The Portland Hotel (or Hotel Portland ) was a late-19th-century hotel in Portland , Oregon , United States, that once occupied the city block on which Pioneer Courthouse Square now stands. It closed in 1951 after 61 years of operation.
19-498: The building was designed by William M. Whidden , later of the prominent Portland architectural firm Whidden & Lewis , and Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, & White . The site was previously occupied by the Central School Building. To make way for the hotel, the school building was purchased by Philip A. Marquam , one of the hotel project's financial backers, who relocated it one block north (to where
38-408: A campaign to raise local money to complete the hotel. He generated enough interest and subscribers to his plan, among them Henry W. Corbett , Henry Failing , Simeon Reed and William S. Ladd , to get construction started again. Later investors included labor leader Ed Boyce . The Queen Anne , Châteauesque hotel finally opened in 1890 and had eight floors and 326 bedrooms. It had cost well over
57-539: A million dollars and eight years to complete. The Portland Hotel stood between Southwest Morrison and Yamhill, on 6th Street (now called 6th Avenue), facing the Pioneer Courthouse . Purchased in 1944 by Julius Meier and Aaron Frank , the deteriorating structure was demolished in 1951 and replaced by a parking structure for the Meier & Frank Building . The final day of operation was August 15, 1951. All of
76-437: A modular, varied and relatively inexpensive approach to wall and floor construction. It was particularly adaptable to vigorous and rich ornamental detailing. It was created by Luca della Robbia (1400–1482), and was used in most of his works. Terra-cotta is an enriched molded clay brick or block. It was usually hollow cast in blocks which were open in the back, with internal stiffeners called webbing, substantially strengthening
95-683: A prominent architectural firm in Portland , Oregon , United States . William Whidden was born on February 10, 1857, in Boston, Massachusetts . He was raised there and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He worked at the firm McKim, Mead and White from at least 1882 until 1888; projects included the Tacoma and Portland Hotels per wiki MM&W page 1–2011; then travelled to Portland, Oregon, in 1883 to work on
114-415: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a United States architect or architectural firm is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Glazed architectural terra-cotta Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It featured widely in the 'terracotta revival' from the 1880s until the 1930s. It
133-900: The Chicago School and Beaux-Arts architecture . The material, also known in Great Britain as faience and sometimes referred to as "architectural ceramics" in the USA was closely associated with the work of Cass Gilbert , Louis Sullivan , and Daniel H. Burnham , among other architects. Buildings incorporating glazed terra-cotta include the Woolworth Building in New York City and the Wrigley Building in Chicago . Glazed architectural terra-cotta offered
152-598: The Portland Hotel . Whidden returned to Boston, but came back to Portland in 1887 to finish the hotel. He married Alice Wygant, great-granddaughter of John McLoughlin , in 1884 and had two sons. In 1889, Ion Lewis and Whidden formed a professional architectural firm in Portland. Their residential buildings were mostly in the Colonial Revival style, while their commercial buildings were primarily in
171-616: The Selling Building now stands). Railroad magnate Henry Villard financed the Portland Hotel and construction began in 1882, but his finances collapsed—in part because of the Panic of 1884 —and the construction stopped for five years. With only the foundation completed, the site became known as "Villard's Ruins" and the bodies of two murder victims were found there before construction resumed. George B. Markle, Jr. began
190-523: The blocks, when compared to carving stone, was a considerable saving, especially when casts were used in a modular fashion—that is, used repeatedly. It never needed paint, and periodic washings restored its appearance. Variations in the color and pattern of the glaze could make it look like granite or limestone ; this flexibility helped make it attractive for architects. Four major types of terra-cotta were widely used The American Terra Cotta Corporation, founded in 1881, operated for eighty-five years in
209-464: The hollow blocks with minimal weight increase. The blocks were finished with a glaze, with a clay wash or an aqueous solution of metal salts, before firing. Late 19th-century advertising for the material promoted the durable, impervious and adaptable nature of glazed architectural terra-cotta. It could accommodate subtle nuances of modeling, texture and color. Compared with stone, it was easier to handle, quickly set and lower cost. The cost of producing
SECTION 10
#1732773351155228-430: The hotel's furnishings and fixtures were disposed of at a public auction on August 28–29, 1951, the iron scrollwork gates being sold to Eric Ladd, a local contractor and historic preservationist (no relation to William Ladd ). When Pioneer Courthouse Square was built on the site in 1984, the iron scrollwork gate of the hotel was incorporated into the design. Much of the hotel's original stone foundation remains under
247-685: The leading commercial architects of the time in the city, Norris was strongly influenced by trends in American architecture and used faience on projects such as the Nicholas Building and the Kellow Falkiner Showrooms (a 1928 car showroom) in South Yarra . In Sydney , it featured on notable buildings such as BMA House, designed by Joseph Charles Fowell . Australian-made tiles were available from Wunderlich Tiles ,
266-420: The little town of Terra Cotta in the heart of Illinois dairy country (near Crystal Lake, Illinois ). The company fabricated architectural terra cotta for more than 8,000 buildings throughout the U.S. and Canada. It was the last exclusive manufacturer of architectural terra cotta by the time it ceased production in 1966. From its founding, in time to rebuild the fire-ravished city of Chicago, until its closing, it
285-469: The square's sidewalks. Eleven U.S. presidents stayed at the Hotel Portland—each time, a new set of Haviland China was purchased for the occasion. A. E. Doyle was approached about designing an addition to the hotel, but this never got past the planning stages. William M. Whidden William Marcy Whidden (February 10, 1857 – July 27, 1929) was a founding member of Whidden & Lewis ,
304-537: The twentieth-century classical style. The commercial buildings often featured brick, along with terra cotta ornamentation. Many of their buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The Whidden–Kerr House and Garden , which was William Whidden's residence from 1901 until 1911, is also listed on the National Register. This Oregonian biographical article
323-708: Was the major producer of architectural glazed terra cotta in North America. Guastavino tile was used in many places, including the Bridgemarket under the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge . Although glazed terra-cotta was much more common in the US, it was used in central Canada starting around 1900, on many of the area's first skyscrapers. The glazed terra-cotta used in central Canada
342-474: Was used in the UK, United States , Canada and Australia and is still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments. It is the glazed version of architectural terracotta ; the material in both its glazed and unglazed versions is sturdy and relatively inexpensive, and can be molded into richly ornamented detail. Glazed terra-cotta played a significant role in architectural styles such as
361-523: Was usually imported from the US or England. From around 1880 unglazed terra-cotta was supplanted by the glazed version - faience, and glazed brick - which were easily cleaned, and not blackened by city smoke. A prominent producer was Burmantofts Pottery in Leeds, which also exported to Paris and Montreal . Faience was popularised in Melbourne in the 1920s by architects such as Harry Norris . One of
#154845