| STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
SUMMARY
The 1923 Campbell Court Hotel, located at 1115 SW 11th Avenue in Portland, Oregon, was designed by Herbert Gordon for E. Jean Campbell. It is eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion “C” under the Category of Architecture as a locally significant distinctive type of building, a superior example of the residential hotel. The building is being submitted under the umbrella of the Multiple Property Submission, “Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, 1919-1931,” and meets all of the registration requirements of that Multiple Property Submission. The building is listed in the City of Portland’s Inventory of Historic Resources, and in 2007 the National Park Service reviewed and approved a Part 1 – Evaluation of Significance application for the property.
HISTORY OF THE RESOURCE
The 1920s was a period of enormous population growth in the United States. In the years following the Great War, national population grew by 1.6 million annually, a growth rate of 10 percent. While birth rate and lowering mortality rates account for some of this, the overall increase was due to immigration. Paralleling the population growth was an increase in the per capita income spawned by international trade, new manufacturing technologies and new distribution systems. It was also a period of much-increased construction, pushed by labor stability, low building-material costs, and most importantly institutional changes in real estate financing. Specifically, real estate in the 1920s began to follow the installment practices of the automobile industry; whereas previously real estate finance typically required a 50 percent down payment, into the 1920s, that percentage dropped to 10 to 20 percent. This result was the development of single-user owner-occupied buildings such as theaters, social halls, retail stores, and churches.
These trends were mirrored in Portland. The city’s population grew by nearly seventeen percent in the 1920s while the economy fueled by lumber and wool exports boomed. This led to an enormous boom in construction: City-wide, building permits averaged 11,369 per year, peaking in 1922 with 14,512 with a value of $25 million. It was not uncommon to have nine to seventeen downtown construction projects per year. In 1923 alone there were fifteen. Typical of this new construction was the Telegram Building, Elks Temple, Heathman Hotel, Hippodrome Theater, Terminal Sales Building, and Public Service Building, to name just a handful.
It was in this era, in 1923, that Herbert Gordon designed and built a residential hotel for Jean Campbell called the Campbell Court. The parcel was at 11th Avenue and Main Street, to the west and south of the downtown core. At the time of construction, the surrounding neighborhood was largely single-family homes with churches interspersed.
In a very real sense, the Campbell Court was microcosm of the changing standards for the real estate industry. The architect, Herbert Gordon, was more of a developer than an architect. Indeed, Gordon had no professional architectural training whatsoever. As a developer, he had structured his business as an investment vehicle for others, whose money he then used. The property “owner” was the Campbell Court manager, Jean Campbell, who acquired the property on mortgage, to be funded by operating receipts.
Gordon was the President of Lawyers Title & Trust with offices in the Railway Exchange Building. Born in Aliston, Ontario (Canada) in 1873 he was raised in Eugene, Oregon. In 1907, he arrived in Portland at the age of 34. He entered the real estate business and in 1912 formed Lawyers Title & Trust. The firm was a vehicle for using other people’s money to invest in real estate. Along the way, Gordon also registered as an architect, though he did not have any professional training and did not attend college. Although he was reputed to be an active developer of hotels, apartments, and office buildings, only three buildings are known to be associated with him: The Campbell Court, the 1917 Granten Apartments (2129 SE 10th Avenue), and the 1925 Weitz Apartments (130 NW 19th Avenue). The Granten is a two-story, 7,000 square foot clapboard covered wood-frame apartment house at the corner of Grant Street and 10th Avenue just west of Ladd’s Addition. The design is very much in the genre of house as apartment building. By contrast, the Weitz, completed two years after the Campbell Court, is a traditional open “U” -shaped two-story (with daylight basement) unreinforced masonry apartment located where 19th Avenue intersects with Davis Street.
