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NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:631 SE Taylor St historic name:The Pallay Apartments
Portland, Multnomah County current/other names:The Cody Apartments; Mount Vernon Apartments; The Rose Apartments
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:building height (stories):3.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:1910 second date: date indiv listed:02/09/2021
primary orig use: Multiple Dwelling orig use comments:
second orig use: Multiple Dwelling
primary style: Late 20th Century: Other prim style comments:
secondary style: Classical Revival: other sec style comments:
primary siding: siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:Alexander C. Ewart
builder:Powers & Sons
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Portland Oregon's Eastside Historic and Architectural Resources, 1850-1938 MPD MPS 01/27/1989 1988
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 02/09/2021
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
Federal Tax Program
Status Start Compl
Complete 08/21/2019  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)
Built in 1910, the Pallay Apartments is located in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District at the corner of the SE 7th Avenue and SE Taylor Street. The surrounding area features primarily commercial and industrial buildings, although the building is bounded to the north and west by two other apartment buildings that are similar in size and age. The 26,644 square-foot, three-story building sits on a 100x100-foot quarter-block parcel. It has a concrete foundation and a stucco and masonry exterior with architectural details including brick arches and dentils, scoring in the stucco to mimic stone block, and a cornice and decorative parapet at the roof. The primary elevation is arranged symmetrically with the main entrance in the center of the façade. The original one-over-one double-hung wood window sashes have been replaced with beige-colored one-over-one vinyl windows, although the original wood window frames were retained. The building’s interior is organized around a U-shaped double-loaded corridor. The residential units feature their original window casings, baseboard trim, and picture rail trim. Some apartments have their original kitchen cabinets and Murphy Bed alcoves. The building’s character-defining features include the beige brick walls; stucco used at the ground story; centrally-placed main entry; punched window openings with masonry arches; bellybands and brick dentils; cornice and parapet details; U-shaped floorplan with a large light court; double-loaded corridor; open main stairwell associated with an entry lobby; wood newel posts and balusters; wood trim including picture rail and window casings; and original kitchen cabinetry. The building has integrity to reflect its historic significance as an early, single-use apartment building. Modifications include the window replacements, a new ADA-accessible entrance on the east façade, and some reconfiguring of the apartments. However, these modifications have not detrimentally affected the building’s integrity. Compared with period photos, the building retains its historic character and continues to reflect its typology as an early 20th Century apartment building.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Pallay Apartments is locally significant under National Register Criterion C for architecture as an example of an early apartment house located within the boundary of the Portland Oregon's Eastside Historic and Architectural Resources, 1850-1938 Multiple Property Document (MPD). It meets the general and property type specific registration requirements of the MPD. Morris Pallay—a successful immigrant tailor turned apartment developer—commissioned the nominated property in 1909 and it was the first large-scale, masonry, 100% residential apartment block to be constructed in the MPD study area. Designed by Charles Ewart and completed in 1910, the Pallay Apartments was built to cater to individuals employed in this rapidly-developing, commercial-industrial part of the city. The building was noteworthy at the time for the exclusion of ground-floor commercial space. Initially, most single-use apartment houses were in the well-to-do neighborhoods of Northwest Portland. Development of Portland’s eastside lagged behind the west, but expanding transportation networks and infrastructure improvements allowed for rapid development of real estate in the early 1900s to meet the demands of a growing population. The city’s working and middle classes increasingly moved to the neighborhoods within the MPD study area due to the east side’s affordable housing, employment opportunities, and streetcar accessibility to downtown. At first, most large, high-quality buildings on the east side were two-part commercial block buildings that featured flats above retail storefront spaces. As the first single-use apartment building in the MPD study area, the Pallay Apartments reflects the marked economic growth and population expansion during the early 20th century that resulted in a more urban character to the architecture of Portland’s eastside. Eventually, as apartments became a more publicly acceptable form of housing and consistent demand resulted in favorable investment returns for developers, high-quality masonry buildings like the nominated property were constructed on most major eastside streets.
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:Digital newspaper archives
Bibliography:
Abbott, Carl, “Lewis and Clark Exposition,” The Oregon Encyclopedia, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lewis_clark_exposition/, accessed 4/29/2020. Alphabet Historic District National Register Nomination. 2000. NRIS# 00001293. Askin, Timothy Askin and Ernestina Fuenmayor, "National Register Nomination for the North Buckman Historic District," No. 13000481, 2013. Gamber, Wendy. The Boarding House in Nineteenth Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Garden Home History Project. “Hal Pallay.”, https://gardenhomehistory.com/2011/10/24/hal-pallay/, accessed 4/29/2020. Landau, Sarah Bradford and Carl W. Condit. Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865-1913. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. McKinney, William Mark and David Shephard Garland. The American and English Encyclopedia of Law and Practice. New York: Edward Thompson Company, 1910. Oregon Journal. “Speaking of Apartment Houses.” March 25, 1906: 6. ———. “The Cody.” October 18, 1911: 20. Oregonian. “City Made Out of Hole in the Ground.” December 5, 1909: 5. ———. “Each Day Building Contract is Let.” August 14, 1910: 8. ———. “Fire in Newcastle.” September 22, 1902: 12 ———. “Flats in Demand.” April 28, 1902: 10. ———. “Flats Near Ready.” April 17, 1910: 9. ———. “Flats Popular in Central District.” April 3, 1910: 3. ———. “Goes steadily forward no lull in building.” July 31, 1899: 5. ———. “In the Ghetto of New York City.” June 29, 1902: 27. ———. “Is it True Home Life?” March 21, 1906: 5. ———. “Little Room for Cheap Buildings.” December 6, 1908: 10. ———. “Mania for Apartment Houses.” June 2, 1902: 6. ———. “Many Flats Are Built.” December 27, 1908: 9. ———. “Many Want to Build.” November 20, 1899: 11. ———. “Modern Apartment Houses Rise in Portland to Meet Popular Demand.” January 1, 1910, 3. ———. “Newly-Completed Apartment House Sold for $75,000.” January 31, 1909: 8. ———. “Pallay Block is Finished.” October 2, 1910: 10. ———. “Pallay Property Sold.” July 11, 1910: 9. ———. “Progress on Richardson’s Excavation.” April 25, 1902: 9. ———. “Rushing Up Houses.” November 27, 1889: 10. ——— “The H. F. Spalding: Portland’s Well-Appointed and Modern Apartment House,” January 16, 1899: 22. ———. “The Spalding” January 1, 1900: 11. ———. “Thinks Flats in Demand.” April 18, 1899: 3. ———. “Why Not Build Flats.” August 18, 1889: 5. Polk’s City Directory for Portland, Oregon 1904-1912. Rich, Burdett A. and M. Blair Wailes. American Law Reports Annotated, volume 18. Rochester, NY: The Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company, 1922. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Portland Oregon, 1889. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Portland, Oregon, 1901. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Portland Oregon, 1908. Sandoval-Strausz, A. K. Hotel: An American History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. Stern, Robert A. M., Thomas Mellins, and David Fishman. New York 1880. New York: Montacelli Press, 1999. Sturgis, Russell. A Dictionary of Architecture and Building: Biographical, Historical, and Descriptive. New York: Macmillan, 1901. Tess, John, Middle Class Apartment Buildings in East Portland MPD, no. 64500511, 1996.