| SUMMARY
The John and Ellen Bowman House is significant under Criterion C as an excellent example of the masterful work of Ellis F. Lawrence, one of the most influential architects to work in Portland. This nomination is under the Architecture of Ellis F. Lawrence Multiple Property Submission. Completed in 1916, the Bowman House is an excellent, intact example of the Colonial Revival style as executed by Lawrence.
The house, one of Lawrence’s grandest residential designs, is notable for its fine craftsmanship and finishes. Notable exterior features include the hipped and gabled terra cotta tile roof, the Palladian dormer on the main elevation roof, the port cochere, conservatory, and beveled glass door under a portico with Doric columns. Interior features of note include elaborate oak and Honduran mahogany woodwork, the hand-painted mural in the dining room, and original light fixtures. The house is sited on one of the largest lots in the historic Portland neighborhood of Irvington and surrounded by lush gardens.
MPS REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
The context of the MPS cover document is buildings designed by Ellis F. Lawrence. Properties were divided into several types, such as commercial and industrial buildings, funerary structures, and churches. Each category has its own significance and registration requirements. The Bowman house falls under the category “residences,” which are significant under criterion C, for embodying characteristic features of Lawrence’s work..
Lawrence designed residences in a wide variety of styles and used a variety of building materials. Typical features of Lawrence’s residential designs include complex roof forms, shingle, stucco or brick exteriors, and concrete foundations. Windows were usually multi-pane double-hung sash or casements. Interiors were designed in detail including light fixtures, wainscoting, fireplace surrounds, stairwells and built in seating and cabinetry.
To meet the registration requirements for the Architectural of Ellis F. Lawrence Multiple Property Submission, residential buildings “should be ranked and evaluated for their architectural integrity, distinction and associative value according to the evaluation process developed in the Ellis Lawrence Building Inventory.”
At the time that the MPS was created, the Bowman house was evaluated according to the MPS evaluation process, which ranked integrity and distinction of each resource designed by Lawrence. The Bowman House was given a total point count of 76 out of a possible 132, making it a primary ranking resource (see attachment). The property ranks high in integrity of the exterior, interior and site, being essentially intact as originally built. It also ranks high in exterior and interior details and craftsmanship. It is noted that the Bowman House, compared to other surviving buildings by Lawrence in Oregon, is among his best works.
In addition, the inventory evaluation awarded points for the house’s historic association with John L. Bowman, a person of local historic significance.
Today, 16 years after the creation of the MPS, the Bowman House has the same owners, who have maintained the home in pristine condition and made very few changes. Despite minor alterations such as the modest kitchen remodel and the conversion of the garage into living space, the ranking of the house would be the same. The integrity and highly intact condition of the house remain unchanged, and would make it rank as a primary resource today just as it was then.
ELLIS F. LAWRENCE
Ellis F. Lawrence was a prolific designer, civic activist and a visionary in city planning and education, Both his teaching and design work influenced the development of architecture within the State of Oregon. He founded the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1914 and served as dean for 32 years. He was instrumental in the development of several professional organizations such as the Portland Architectural Club, where he taught classes and began a Portland design studio. He organized and chaired the first convention of West Coast architects in 1909, resulting in the formation of the Architectural League of the Pacific Coast. He was chair of the group which established the Oregon chapter of the AIA in 1911 and served as its first president. He also founded the Builders Exchange of Portland in 1911 and the Oregon Building Congress in 1921. His relentless work for these organizations structure and standardization of practices for architects and the building trades. In addition, Lawrence advocated strong city planning and served on various planning commissions. He lobbied for parks, comprehensive planning, and has been called the “father of City Planning in Oregon” Ellis Lawrence’s biography is well described in the MPS cover document. At the time he designed the Bowman house, in 1916, he was in partnership with William G. Holford, whom he worked with from 1913 to 1940. He was also two years into his 32-year tenure as the dean of the School of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Oregon, which he founded.
Ellis Lawrence designed in many styles popular during his practice, although he was not an academic purist and adapted his designs to fit his clients and their building sites. He did not have a particular style or trait, so his work is not easily identifiable. Functionality was very important to Lawrence, as was beauty. Leland M. Roth writes of Lawrence, “He espoused the ideal that, most important, architecture served a social purpose and that it enhanced that social function by appealing to the ordinary everyday user through the senses—color, texture, the play of light and shadow—to the eye and hand.”