As active as Gordon was in real estate, so was E. Jean Campbell in residential hotel management. Campbell was born the same year as Gordon, in Paradise Valley, Nevada and arrived in Portland the same year as Gordon, 1907. She established a rooming house at 12th Avenue and Montgomery (now demolished), which she followed with the five-story Campbell-Hill Hotel (2255 W. Burnside), built in 1908 and designed by A. C. Ewart. Four years later, she established the Campbell Hotel (530 NW 23rd Avenue) also designed by A. C. Ewart for the Wright Investment Company. In 1920, she entered into a lease agreement with Gordon, by which he would design and build the Campbell Court Hotel, which she would then manage. It was this last venture in which she was best known for the Campbell Court, and which she operated until her retirement in 1944 at the age of seventy-one. She died in Portland in 1961 at the age of eighty-seven.
The design of the hotel was Georgian Revival. The Georgian Revival style gained popularity in the wake of the American Centennial and remained popular into the 1920s. The style places emphasis on symmetry, the use of classically-informed decorative elements, and rectangular, regular floor plans. Drawing its inspiration from the late Renaissance and the Enlightenment periods, it evokes associations with rationality, strength, prestige, and honor. Common elements found in Georgian Revival architecture include a strong reference to classical architecture, frequently employing the Greco-Roman temple portico as a major design element, overall symmetry, and regularity the style was frequently employed by architects who wished for their buildings to express a strong association with the ideals it evoked, such as educational buildings, exhibition halls, orchestral halls, and government buildings. During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, it was also favored by many individuals who wished to express a sense of tradition, distinction, class, and taste, and it was frequently used in finer homes and estates of the period.
The selection of the Georgian Revival style for the Campbell Court Hotel was a logical extension of the type of residential hotel it was meant to be, while the manner in which the style is applied illustrates the strategic interplay of image and economy. The stately façade, composed in combed red brick and featuring an impressive cast-stone engaged portico at the centered entrance, gives the outward impression of respectability and ‘class.’ It’s naturally highly ordered arrangement is conservative and elegant, as well as implying prosperity and refinement. Embellishments such as the regularly spaced projecting bays and parapet balustrade further enhance the impression of high style. Upon entering, the classically detailed lobby gives the sense of grandeur and being sunken below the level of the adjoining north and south corridors adds to the flavor of grandeur. Pillars carry capitals adorned with egg-and-dart detailing and medallions, and the coffered ceiling carries rich moldings. Upon close examination, the centered fireplace with its classically-inspired molding and travertine mantel, when combined with the views to the rear courtyard visible through the flanking pairs of French doors, creates the sense of a room far more opulent and expansive than it actually is. The dining room, located in the basement and accessed by a wide staircase off the north end of the lobby, also carries rich classical detailing, though somewhat diminished from the lobby. Yet, secondary spaces, the corridors and rooms, are themselves exceedingly simple and nearly devoid of decoration. Corridors feature simple baseboards and transoms above the single-panel doors to individual units. The units themselves are also very plain, with simple baseboards and window surrounds. All units, it their original configurations, were single rooms with a modest private bathroom.
The 133-room hotel opened in September, 1923 and quickly established “a tradition of good living and genteel laughter, of unmatched food and the service to go with it, of friendliness and aristocratic charm”. The operation was a family affair, with “Mrs. C’s” mother and sister helping and the hotel’s reputation was that of “one of the best addresses in Portland right up to World War II.” Parties hosted by Mrs. Campbell were not uncommon, everyone was expected to dress for dinner and bridge was a common post-dinner activity. The hotel was predominately residential; Mrs. Campbell only kept about a third of the rooms for overnight guests. The hotel did not advertise, but the rooms were filled by word of mouth, primarily among Christian Scientists. During World War II, the hotel was also a favorite among officers from the U. S. Navy.
In 1944, Ms. Campbell retired, and operation of the hotel passed to Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Dahlke. The Dalhkle’s continued the hotel’s tradition as established by Ms. Campbell, but post-war Portland followed national trends with the flight to the suburbs and the downward cycle of downtown living, and the fortunes of the Campbell Court Hotel entered into a slow decline.
