Amundsen, Roy E. and Hildur L., House (Gresham, Oregon)

Title: Amundsen, Roy E. and Hildur L., House (Gresham, Oregon)
LC Subject: Architecture, American Historic buildings
Creator: Amundsen, Harold, approximately 1940- Goodrich, Burton J., approximately 1911-2007 Grevstad, Barney E., 1913-1982 Grevstad, Hans B., 1882-1978
Photographer: Donovan-Boyd, Adrienne
Description: The Roy E. and Hildur L. Amundsen House, at 477 NW Overlook Avenue, is located west of downtown Gresham, Multnomah County, Oregon, in a neighborhood of mid-century houses. Completed in 1961, the house was erected on an irregularly shaped lot, facing east toward Overlook Avenue. The house sits on 0.32 acres (13,950 square feet). It has a large front and back lawn with perimeter plantings along the foundation. The 1,554 square foot, single-story residence is a wood-framed structure with intersecting flat roofs. It sits on a concrete foundation. The Amundsen House is significant as an intact, Wrightian-styled, architect-designed house built in one of Gresham's fast developing mid-century neighborhoods. The house has most of the character-defining features commonly found in Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian house designs, including horizontal orientation; single-story; no basement or attic space; a small size-around 1,500 square feet; floor-to-ceiling wood-framed windows and clerestory windows; a prominent hearth; a slab-on-grade foundation with radiant floor heating; a flat roof with wide overhanging eaves; simple entrance; and minimal ornamentation. Usonian houses used flush cabinets to create efficient storage without degrading the clean, simple lines of the design, and the Amundsen House features flush cabinetry. The home uses natural and local materials, such as sandstone quarried from Wilkinson, Washington, to construct the central hearth and western red cedar for the interior and exterior walls. Windows are wood-framed fixed, with some casement and levered windows. The residence has a built-up, asphalt flat roof over the main body of the house and a clerestory roof over the living room, with a slight pitch. The pitch was added in 2017 when the roof was repaired after failure. The pitch is not visible from the public right-of-way. The Amundsen House's interior walls are finished with natural wide horizontal board-and-batten siding that matches the exterior of the house. Original fixtures and hardware are present throughout. The entrance to the house is centered on the facade and opens into the main body of the house. The house has three main volumes; the southernmost houses the kitchen, utility area, a bathroom, and a bedroom; the central volume (where the front entrance is located) contains the dining area and living room; and the northernmost section has two bedrooms and a bathroom. A two-car carport is located on the south facade. A concrete drive curves slightly from the street to the carport, and a sidewalk leads from the driveway to the front entryway. There are three non-contributing outbuildings on the site: two garden sheds, and a shed-roof, wood storage structure, all of which are outside of the period of significance. The house has undergone few alterations since its construction and has retained its character defining features. The Amundsen House has had only three owners since its design and construction. The house has retained its original materials and it has not been adversely altered from its original design. Necessary repairs have been sensitive to the house's design, and the largest alteration to the building was the addition of a slight pitch to the roofline, which is not visible from the right of way. Therefore, the house has retained a very high level of historic integrity in its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. The Roy E. and Hildur L. Amundsen House is an excellent example of the type and is remarkably intact and unaltered.
View: exterior: east facade (center detail), camera looking west
Style Period: Modern Movement Usonian houses
Work Type: single-family dwellings
Date: 1961
View Date: 2018-07-15
Identifier: OR_Multnomah County_Admusen House_0006
Rights: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Dc Rights Holder: Oregon. State Historic Preservation Office
Source: Oregon. State Historic Preservation Office
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: 1554 square feet
Material: concrete, wood, asphalt, glass
Set: Building Oregon
Primary Set: Building Oregon
Institution: University of Oregon
Citation: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/SHPO/