Lawrence’s residential designs generally fall into three periods: early (before 1912), middle (1912-1930), and late (after 1930). Early houses had differing plan types and are in the Arts and Crafts, Craftsman and Colonial Revival styles. After 1912, Lawrence frequently used a standard plan with minor deviations, working in historic period styles. Late designs used the same standard plan, but stylistically were more restrained and modern. While the Bowman house was designed in the middle period, it is more reflective of Lawrence’s early period, as it does not use the standard plan and is in the Colonial Revival style.
The Colonial Revival style was one of the styles Lawrence favored. The style emerged in the late 19th century as a rebirth of interest in the early English and Dutch houses of the east coast. Early examples were not true to the historic prototypes, but as the style matured, it became more historically correct. Characteristic features of the style include a gable or gambrel roof, bilateral symmetry, multi-light windows, dormers, brick or clapboard siding, and classical detailing. Interiors typically feature a central hall plan, white painted wood trim, and classical details. Lawrence did not adhere to the strict symmetry of the style, but rather sacrificed symmetry for function. His designs in the Colonial Revival style were often symmetrical on the main façade, occasionally with asymmetrical wings to the sides. The secondary elevations of the buildings were usually asymmetrical. Houses were sometimes set with the main elevation facing the side of the lot. Ellis designed houses in this style to project a formal and restrained face to the street, or public side, while allowing for free interpretation on the less visible elevations.
The Bowman House was one of Lawrence’s grandest in terms of material and scale. Allthough in the Colonial Revival style, it has elements of other styles, which Lawrence masterfully mixed. The stucco exterior and window moldings reflect a craftsman influence. The roof is red clay tiles, an interesting and distinctive choice which downplays the formality of the façade and offers textural relief. The primary elevation offers a classical, symmetrical look, but typical of Lawrence, the rear is asymmetrical, reflecting the functionality of the rooms on the interior. This arrangement of formality and symmetry on the front and informal, picturesque secondary elevations reflecting the internal function, became a hallmark of Lawrence designs. The materials used in the Bowman House reflect Lawrence’s love of fine craftsmanship and design. Details such as the fine carving of the woodwork, the hand painted mural in the dining room, and the convenient arrangement of bedrooms into suites, all mark the house as the work of a master designer. It is virtually intact as built, and an exceptional example of the style as designed by Lawrence.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Lawrence designed over twenty houses in the Irvington neighborhood, including his own, an Arts and Crafts style duplex at 2201 NE 21st Avenue. The majority of his designs in the neighborhood were constructed before 1910, and were in the Craftsman or Arts & Crafts style, which was extremely popular at the time. Three Lawrence designed houses, the Henry B. Dickson House at 2123 NE 21st Avenue, the Lewis T. Gilliland House at 2229 NE Brazee Street, and the Henry B. Miller House at 2439 NE 21st Avenue, are listed on the National Register. The Gilliland House is actually a design by Gustav Stickley and published in the magazine The Craftsman in April 1907. Apparently the owners asked Lawrence to customize the house, but it remains largely a Stickley design. The Miller House is an especially fine Arts and Crafts style house with historic detail in the Tudor idiom. Lawrence also designed the Westminster Presbyterian Church at 1624 NE Hancock Street in 1912. This is significant because John L. Bowman was a member of this church, and worked on fundraising to construct the new building. It is likely that he became familiar with Ellis Lawrence at this time, and subsequently selected him to design his home.
Other Colonial Revival style houses in Irvington by Lawrence include the Henry B. Dickson House at 2123 NE 21st Avenue; the Henry A. Connor House at 2726 NE 18th Avenue; and the Dr. Thomas C. Bailey House (1921) at 1731 NE Klickitat Street.
The Henry B. Dickson House, constructed in 1909, is just a few houses away from Lawrence’s own home. Although in the Colonial Revival style, this side-entrance house is asymmetrical in plan, and exhibits the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement in its appearance. It is sheathed in stucco on the first story and shingles on the second, divided by a flared belt course. Although large, it does not compare to the Bowman House is size or grandeur.