In June, 1961, Multnomah College acquired the building as a girls’ dormitory. Multnomah College was a junior college located in the west end of downtown Portland. It had started as the educational department of the YMCA and at the time was the oldest accredited two-year college in the Pacific Northwest. The Campbell Court was the fourth major piece of property in its portfolio; the others included the former Beth Israel School at 1230 SW Main, an office building at 1022 SW Salmon and a now demolished four-story building at 1736 SW Alder. The school purchased the building for $275,000. It was intended to house up to three-hundred female students, bunking two to three girls per room. No major renovations were planned or implemented.
In 1969, the University of Portland in north Portland absorbed Multnomah College and its 750 students. As part of the real estate disbursement, the Campbell Court Hotel was sold to the Portland Women’s Union. The transaction was a complicated one executed by the Portland Development Commission (PDC) whereby PDC facilitated the transfer of the Portland Women’s Union housing to Portland State University in exchange for the Campbell Court Hotel.
The Portland Women’s Union was formed in 1887, with the goal of helping “self-supporting women to help themselves,” and to provide housing for “self-supporting young women, coming strangers to Portland.” To this end, among their first programs was the provision of housing for women and girls at a moderate cost. They operated a boarding house at 510 NW Flanders called Anna Lewis Hall for twenty years before acquiring the Martha Washington Hotel at 1802 SW 10th Avenue designed by A. E. Doyle and built in 1917. There it housed sixty “working girls,” thirty university students, and seventy technical school students. The Union also organized a night school for the “girls.”
Upon acquiring the Campbell Court, the Union hired the architectural firm of Newberry & Schuette to make modifications, including a ramp at the east front, infilling connecting doors between rooms, installation of a raised floor and reception counter at the south end of the lobby, and updating select bathrooms. The typical age range of residents was from eighteen to thirty, with the average length of stay nine months (and a limit of three years). Room and board cost three dollars and closing hour was 10 p.m. (with a “lights out” policy at 10:45 p.m.). Upon opening, the Campbell Court Hotel was renamed the Martha Washington Hotel (recalling the name of their former hotel located at 10th Avenue and Montgomery Street) and had 141 residents with a waiting list.
By 1981, members of the Portland Women’s Union began debating the future of the Martha Washington. A significant portion of the organization supported the sale of the Martha Washington and the use of the proceeds to establish a charitable foundation that could better aid needy women. Part of the challenge was the wide swings in occupancy in the building, from waiting lists to 40 percent vacancy. Then too, the rent range of $270 through $310 barely covered operating expenses and left many members believing that the organization’s goals could be better served if it got out of the business of managing housing. The controversy continued for nearly a year, with several votes until the decision to sell was made in March 1982.
In January, 1983, the Union sold the hotel to the Rajneesh Investment Corporation for $1.4 million. The Rajneesh Investment Corporation was the for-profit arm of the spiritual organization located in Antelope, Oregon headed by the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The intent of the Rajneesh Investment Corporation was to use one-third of the rooms to house its followers who worked at Rajneesh-owned businesses in downtown Portland and to lease the remaining two thirds to the public at a daily rate. The Corporation had no plans to renovate what was to be called “Hotel Rajneesh” and rates of room and board increased from $285 per month to almost $750, creating accommodation more in keeping with a bed and breakfast rather than apartment housing.
Multnomah County acquired the hotel in 1987 and opened a low-risk, 160-bed “restitution center.” In 1997, Multnomah County made minor renovations to the first-floor lobby, including the removal of the reception counter and the raised floor at the south end, except for a small portion of the raised floor in the southwest corner of the room, which was left in place. Also at that time, a wheelchair lift was added to the south end of the lobby, creating wheelchair access to the south corridor of the first floor. In 2006, the restitution center was closed. Since that time the building has been vacant.
CRITERION C: THE CAMPBELL COURT HOTEL AS A RESIDENTIAL HOTEL
The Campbell Court Hotel is eligible for listing on the National Register for its locally distinct architecture style and building type. The Campbell Court Hotel is a superior example of the residential hotel in the City of Portland, and is an increasingly rare example of the middle-class residential hotel in Portland, a housing type that was typically dominated by the upper-class.
