A Craftsman house along Southwest Portland’s once thriving trolley line leading to Oregon Health & Science University was a wise choice as a residence of the Rinehart family of doctors.
The Rineharts held on to the elevated property for eight decades. When the deed traded hands in 2023, contractor Connor McWilliams renovated the historic house with views of Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens.
The three-story house, built in 1907 on a 0.09-acre lot at 1442 S.W. Vista Ave. in the Goose Hollow neighborhood, is now for sale at $2,075,000.
“What I love most about the Rinehart home is the way it honors its history while living beautifully in the present,” said listing broker Aaron Moomaw. “You feel the soul of the original architecture the moment you walk in, yet every detail has been thoughtfully restored, so it functions like a modern home.”
The 4,197 square feet of living space blends original materials — mahogany doors as well as oak floors and intricate inlays — with newly installed handmade Moroccan zellige and French terracotta tile flooring.
The additions to existing craftsmanship, said Moomaw, “create spaces that feel warm, grounded and incredibly welcoming rather than trendy.”
Moomaw, who shares the listing with his sister, Lauren Moomaw, both with Cascade Hasson Sotheby’s International Realty, said a hand-forged staircase railing was reproduced to match the original design, and one-piece marble sinks were imported from Turkey.
Upgrades were made to the kitchen, five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The primary suite encompasses the top floor.
There is a new roof, plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
More than 1,000 square feet of outdoor living space includes an upstairs balcony, deck off the dining room, a covered area with overhead heat off the lower level and an additional deck on the bottom floor.
“If you’re someone who values a heartwarming story, brilliant restoration and historic charm blended with modern, ‘Architectural Digest’-level design, this is your home,” said the brokers.
History of the house
1/14
1907 Portland house
The Vista Avenue property is known as “the Doctors House,” but it has another claim to fame.
The 1907 home was likely designed by architect Emil Schacht, who a few years earlier introduced Portland to the then cutting-edge Craftsman house. The style proliferated during the city’s population boom around the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.
The Rinehart property was on a trolley line leading to Oregon Health & Science University, which was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medical Department in downtown Portland and has been on Marquam Hill in Southwest Portland since 1917.
The Rinehart family’s connection to the property is a fascinating one: they bought it, sold it during the Great Depression, then repurchased and held it for more than eight decades.
In 1882, Emily Belle Cooper, who arrived with her parents on the Oregon Trail, married Willard Ellis Rinehart, a graduate of the original Willamette Medical School. She then became one of the first woman physicians in the state, specializing in obstetrics and women’s health.
After her first husband died, she married Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Ferguson in 1900 and they moved into the Vista Avenue house. As a widow for the second time, she sold the property in 1921, but one of her sons, Jackson Carle Rinehart, purchased it back in 1939.
Jackson was a family physician and surgeon in Portland. His brother Harvey Rinehart founded The Rinehart Clinic in Wheeler in 1913 after his arthritis treatments attracted patients from all over the country.
When the family sold the property in 2023, the house was vacant and had not been updated for several years.
The buyer was Connor McWilliams of Portland General Contracting, who renovated the exterior and interior of the house. A few walls were removed to enhance the flow of some of the rooms.
McWilliams told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the lowest level was used to store pharmacy supplies and that he found a barrel of powdered ibuprofen and other apothecary items there. The area is now a speakeasy-type lounge.
“When we were demolishing walls we found bags with $5 bills” printed during the Great Depression, said McWilliams.
The tiered residence was one of two remodeled houses among new luxury dwellings on the 2024 NW Natural Street of Dreams.
The exterior was painted the “rich, warm, lively, fun” color of cabernet sauvignon accented with black trim, McWilliams said. Red is also the color of the bathroom tile and sink in the lounge area.
Statement pieces imported to Portland include terracotta bricks excavated from a French country village road and used in a floor.
“I wanted showcases of world taste,” said McWilliams. “Back in the day, affluent owners would have traveled and appreciated relics from other countries. Hearst Castle on California’s Central Coast is completely built on that idea.”
Paint and stain colors popular when the home was new were added to the custom cabinets, standalone cocktail bar under crown molding and other new pieces to look “period correct,” he said.
link