Cornelius Hotel Update as of 6/26/13

To follow upon our recent posts about the proposed demolition of the Cornelius Hotel (531 SW Park Avenue), TMT Development has gone ahead and applied for the demolition permit. You can now find this information on PortlandMaps.com. This is just the beginning of a process that will likely take several months and is not yet open for public comments. According to City staff, there will be a required “pre-application conference,” regarding the proposed demolition, on July 23rd at 8:30am at the Bureau of Development Services (BDS), 1900 SW 4th Avenue (time/date subject to change). While the public can attend this meeting, no public  testimony is taken at such pre-application conferences. Therefore, while it may be good to show TMT that  many people are interested in seeing the Cornelius saved, this is not the place to give public testimony. That time will come soon enough, however.

After the pre-application meeting, TMT can then apply for the demolition review.  Once that application is determined to be complete (and this could take some time), then the BDS will schedule a public hearing on the matter. In a nutshell, it may not be until sometime this fall that the public has an opportunity to weigh in on the future of the Cornelius Hotel.

Hopefully, this means there is still time to find a solution that leads to the rehabilitation of the Cornelius and its continued presence at SW Park and Alder.

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The Rose City Neighborhood and Lindquist Built Homes

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.

The Cornelius Hotel – Demolition and Designated Historic Buildings in Portland

As of this afternoon, there is still no additional information about TMT Development’s plans for the Cornelius Hotel. The City claims to be unaware of any application to demolish and nothing shows on-line via PortlandMaps.com. Regardless, there is a detailed process in Portland when someone wishes to demolish a designated historic structure like this.

You can download the City’s Historical Reviews information here.  http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?a=53488 This explains the various review processes for historic buildings, including demolition review, which can be found in the last section of the document.

If TMT decides to move forward with a demolition, it is likely that the City Council would ultimately decide whether or not to approve such action. The process could take several months, but we will continue to monitor the situation and post any information we can get about the status of the Cornelius Hotel.