The rise of the residential hotel parallels the rise of the apartment building, but the hotel represents a distinct if not rare form of residence. Whereas the apartment building asserted individual living units intent on isolating individuals, the residential hotel offered a more communal living arrangement. In the narrowest of visions, the difference is seen at mealtimes where each apartment has its own food preparation and eating areas, compared to the residential hotel where occupants take their prepared meals in a common dining room. Typically, the residential hotel also has gathering locations for social activities.
The American dream historically has been to own your own home. Apartment living by choice appeared among society’s well-to-do in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The Great War expanded the popularity of apartments by offering greater independence to middle-class single people who found apartments an acceptable if temporary solution.
Paul Groth in Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994) describes the phenomenon, both in the rise of the apartment building and the rise of its variant, the residential hotel. The most prominent form of residential hotel was the “palace” hotel, where residents could have a luxury lifestyle without the headaches of managing a household. For the nouveau riche, it offered the opportunity to rub shoulders with like families. Edith Wharton captured that lifestyle in her 1913 novel, The Custom of the Country, which detailed the fictional Spragg family and their stay at the fictional Hotel Stentorian on Manhattan’s West Side. As Groth writes, “At the palace hotels the truly wealthy enjoyed perfected personal service, superior dining, sociability as well as privacy, physical luxury and instant status – all at a cost lower than keeping a mansion or a large house.”
One step down, according to Groth, were the mid-priced residential hotels. These hotels attempted to offer the same services and setting, but in a less affluent setting. In design terms, primary public spaces, such as the lobby and dining room, would feature striking design, while hallways and guest rooms would be austere. Similarly, whereas a palace hotel might offer maid and bell services, the residential hotel for the middle class was more of a family affair. Whereas palace hotels offered suites of five or more rooms, mid-priced hotels offered either single or paired rooms. Alternatives to the purposefully built mid-priced hotels included back halls of palace hotels, formerly grand hostelries, converted houses, and residence clubs. In time, a fifth option arose, the apartment hotel that included a kitchenette in an efficiency unit.
The residential hotel was a common form in many large cities. In Chicago, at its peak in the 1920s, nearly one family in twelve of professional households lived in hotels. In Portland, the Campbell Court Hotel was a classic example: In design, it was restrained and introverted. In location, it was in largely a residential neighborhood and conceptually its tone was more of a quiet oasis than an extroverted grand hotel. Attractive, yet efficient, it featured a decorative lobby but not one too large or too decorative. Similarly, the dining room, located in the basement, offered distinctive design touches but with austerity. The corridors and rooms were plain. In a word, detail was extremely strategic. And yet, while “apartment–looking” from the outside, functionally, with smaller rooms, dining room, social room, and a larger lobby, the interior spatial arrangement was vastly different from an apartment.
In the era of the Campbell Court, in the 1920s, over three dozen hotels were built in downtown Portland. None of these were the grand guest houses on the scale of the Portland, Imperial, or Benson. Rather, based on those that have survived, they were mostly similar to the Campbell Court Hotel. Names include properties like the Sovereign, Commodore, St. Andrews, and Prince of Wales. Larger properties include the Heathman, New Heathman, and the Roosevelt.
Yet, of the three-dozen-plus that were built, only eight have survived, while twenty-eight have been demolished. In many respects, a “typical” example was the St. Francis Hotel, located across the street from the Campbell. It was built in 1927, developed by the Lincoln Realty Company, and designed by Paul Hall-Lewis as a residential hotel. Over time, the dwindling marketplace resulted in an increase of deferred maintenance, which then resulted in the hotel lowering its rates and eventually becoming a privately owned single-resident occupancy (SRO) and counted as part of the city’s affordable housing inventory. Conditions continued to deteriorate and eventually the hotel was demolished.
Of those residential hotels that have remained, most have been adapted into apartments (Commodore, St. Andrews, Prince of Wales, Heathman), others into single occupancy hotels (New Heathman) and yet others into condominiums (Roosevelt and Sovereign).
The following are most similar to the Campbell Court Hotel located in Portland:
St. Nicholas Hotel (1117 S.W. Alder Street) built in 1909 is similar to Campbell Court with its red brick façade. Differences lay in massing, decoration, style, and function. These include: a square footprint with four floors; Flemish bond brick with diaperwork on the façade; exhibiting Streetcar Era Commerical Style; and the retail use of the first floor.
