Emerson Apartments (Portland, Oregon)

Title: Emerson Apartments (Portland, Oregon)
LC Subject: Architecture, American Architecture--United States
Creator: Brown, P. Chappell
Creator Display: Philip Chappell Browne (architect, 1865- )
Description: National Register of Historic Places (Listed, 1999)
View: exterior
Provenance: Design Library, University of Oregon Libraries
Temporal: 1910-1919
Work Type: architecture (object genre) built works exterior views dwellings apartments
Latitude: 45.561804
Longitude: -122.666802
Location: Portland >> Multnomah County >> Oregon >> United States Multnomah County >> Oregon >> United States Oregon >> United States United States
Street Address: 5310 North Williams Avenue
Date: 1913
Identifier: pna_23516
Rights: In Copyright
Rights Holder: University of Oregon
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Set: Building Oregon
Primary Set: Building Oregon
Institution: University of Oregon
Note: "The Emerson Apartments Building, constructed from 1912 into 1913, is a three storey masonry framed structure with an "I" shaped configuration. It has an exterior facade of brick in a few patterns of texture and color and is framed in steel and wood with an interior covered with lath and plaster. The building remains intact both on the outside and inside but has been neglected by prior management for nearly three decades and is in need of repairs. It sits on the east side of N Williams Avenue at the northeast corner of N Emerson Street on the Walnut Park subdivision. Walnut Park is primarily a residential neighborhood with a mix of different types of buildings on Portland's north side. Even though portions in this section of town has suffered urban blight from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, an interesting collection of historic buildings remain. The subject building is located near the northeast corner of Portland's Humboldt neighborhood and close to the southern boundary of the Piedmont Historic Conservation District and near the western boundary of the King Neighborhood. (Appendix A) The southern line of the Piedmont District (not the subdivision) is only one half a block north of the building and actually cuts into the original Walnut Park subdivision which had a series of mixed commercial and residential buildings on the south side of N Killingsworth Street. The Piedmont plat north of Killingsworth contains primarily single-family residences due to deed covenants from its developer. The City of Portland drew the separating line between the Humboldt and King Neighborhoods along NE Rodney Avenue, two blocks east of N Williams Avenue. The Humboldt Neighborhood is bounded by N Skidmore to the south, the 1-5 Freeway to the west, and N Ainsworth to the north according to a 1993 map of Portland's Albina Community Plan. The section between N Killingsworth and Ainsworth is an overlap inside the Piedmont Historic (Conservation) District established by the Albina Plan. In a major portion of the Humboldt Neighborhood between N Alberta and Killingsworth, and west of N Williams to near N Albina, older housing of single or multi-family use was replaced by more modern multi-family buildings subsidized by urban renewal efforts from the 1960s to the 1980s. Vacant smaller parcels of land remain scattered throughout the area although some were turned into parks and ball fields. Today, portions of this neighborhood are being rehabilitated at a moderate pace but many of the renovations on old structures are not architecturally sensitive with examples of vinyl windows and siding common." source: National Register nomination. Prior to his arrival in Portland, Oregon, Philip Chappell Browne was an architect and surveyor in Auckland, New Zealand, according to an 1885 patent application for a ventilator for windows. (Item 1359. 14th January. Philip Chappell Browne, of City Chambers, Vulcan Lane, Auckland, Architect and Surveyor.—An invention for a ventilator for windows. Letters and Patents, 1885, National Library of New Zealand website). He later obtained a copyright by way of the Oregon Flag Co., Portland.