The Henry A. Conner House, built in 1910, is a modest Dutch Colonial with a side facing entrance. It is a much more academic example of the Colonial Revival style than the Bowman House. It exhibits the influence of Lawrence’s early experience in the office of John Calvin Stevens in Portland, Maine. Stevens used traditional Colonial style forms in his domestic designs, as published in a pattern book by him called Examples of American Domestic Architecture. The Connor House resembles John Calvin Stevens own house in Portland, Maine, a Dutch colonial style house with a second-story overhang. However, like Lawrence’s later work, the formality of the front elevation contrasts with the deliberately informal rear elevation, reflecting the interior.
Other Lawrence houses in the Colonial Revival style are located in other areas of the city. They include: the Frank Heitkemper House (1939) at 3905 SW Council Crest Drive; the John A. Sprouse Jr. House (1935) at 2826 NW Cumberland Road; the William S. Dittenhoffer Jr. House (1936) at 6317 SW Hamilton Road; the El Mersereau House (1925) at 1962 SW Military Road; the S.M. Luders House (1922) at 2763 NW Westover Road; the J.M. Holmes House (1920) at 2868 N Willamette Blvd; the E.M. Gowanlock House (1920) at 2902 N Willamette Blvd; and the Edwin T. Chase House (1914) at 5126 NE Wistaria Drive.
The James E. Wheeler House, located at 2417 SW 16th Avenue, was designed by Lawrence in 1910. It has wood clapboard siding, an authentic Georgian style Colonial entrance portico and gabled roof dormers with arched windows. Like the Conner House, it is a more rigid interpretation of the Colonial Revival style than the Bowman House.
The Riverview Cemetery Caretaker’s House is another Colonial Revival design by Lawrence. Located at 8421 SW Macadam Avenue, the house was designed in 1914. It is of brick construction and has a hipped roof with a flat center area surrounded with a wood balustrade. It is unique in its brick construction as well as in its decorative entrance with sidelights and a shell pediment overhang supported by brackets.
JOHN L. BOWMAN (taken largely from a Biographical Sketch of John Linden Bowman (1868-1928)
John Linden Bowman was born March 25, 1868 in Albia, Iowa, the seventh of eight children of Sarah and George Bowman. He was only five when his parents died. He was raised by his two older sisters, Emma and Etta, who had married the Shahan brothers. The family left Iowa on a covered wagon around 1880 and settled on the Smokey River west of Abilene, Kansas. John Bowman helped his brother-in-law, a stone mason, build the family home out of native rock. It was in Kansas that he received what little formal education he had.
At sixteen, John Bowman left home and went to the mining town of Telluride Colorado, where he took mule teams laden with ore over the mountains. Eventually he joined his brother-in-law in the northwest, visiting Puget Sound, Salem, Coos Bay and Portland.
During the 1891 depression he sought a job at the Thomas Kay Woolen Mills Store in Salem. He was turned down, but convinced the store to let him take a consignment of work clothes out to the country. He was a successful salesman, taking orders and delivering merchandise to farmers in a horse and buggy. By 1896 he was able to buy the Brownsville Woolen Mill Store in Portland through a “character loan” from the bank.
Bowman married Lydia Rogers of Coos Bay in 1898, when he was 30 years old. They had three children and lived in a new house on Tillamook Street. Lydia Bowman died suddenly in 1911, after eating apples sprayed with ptomaine while visiting a guest ranch in Hood River.
In 1912, John Bowman built a summer home called Halcyon Lodge on the Salmon River. The house had five bedrooms, a large living room with a fireplace, a bathroom, a kitchen and a wide wrap around porch. The family spent summer vacations here riding horses, climbing Mt. Hood and star gazing. Bowman built a dam on the Salmon River to divert water into three fish ponds near his house, and stocked the ponds with rainbow trout. Bowman also acquired the Arrah Wanna Hotel (in Wemme) and 160 acres of land when builder Daniel Kern defaulted on a construction loan from Bowman.