Hotel Ritz (803 S.W. Morrison Street) built in 1912 is similar to Campbell Court with its red brick façade, its contrasting white exterior decorations, and Georgian Revival style. Differences lay in material use for exterior decorations and vertical articulation.
Ambassador Apartments (1209 S.W Sixth Avenue) built in 1922 is similar to Campbell Court with its red brick façade, its contrasting white exterior decorations, and symmetrical façade. Differences lay in material use, form, massing and style. These include: the use of Boise Sandstone for trim; having an ‘H’ footprint in form; being vertically articulated with eight floors (three more than Campbell); and exhibiting Tudor Revival characteristics such as a crenellated parapet, quoining, and pedimented windows.
Roosevelt Hotel (1005 S.W. Park Avenue) built in 1925 is similar to Campbell Court with its combed red brick façade, its contrasting white exterior decorations, and symmetrical façade. Differences lay in material use, form and massing. These include: glazed terra cotta for all exterior decorations such as cornice, pilaster capitals, belt course and decorative window heads and sills; exhibits a square foot print; is vertical articulated with eight floors (three higher than Campbell) and has a narrow primary façade exhibiting three bay windows.
Eglington Arms Hotel (1225 S.W. Alder Street) built in 1926 is similar to Cambell Court with its red brick finish and number of floors. Differences lay in material use and style. These include: glazed terra cotta for decorative elements; and a rusticated ground floor finish with cement plaster, brick diaperwork around parapet, hood mold and compound Tudor arch around entry for stylistic differences.
THE CAMPBELL COURT HOTEL and the MULTIPLE PROPETY LISTING:
Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, 1919-1931
The Campbell Court Hotel is being nominated under the umbrella of the Multiple Property Document, Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, specifically the context “Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon 1915-1931.” In addition to being an increasingly rare example of a building type, the hotel reflects the historic development dynamics detailed in the Multiple Property Document and fulfills its registration requirements for the “Apartment” building type, which includes residential hotels as a distinct building type from hotels catering to overnight and short-term guests.
Overview of Historic Context: In the period 1919 to 1931, downtown Portland experienced a defining construction boom, second only to the years following the Lewis & Clark Exposition era. Where that earlier growth boom could be directly associated with the success of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, and the increased exposure that Portland achieved as a result, this second building boom had more to do with the developing financial system of real estate development in the 1920s. The substantially lower down payments required, as compared to earlier customs, as well as a broader variety of acceptable forms of collateral and financing allowed for speculators to develop properties with an eye toward future payoff. As a result, the market was more driven by speculation, rather than demand. Rapidly rising property values led to the redevelopment of land at increasing densities. Where prior to the 1920s, single-family, detached housing dominated in areas to the west of the Park Blocks and especially south of Main Street, the expectation that properties would continue to appreciate led to the purchase of many of these lots, and the redevelopment of them with more dense forms of dwellings, such as apartment houses and residential hotels. Exceptionally low interest rates made purchase and redevelopment even more attractive.
It was in this climate that downtown Portland saw an estimated 184 buildings constructed between 1919 and 1931. During that time, the focus of the new construction in downtown Portland was now to the west of the Park Blocks. Residential development, such as occurred, tended to be west of the Park Blocks and south of Main Street. With the collapse of the stock market and the subsequent slowdown in speculative lending, such redevelopment became dormant.
Registration Requirements: The multiple property listing document details the criteria and registration requirements for being included under this umbrella. Below is a synopsis of the relevant sections, describing the Criterion C requirements, the seven aspects of integrity, general registration requirements, and additional registration requirements for the relevant associated building type, Apartment Buildings in Downtown Portland, 1915-1931. The Campbell Court Hotel meets these registration requirements.
