Thanks to the work of intrepid Rose City neighborhood researcher Caryn Brooks, we now have a lot more information about one of the more prolific builders in this NE Portland enclave.
A Lindquist built home on NE 61st Avenue.
According to Brooks, if you have a 1930s English Cottage-style house in Rose City you may have a home built by the Lindquist family. The father, Eric Lindquist, along with his sons Fred, Harold (Hugo), Gus and Norman built a lot of houses in the 1930s, many with common features that are easily recognizable – if you know what to look for.
Advertisement for three new Lindquist built homes.
Oregonian October 29, 1933.
Most Lindquist homes have unique handmade fireplace tiles from the Markoff Mosaic Tile Co.
Example of Markoff tile. Image courtesy of Historic Preservation Northwest
They almost all have ornate leaded glass picture windows.
Leaded glass window in a Lindquist house built in 1937.
The Lindquists built homes that are not excessively large, but they were built to last. Other architectural details that are common to Lindquist built homes include: mahogany trim and doors, colorful tile bathrooms, Tudor archways, and entry doors with “speakeasy” windows. All are hallmarks of the English Cottage style that was extremely popular in Portland in the 1920s-1930s.
One way to find out if you have a Lindquist home is to go to portlandmaps.com, plug in your address and click on the “historical permits” tab. If the oldest permit notes a Lindquist (sometimes spelled incorrectly as “Lundquist”) as the owner, it’s quite possible that you have a Lindquist built home as these homes were generally built on speculation.
Plumbing permit from 1937, showing Gus Lindquist as the property owner. You can often learn the name of the home builder by looking at permits like this one. Courtesy of PortlandMaps.com
The Lindquists were not architects, but they reportedly worked with an architect who had an office on Sandy Blvd. We have yet to determine who that architect was, but by the 1920s it was starting to become quite common for architects to sell their designs to area builders.
One family member, Fred Lindquist also built an apartment building, in 1929, that today is on the National Register of Historic Places. The complex, located at 711 NE Randall, was designed by noted apartment building architect Elmer Feig.
Lindquist Apartments at NE Randall and Hoyt. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Advertisement for Lindquist built homes from the Oregonian, June 2, 1940.
The Lindquists built homes in several Portland neighborhoods.
While little-known, the Lindquist’s houses in Rose City provide a distinctive appearance to the neighborhood and are great examples of a style that dominated Portland’s residential neighborhoods in the two decades prior to the Second World War.
A Lindquist built home on NE 62nd Avenue.
If you think you have a Lindquist built home and want to discuss it with Caryn, contact the Architectural Heritage Center – info@VisitAHC.org – and we’ll pass along her contact information.
Portland Preservation 
I may have found a couple of Lindquist homes in Laurelhurst. The names was very sloppily written on the original permits, so I’m not entirely sure.
Lindquist homes are continuing to build. From 1908 with Eric to present time with Stuart Lindquist and Sean keys