Bowman married Ellen Bates, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1913. While on their honeymoon, the couple looked at houses in California on which to model their new home. They found a plan that suited them and hired the firm of Lawrence and Holford to adapt it to their needs. By this time Bowman had a successful chain of Brownsville Woolen Mill Men’s and Boy’s Clothing stores across Oregon. Irvington was a popular developing residential neighborhood at the time, so the family built their home there on land that Bowman owned. The house, located on one of the largest lots in Irvington, took a year to build and cost over $35,000. The interior of the home featured Honduran mahogany woodwork, with oak paneling in the dining room.
The dining room also featured a hand painted frieze, still in place. The nursery, which was home to the couple’s two children born in 1914 and 1915, had portraits of the children pasted to the walls and decorated with a hand painted climbing rose vine. According to Ellen Bowman, the nursery was “the talk of the town.” The couple bought sterling silver flatware, tea service and candlesticks for the house at Gorham’s in New York. They bought art for the walls at Knoedler’s, one of the finest art houses in New York at the time.
Bowman felt that real estate was a more secure investment than life insurance. He purchased the Goodwill Industries building, and 71 acres east of Gresham where he built a “cow hotel”, so called because it had cork stalls and a name plate over each stall for his prized registered Jerseys. He also stocked Dorset horn sheep, and planted an orchard of filbert trees. He planned to build a retirement home there.
In 1915, Bowman moved his store from Third and Stark to the Cambridge Building at Third and Morrison. He occupied the entire building, with his retail clothing store on the first two stories, and a clothing factory on the upper floors. At the time, it was only the second clothing factory west of Chicago, the other being in San Francisco. He employed 500 people with a payroll of over $100,000 a month. He had agencies throughout the west to absorb his wholesale output, and he had retail stores in Eugene, Astoria, North Bend, Marshfield, Klamath Falls and Salem.
In 1922, Bowman bought the Brownsville Woolen Mill in Brownsville, which dated back to 1861. The mill had been dormant for ten years, and the town was thrilled at the prospect of having it back. After a year of restoration and updating, the mill reopened. It produced blankets and yardage for Bowman’s Portland factory. Later, it was leased by Robert Paris, who successfully operated the mill.
John L. Bowman died in July 1928 at his beloved Halcyon Lodge. His wife inherited his business interests. In 1929, she sold the Brownsville Woolen Mill stores, but not the mill, to a group of businessmen represented by E.D. Gettleman for $95,000. The new owners liquidated the inventory and closed the stores.
DEVELOPMENT OF IRVINGTON
Irvington was named for Captain William Irving, a sea-faring adventurer who arrived in Portland aboard the ship “Success” in 1849. Irving was born in Scotland in 1816. In 1851 Irving married Elizabeth Dixon. The same year the couple filed a donation land claim for 644 acres on the east side of the Willamette River. The original plat included present day Irvington. The Irvings remained in Portland several years. They left for British Columbia in 1860, where William Irving died in 1872. His widow returned to Portland in 1877 and, along with her partners David Thompson, John Brazee and Ellis Hughes, filed a plat for the area known as “Irvington”. Irvington was annexed by the independent city of Albina in 1889. In 1891, Albina and East Portland were incorporated by the City of Portland. The land on which the Bowman House is located was part of the Irvington Plat, drawn by David P. Thompson and dedicated on October 24, 1887.
Although lots were available as early as 1882, and much of the Irvington neighborhood was laid out by 1887, lot sales were slow, and few houses were constructed before the turn of the century. The developers of the neighborhood tried many schemes to entice new residents. A streetcar line was constructed, as well as sidewalks and paved roads, and restrictions were placed on deeds. These covenants prohibited the sale or manufacture of liquor; the use of property for business, including livery stables, shops, factories, laundries or foundries; the occupation of any house by Chinese, other than servants; building within 25 feet of the street; and the construction of a building that cost less than $2500. These strict regulations, which were carried on deeds until 1916, and thereafter continued by tradition, limited the area to the upper class. Lot sales did increase somewhat as a result of these schemes, although the bank panic of 1893 and the economic depression that followed again reduced sales to almost nothing through these years.
It was not until after 1900 that sales picked up again, and not until 1905, when the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exhibition spurred a building boom, that Irvington was more fully developed. Sales did not increase in the area north of Knott Street until about 1909. By then, a streetcar line ran up Fifteenth Avenue, and lots along Knott Street were considered the best in the area. Many were sold in pairs to wealthy future residents, who paid $5000 for the double lots . |
