Keating, John A. and Hattie Mae, Residence (Portland, Oregon)

Title: Keating, John A. and Hattie Mae, Residence (Portland, Oregon)
LC Subject: Architecture, American Historic buildings
Creator: Lawrence, Ellis Fuller
Photographer: Farr, Libby Dawson, 1942-
Description: The John A. Keating residence is located at 2531 S.W. St. Helens Court, in the West Hills (Portland Heights) in Portland, Oregon, a residential neighborhood in the hills west of downtown Portland. The neighborhood consists of many excellent examples of early 20th Century period architecture built for prominent Portlanders between the turn of the century and the 1930s. The plans are dated 1912, and construction began and was completed in 1913. The Keating Residence was designed by prominent architect Ellis F. Lawrence of the firm Lawrence and Holford. It has a concrete foundation, a nailed wood frame and the exterior walls are clad in wood shingles and there are two massive chimneys. The house is approximately four-thousand square feet, with a full basement and three floors above. It is actually sufficient to call it a one-room deep house, in the English tradition of medieval vernacular houses. It is a very tall, horizontally-spread structure, reflecting the Shingle Style and Arts & Crafts styles. In addition, there are subtle Classical Revival details on all four sides of the structure. It is an asymmetrical, eclectic amalgam of architectural details. The hipped roof structure with jerkinhead gables is set above and back from street level, only partially visible from the street. Character_ defining features include its asymmetry and broad horizontality, the mock thatch roof with rolled eaves, a prominent polygonal two-story bay projection, two eyelid dormers, a painted wood string course across each side, and a large wrap-around terrace offering views to the east and Mt. St. Helens to the north. The house has casement, Simplex, double hung, and awning windows. In the living room, dining room and solarium are tall casement windows, and interior glass-paned flexible doors between the solarium and the hallway. The interior ceilings and walls were always painted. The plain walls with crown molding, open first-floor plan with rooms flowing into one another, and the curved shapes of the solarium and dining rooms, contribute to the unique character of the house. Lawrence showed hints, on the first-floor interior, of early modernism in residential architecture. While several alterations have occurred throughout the years, the only major alteration on the exterior facade is the removal of the two-sided glass-paned entrance porch, for which there is no recorded date. A separate, unattached garage structure on the south side was built in 1952, and removed in the 1970s. There is no recorded date for the removal of the kitchen chimney. The concrete wrap-around porch was resurfaced in 1959. The removal of straight metal supports for the railings of the porch with replacement classical balustrades was in 1999. The house was designed with an internal 1913 vacuum system throughout, which is not utilized now. A kitchen remodel in the 1970s updated the kitchen space but did not change the internal arrangement of any rooms. In 1999 mid-wall height windows to the terrace on the north side of the living room were replaced by full_height glass windows and a glass door. There is no date for the restoration of the lone exterior Doric column of the porch, which is in place where it was originally built. The plan shows a straight west wall (solarium), but no dates exist for the construction of the wall as a curved bay. It could have been a decision made during construction. Despite all of these alterations, the house retains its historic integrity as the house is in its original location and remains of the same design, the setting still relates to the historic period, the character defining features remain intact and reflect the residence's original construction and design of Lawrence's work.
View: interior: wardrobe room, third floor
Style Period: Shingle Style Arts and crafts movement
Work Type: single-family dwellings
Date: 1913
View Date: 2004-12-24
Identifier: OR_MultnomahCounty_JohnAAndHattieMaeKeatingResidence_0023
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: 3,923 square feet
Material: concrete, wood
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/