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NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:2075 SE Palmblad Rd historic name:Ott, David and Marianne, House
Gresham, Multnomah County current/other names:
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:building height (stories):1.0 total elig resources:2 total inelig resources:5
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1952 second date: date indiv listed:04/20/2015
primary orig use: Single Dwelling orig use comments:
second orig use: Horticultural Facility
primary style: Northwest Regional prim style comments:
secondary style: sec style comments:
primary siding: Horizontal Board siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: Ranch w/Garage architect:John Storrs
builder:Darrel Walton
comments/notes:
Wood windows, wood siding, form appears to be original, possibly architect designed. Large structure to east is being preliminarily evaluated as contributing, but that structure should be re-evaluated if encountered in a subsequent survey as only the east facade seen from the ROW. Another wood shed is located to the south of the house, it matches the house in materials and design.
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Gresham 2016-Mt. Hood Neighborhood Selective RLS Survey & Inventory Project 2017
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 04/20/2015
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 10/04/2016
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The David and Marianne Ott House, located at 2075 SE Palmblad Road, is southeast of downtown Gresham, Multnomah County, Oregon in a semi-rural area. Completed in 1952, the Northwest Regional style house was erected along the eastern edge of the tax lot, and faces east along SE Palmblad Road. The house is on a 2.81-acre parcel with several auxiliary structures erected along the edges of the level site, allowing most of the property to be used for agricultural operations. The 1,668 square foot, single-story residence is a wood-framed structure with vaulted ceilings, and a post-and- beam framed floor over a crawl space. The house is sided with historic preservative-treated, but otherwise unfinished, horizontal fir boards and vertical battens installed on a 3’-0” grid pattern that aligns with the building’s planning grid. Windows are wood framed utilizing the direct glazing method for the larger fixed units and operable sashes for smaller units. The residence has composition shingles on the sloped roof and a concrete foundation. The Ott house’s interior walls are finished with natural hemlock siding, and painted gypsum board on the ceilings between exposed wood beams. Original hardware and light fixtures are extant. The entry and living room are located as central volumes on the east facade. The garage, utility room, and kitchen are on the south facade facing and accessing the site’s utility structures. The private bedroom and bathing areas are on the north facade toward the privacy of the grove of trees. A 1970s addition was made to the original northwest corner of the house that included reusing the interior and exterior wood siding, and extending the ridgeline (the original walls and openings were retained). The front of the garage was later extended eastward 3’-0”. That addition retained the original framing. An ancillary shop building (contributing) constructed in 1958, is semi-attached by a breezeway to the house off the rear south corner. There are various non-contributing structures on the acreage that are located on the south side of the site that support the agricultural use of the property. These include tractor sheds, a boathouse, and greenhouses. Well-known architect John Storrs designed the house that was one of his first projects in the Northwest, and his only residence known to occur in a rural location associated with an agricultural use.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The David and Marianne Ott House, completed in 1952, is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level for its association with John W. Storrs, a master architect who practiced in Portland, Oregon, from 1949 until the late 1970s. The Ott House is significant, as it represents one of Storrs’ earliest known residential designs in a unique location on a level, rural parcel, and as the only known example of a grid design that demonstrates his versatility and skill that led him to be one of the Northwest’s leading architects. The Ott House reflects many of the main tenets of the Northwest Regional style, such as an unobtrusive presence on the site, the use of fine natural wood siding at the interior, and how the site is ‘brought indoors’ through careful space planning and use of glazing. The house additionally incorporates unique touches contributed by Storrs, including an elegant main living space within a modest-sized home, treated, but otherwise rustic and unfinished tongue-and-groove exterior siding with battens, and innovative lighting. Storrs was able to maintain his core beliefs of beauty, perfection, form, order, simplicity, and a sense of personal belonging in his work and adapt them to his changing architectural commissions. The Ott House was a home that Storrs greatly valued as evidenced by his desire to revisit the property at various times until shortly before his death. Marianne Ott, the current owner, has lived in the home from the time it was constructed for her and her husband David. Since the original construction there have been various site improvements, and utility structures added to support the farm business work and to maintain the property. Most of these are distinct from the house design. There have been relatively few changes to the house and its original construction or finishes. The necessary alterations were sensitive additions to the original house, which is intact within. The Ott residence is notably intact for its age, and retains significant historic integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.
