This 1909 Portland Craftsman was once a wedding gift. $1.35M listing brings quick offer

An updated 1909 Craftsman originally designed by one of Oregon’s most influential architects in Portland’s Northwest District was listed for sale at $1.35 million Aug. 16.

Four days later, one of the three offers was accepted for the residential property at 1217 N.W. 25th Ave. and the sale is pending.

The extensively restored and renovated house by architect Emil Schacht, who introduced Craftsman homes to Portland, attracted interest quickly due to its meticulous presentation, listing agent Kishra Ott told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“A unique history or a notable architect like Emil Schacht deepens a home’s richness, and when a home is well presented in a fantastic neighborhood, buyers can truly envision themselves living there,“ said Ott of the Dan Volkmer Team/Windermere Realty Trust, who shares the listing with the agency’s broker Dan Volkmer.

Schacht designed this home and the 1908 Tudor Revival house next door for the Gadsby family, who owned the Wm. Gadsby & Sons furniture stores from 1890 until 1954.

Captain William Gadsby, who served with the British Army and the Second Oregon volunteers, and his wife, Ellen (“Nellie”), hired Schacht to design their Tudor Revival home on a corner lot.

A year later, they hired Schacht to design the Craftsman home now for sale on an adjacent lot. This home was given to one of their sons as a wedding present.

Later, Alice A. Kyer purchased the property and the Craftsman house is listed as the Historic Kyer Home in the Oregon Inventory of Historic Resources.

Butterfly medallions — a Schacht signature feature — appear in both the Craftsman home’s interior and on the bargeboards of the Tudor Revival house.

The goal of renovating the Craftsman home was to retain the home’s historic and architectural significance while enhancing its systems and adding luxurious surfaces, said Ott.

The four-level residence has refinished and new features that remain timeless: paneled white walls, plate rail moldings and other layered millwork.

In the living room, original beveled leaded-glass windows and new cabinets of ebonized steel and floating wood shelves are on both sides of a fireplace wall clad in Ann Sacks tile.

The dining room with white wainscoting and beamed ceilings is near the six-sided game room with French pane windows.

The updated, 400-square-foot kitchen has white quartz slab counters and gray custom cabinetry. A white corner bench and table are installed near a sliding door that opens to the back deck. And against one wall is a wet bar with walnut cupboards and shelves, a bar sink, wine fridge and ice maker.

Also among the 4,447 square feet of living space is a home office, library, four bedrooms and guest quarters. A large, sound-mitigating family room in the lower level has a mudroom that connects to the two-car garage with a rooftop deck.

French doors in the living room open to the front entertaining deck, extending the living space during the spring and summer months, said Ott.

The 4,791-square-foot lot also has a fully fenced backyard that includes a level lawn bordered by planted beds and a concrete patio with a gas-fired fire pit.

“The walkable neighborhood is just two blocks to the historic part of the Northwest Alphabet District’s amenities and conveniences,” said Ott.

History of Craftsman houses

Early Portland developers trying to sell vacant lots during the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition needed to promote a dramatically new way to live to fairgoers passing by on the streetcar.

They hired architect Emil Schacht to design a modern spec house that was radically different than ornate Victorian-era dwellings. His choice: The sturdy Craftsman, fronted by a welcoming covered porch with an interior dressed in polished local lumber.

The public’s positive reaction to the Craftsman and the housing boom and population explosion triggered by the fair forever cemented the demand for what has become Portland’s signature home style.

Schacht’s custom houses in Northwest Portland’s emerging Willamette Heights neighborhood cost about $2,500 to build. In the early 20th century, materials for a Craftsman bungalow could be ordered in a kit for $1,000.

Architectural historians William J. Hawkins and William F. Willingham wrote in their authoritative book “Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, 1850-1950” that Schacht was “a particularly gifted designer” who produced “houses of first-rate quality.”

Emil Schacht was 20 in 1874 when he immigrated to the United States from Denmark. He worked as a draftsman in New York, then set up an architecture office in Portland in 1884. By 1902, he was a founding member of the Portland Association of Architects.

Over his 42-year career, he, or through Emil Schacht and Son, designed residences as well as warehouses, theaters and office and public buildings. He also helped to introduce the East Coast idea of luxury multifamily living to Portland with upscale “apartment houses.”

His 1909 Admiral Apartments on the fashionable South Park Blocks were equipped with modern features such as an automatic elevator, electric dumbwaiter and “disappearing bedsteads.”