was converted to office use in 1924.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Woodlark Building was completed in August 1912 as the home of the pioneer Portland drug and pharmacy concerns operated by Woodard, Clarke & Company and the Clarke-Woodward Drug Company. The building is among the earliest “skyscrapers” to be built in Portland’s Midtown Block area and helped to establish a center of medical offices in this area. Designed by the notable firm of Doyle, Patterson & Beach, the Woodlark Building has strong connections to the history of pharmacy in Oregon and remains an excellent example of the fireproof office buildings that were constructed west of the Portland’s traditional downtown during the expansion of the business district during the first quarter of the 20th century. The Woodlark Building is significant under Criterion A, for its association with the history of pharmacology in Oregon, and under Criterion C, as an exemplar of early fireproof high-rise design and construction in downtown Portland, both at a local level of significance.
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:City of Portland
Bibliography:
Abbot, Carl. The Great Extravaganza: Portland and the Lewis and Clark Exposition. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 1981. Bulletin of the Associated General Contractors (AGC). “Who’s Who in Construction,” March 1921. Druggists Circular. “Remarkable Growth of a Pioneer Drug Store,” March 1913. Falsetto, Paul. Portland’s Midtown Blocks. Portland, OR: Fletcher, Farr, Ayotte, PC, 2002. Ferriday, Virginia Guest. Last of the Handmade Buildings: Glazed Terra Cotta in Downtown Portland. Portland, OR: Mark Publishing Company, 1984. Gaston, Joseph. Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders. Chicago, IL: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1911. Griffenhagen, George & William C. Felter. The Oregon Trail of Pharmacy. Madison, WI: American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1952. Fulton, Ann. Mid-Town Blocks Reflect Portland’s Golden Age, a Historic Context Statement presented on January 28, 2001. Heritage Investments Corporation (John Tess). Stevens Building National Register Nomination, July 1997. Labbe, John T. Fares, Please! Those Portland Trolley Years. Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1980. Lansing, Jewel. Portland: People, Politics, and Power 1851-2001. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2005. MacColl, E. Kimbark. The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1915 to 1950. Portland, OR: The Georgian Press, 1979. Nelson, Donald R. Midtown Blocks Historic Assessment. Portland, OR: Portland Bureau of Planning, Sept. 2004. Oregonian. Misc. issues as cited by date:page in text (includes both The Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian). Ritz, Richard Ellison. Architects of Oregon: A Biographical Dictionary of Architects Deceased, 19th and 20th Centuries. Portland, OR: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. Sonnedecker, Glenn, ed. Kremers & Urdang’s History of Pharmacy, 4th Edition, revised. Philadelphia, PA: J.P. Lippincott Company, 1976. State of Oregon. [Oregon] Bluebook and Official Directory 1913-1914. Salem, OR: State Printing Department, 1914. Who’s Who in Oregon. Who’s Who in Oregon, Vol. 1, 1929-1930. Oregon City, OR: Oregon City Enterprise, 1929.