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:University of Oregon
Historical Society: Other Respository:City of Gresham
Bibliography:
Armstrong, John, “John Storrs: Avant-Garde Architect, Storrs Leads His Own Parade,” Northwest Magazine, December 16, 1979. Belz, Kristin, "John Storrs, Modernist," Portland Monthly, January 20, 2013. Binheim, Max, ed., “Gerke, Florence Holmes.” U.S. Women of the West. CA: Publisher’s Press, 1928. Bosker, Gideon, and Lena Lencek, Frozen Music. Portland, OR: Western Imprints, 1985. City of Gresham, “Significant Tree Inventory.” Findings from November 26, 2012 meeting, Gresham, Oregon. Clark, Rosalind, Oregon Style: Architecture from 1840s to the 1950s. Portland, OR: Professional Book Center, 1983. Clausen, Meredith. Pietro Belluschi, Modern American Architect. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994. Creighton, Thomas H., Frank G. Lopez, Charles Magruder, and George A. Sanderson “Homes,” Progressive Architecture. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp, 1947. “David Ott,” (obituary), Gresham Outlook Newspaper, July 9, 1986. Dortignacq, Robert, AIA. On file: Dortignacq Architecture, Portland, Oregon. “Florence Gerke” (obituary), Eugene Register Guard, August 26, 1964. Forester, Steve “John Storrs, Architect,” Willamette Week, August 18, 1975. Giedion, S., ed., A Decade of Contemporary Architecture. New York: George Wittenborn, Inc., 1954. Gordon, Walter, “My Recollections of John Yeon and Pietro Belluschi,” Architalk, 199). Gragg, Randy, “Remembering John Storrs, The Structure of a Life,” The Oregonian, September 3, 2003. Hennessey, William J., ed., “America’s Best Small Houses,” The American Home Magazine. New York: Viking Press, 1949. Heritage Investment Corporation, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form - Portland Garden Club. Salem, OR: State Historic Preservation Office, April 2005. Lindstrom, David, “David and Marianne House, An Owner Request for a Property to Receive a Historical Designation,” Historic Resource Sub Committee, City of Gresham, Oregon, June 2013. Meeker, Richard, “John Storrs Architect,” Willamette Week, August 18, 1975. Multnomah County. Division of Assessment, Recording, and Taxation Office. Portland, Oregon. Ott, Marianne, Collection of architectural drawings of the Ott House and construction receipts, Gresham, Oregon. Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. Historic Sites Database. John Storrs entries. , accessed November 2014. “Open Planning in the Contemporary Style, Allows Change of Living Pace,” The Oregonian Farm, Home, and Garden Section, July 13, 1952. Pacific Northwest Magazine, January/February 1986. Ritz, Richard Ellison. Architects of Oregon: A Biographical Dictionary of Architects Deceased—19th and 20th Centuries. Portland, OR: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. Storrs, John. Interview with Charles Digregorio. Transcribed interview, Oregon Historical Society. August 2, 1978. US Army Corps of Engineers. Portland District, Aerial Photography Department. Portland, OR. Vaughan, Thomas, and Virginia Guest Ferriday, eds. Space, Style and Structure: Building in Northwest America. 2 vols. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. Yeon, John, “Three Beautiful Houses,” House & Home, April 1954. Interviews Dortignacq, Robert. Interview with Elwyn Kinney, contractor for John Storrs. Personal Interview. Tigard, Oregon. July 9 and 24, 2014. Dortignacq, Robert and David Lindstrom. Interview with Marianne Ott, owner of the Ott House. Personal Interview. Gresham, Oregon. July 10, 2014 and August 2014. Dortignacq, Robert. Interview with Wallace K. Huntington and Craig Kiest, landscape architects. Personal Interview. Portland, Oregon. July 23, 2014. Dortignacq, Robert and Sally Donovan. Interview with Val C. Ballestrem, Education Manager, Architectural Heritage Center, Portland, Oregon. Phone Interview and email correspondence. Portland, Oregon. July and August 2014. Lindstrom, David. Gresham Historic Resource Sub Committee. Interview with Marianne Ott, Gresham, Oregon, June 3, 2013. Drawings Ott, Marianne. Original Ott house drawings sheets 1-9. Personal collection of owner, Gresham, Oregon. University of Oregon. John Storrs architectural collection. University of Oregon, Special Collections, Eugene, Oregon.