Criterion C:
These historic resources may also be potentially significant under Criterion C. Criterion C relates to resources that embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or that they represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction. This criterion applies to properties significant for their physical design or construction, including such elements as architecture, landscape architecture, engineering and artwork. … The historic resources are potentially eligible under the category of architecture. Architecture is a broad category that relates to “the practical art of designing and constructing buildings and structures to serve human needs.” This includes building types, expressions of style and works of masters. . . .Some resources within this Multiple Property Listing that meet the registration requirements and meet the integrity tests may be eligible for listing under Criterion C, provided that the property is distinctive or the work of a master.
The Campbell Court Hotel is eligible under Criterion C under the category of Architecture as a locally significant, distinctive type of building, a superior example of the residential hotel. The building was designed by Herbert Gordon, a local architect and developer, for E. Jean Campbell specifically as a residential hotel and displays the characteristics of that function, including stylistic attributes.
Assessment of Integrity: The National Park Service details seven aspects of integrity: Location, Design, Setting, Materials, Workmanship, Feeling and Association. As detailed below, the Campbell Court Hotel retains a reasonably high degree of integrity.
Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or the place where the historic event occurred; the Campbell Court Hotel is in its original location.
Design is the combination of elements that create form, plan, space, structure, and style of a property; both interior and exterior modifications have been slight and the property’s stylistic attributes today are essentially intact.
Setting is the physical environment of a historic property; the Campbell Court Hotel is located in a part of Portland that largely developed into its present form during the period of significance (1915-1931).
Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time and are in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property… A property must retain the key exterior materials dating to the period of its historical significance; to a great extent, the exterior and interior materials are intact in the Campbell Court Hotel, and the building appears now largely as it did at the time it was built.
Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory; fine craftsmanship is evident in the Campbell Court Hotel as detailed finishes remain for example egg and dart detailing on the capitols in the main lobby. Also noteworthy is the ceiling detailing in the lobby.
Feeling is a property’s expression of the aesthetic or historical sense of a particular period of time; the Campbell Court Hotel is largely now as it was when it was built. It continues to express the feel for its period of significance.
Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. A property retains its association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship to the observer; essentially intact, the resource continues to “read” as a residential hotel.
Integrity Summary: The Campbell Court Hotel retains sufficient integrity to convey its historic significance and values.
General Registration Requirements
• Integrity: In order to be eligible for listing in the National Register under this multiple property context, a building must convey its sense of historical character by retaining sufficient exterior and interior integrity. Generally, a resource will possess most of the following aspects of integrity: Association, Location, Setting, Feeling, Design, Materials, and Workmanship.
o The Campbell Court Hotel retains substantial integrity and intends to be redeveloped as a historic preservation tax credit project. The Campbell Court Hotel meets this registration requirement.
• Date of Construction: The structure must have been built during the period of significance (1915-1931).
o The Campbell Court Hotel was built in 1923. The Campbell Court Hotel meets this registration requirement.
• Geographic area: The structure must be located within the geographic area of the Multiple Property Submission.
o The Campbell Court Hotel is within the MPS boundaries. The Campbell Court Hotel meets this registration requirement.
• Use: In order to be listed, it is not critical that the building be retained in its original use.
o The Campbell Court Hotel, while no longer a residential hotel, has always been in use as a multiple-unit residential building. In the course of its history, it has been a residential hotel (1923-1961), a women’s dormitory (1961-1969), a women’s residential hotel (1969-1983), a hotel for members of a religious sect (1983-1987), and a county-operated restitution center. Plans are being developed to adapt the building for use as low-income housing. The Campbell Court Hotel meets this registration requirement.
Additional Registration Requirements for Apartment Buildings and Residential Hotels:
• Form: The building must be built to lot line on its primary facades.
o The Campbell Court Hotel is built to the lot line on the primary facades. This registration requirement is met.
• Public Spaces: It should feature a grand public lobby and may include a formal dining area.
o The Campbell Court has an opulently designed first floor lobby and basement formal dining room. This registration requirement is met.
• Access to Upper Floors: Access to the upper floors should have been designed to be by elevator with comparatively opulent lobbies and corridors.
o Access to the upper floors is designed to be by elevator. This registration requirement is met.
• Upper floor plans: The upper floors should have a double-loaded corridor with an “L” or “U” shape.
o The building features double-loaded corridors in a closed “U” form. This registration req |
