Painter's Woods Historic District (Forest Grove, Oregon)

Title: Painter's Woods Historic District (Forest Grove, Oregon)
LC Subject: Architecture, American Architecture--United States
Alternative: Forest Grove Southside District (Forest Grove, Oregon)
Description: National Register of Historic Places (Listed, 2009 ) National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
Provenance: University of Oregon Libraries
Temporal: 1880-1889 1900-1909 1910-1919 1920-1929 1930-1939 1940-1949
Style Period: Victorian Queen Anne Style Colonial Revival Cottage Style (decorative arts style) Craftsman (style)
Work Type: architecture (object genre) built works views (visual works) exterior views districts historic districts dwellings houses ceremonial structures religious buildings plans (orthographic projections) plans, floor
Location: Washington County >> Oregon >> United States Oregon >> United States United States Forest Grove >> Washington County >> Oregon >> United States
Street Address: Centered on 15th Avenue and Birch Street, includinq portions of 14th, 13th, 12th avenues and Ash, Cedar, and Douglas streets
Date: 1880/1940
Identifier: OR_Washington_PaintersWoodsHD_nrnom.pdf
Rights: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Rights Holder: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office
Source: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/SHPO/
Type: Image
Format: application/pdf
Set: Building Oregon
Primary Set: Building Oregon
Is Part Of: Painter's Woods Historic District (Forest Grove, Oregon)
Institution: University of Oregon
Note: The district contains the first modernly designed subdivision platted in southern Forest Grove and is roughly twenty-six acres in size, “T” shaped, and extends primarily along 15th Avenue. The eastern boundary is Cedar and Elm, and the boundary at the south is 12th Avenue. The district has 58% contributing resources and is comprised primarily of single-family residences. GENERAL DESCRIPTION Forest Grove is located in western Washington County, twenty-five miles west of Portland, Oregon and forty-two miles east of the Pacific Ocean, near the eastern slopes of the Oregon Coast Range. The City of Forest Grove was incorporated in 1872. Forest Grove today is home to Pacific University. It has a population of about 21,000, and the city limits include an area of 4.7 square miles. Forest Grove includes one National Register historic district, the Clark Historic District, which was established in 2002 and is located in central Forest Grove, just north of the proposed district. The proposed Painter’s Woods Historic District is located in the southern portion of downtown Forest Grove. The district is roughly twenty-six acres, bounded on the north by 15th Avenue. The eastern boundary is Cedar and Elm streets. The boundary on the south is 12th Avenue. The western boundary is Ash Street. The district includes approximately 15 partial blocks that are laid out in a grid system, with named streets running north and south and numbered avenues running east and west. The area includes portions of the South Park Addition plat (1891) and the Knob Hill Addition (1909). The district is irregularly shaped, primarily including resources fronting 15th Avenue between Ash and Elm Streets and resources fronting Birch Street between 12th and 15th avenues. The district includes 40 (58%) contributing resources out of a total of 68 resources. The architectural styles represented in the district include examples of Queen Anne, Craftsman, Bungalow, Foursquare, Colonial Revival, English Cottage, Vernacular, WWII Era Cottage, Minimal Traditional and Ranch. One house, the Isaac Macrum House, is individually listed on the National Register. The district is composed primarily of one and two-story wood-frame residences. A majority of the buildings are set on concrete foundations. Brick and concrete, as well as wood, are used for decoration and accent. The period of significance is from 1880-1948. This timeframe covers of the majority of construction within the district, beginning with 1880, the construction date of first extant house, and extending to 1948, when almost 80% of the resources had been constructed. The district is notable for its well-established trees throughout, a number of which have existed since the beginning of the period of significance. Major streets in the district have concrete sidewalks and lawns that are planted with mature oak, elm, maple and pine trees. Residences are set back from the street 20 to 30 feet from the right of way and landscaped with ornamental lawns and typical annual and perennial foundation plantings. The landscape of the neighborhood includes tree-lined streets, a majority of which are 24 feet wide. An exception is 15th Avenue, which was designated as a right of way of 80 feet wide until the intersection of Douglas Street, where it is reduced to 66 feet wide. Some of the blocks have alleys. The western edge of the district is defined by a steep slope that falls down to the Gales Creek floodplain to the southwest and affords a spectacular view of Tualatin Valley farmlands. The major transportation route through Forest Grove includes two one-way streets to the north of the district; Pacific Avenue runs westward, and south of this, 19th Avenue runs eastward. These two streets define and provide access to the downtown commercial area, and Pacific University in Forest Grove and are located about four blocks to the north of the proposed district. A small portion of the eastern boundary of the district is touched by a major north-south route along Elm Street. It should be noted that there are physical characteristics of the Clark District that make it distinct from that of Painter’s Woods primarily due to the differences in how the two areas were originally platted and developed. The Clark District was comprised of the original town plat, platted into one acre blocks divided into lots a quarter block in size, which were large enough for some early residents to grow their own food. These larger quarter blocks were later subdivided and sold. The smaller lots were often irregularly subdivided, and were not uniform in size or shape. South Park Addition (1891), in contrast, was platted and sold with smaller lots of 5,000 square feet, similar to present-day subdivisions. An ad in the Forest Grove News Times in 1891 (Figure 12) notes that “South Park is one block south of public school and one block north of depot. Average size of lots, 5,000 square feet, Fifteen feet alleys.” This image was included in the documentation to support a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service. The image is provided here by the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office and the University of Oregon Libraries to facilitate scholarship, research, and teaching. For other uses, such as publication, contact the State Historic Preservation Office. Please credit the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office when using this image.