No Restoration too big?
Project: Save a deeply decaying landmark home.
Client: McCulloch Construction
The Story of Remodeling one of Portland's landmark historic homes
In lovely Irvington sits one of the neighborhood's signature homes: The Giltner Mansion. Built the year the Titanic was launched, the Giltner Mansion was also a glittering statement: three stories and spreading across three lots with elegant stone work, leaded glass, fine mahogany furniture and indoor and outdoor fountains, the home is spectacular. Even the fence, said to come from the old Oregon City courthouse, is an intricate work of ironmongery that could cost $120,000 to produce today.
However, this once fine home has decayed for many decades – a poster child for deferred maintenance. The dilapidated exterior went unpainted until in Google Street View it showed without a speck of paint. Water seeped through rusting pipes in the walls, from roofs, through decayed windows, through the basement and through the balcony. We're tackling the enormous challenge of removing the rot from all areas of the home, updating the systems, making the house appealing to a modern family and researching and restoring the many marred and lost features of this vital piece of Portland history.
This home was built for the wealthy Giltners in 1912 by famed contractor Frederic E. Bowman, who produced an astounding 400 Portland homes without trucks, power tools, computers or cell phones!
Roscoe Giltner attended Yale Law, was elected Portland City Attorney and convicted such public enemies as Harry Tracy – who ran with the likes of Butch Cassidy and was reported by the Seattle Daily Times to make Jesse James look like a Sunday school teacher. Mrs. Giltner was likewise a leading Portlander. A prominent socialite, the parties she threw at the mansion featured in the Oregonian society pages. Mrs. Giltner hosted internationally famous musicians and her rooms held many concerts, including at least one with a Stradivarius violin.