• Introduction to the Alphabet District
• Beautiful century-old apartment buildings
• Close-ups on entrances to historic buildings
• Beautiful semi-hidden courtyards
• More beautiful and leafy than any suburb
• Not all the buildings are old
• Pedestrians enjoying every block
• Retail vibrancy, even on side streets
• Plenty of historic single-family homes remain
• Adaptively re-used single-family homes in the Alphabet District
• Serving the needs of a diverse community
• Why these buildings are illegal – a history of zoning in Portland
• Bonus section: incredible scenery found within and just outside the Alphabet District

Introduction to the Alphabet District

Portland, Oregon is a city full of charming neighborhoods that contain some of the most beautiful, lush landscaping found anywhere. Many residential streets reveal new surprises: poetry posts, wishing trees, fairy villages, alleys reminiscent of the Shire, Portland’s world famous painted intersections, miniature horses tied up to historic sidewalk rings, etc.

Portland’s neighborhoods are also extremely dominated by single-family-only zoning. This post features a major exception: a specific neighborhood that was developed long before the current zoning code went into effect. Containing scores of gorgeous historic apartment buildings and cherished leafy streets, this neighborhood is a living showcase of how medium- to high-density housing can create some of the most beautiful, walkable, vibrant urban scenes imaginable.

The beautiful block pictured above is known to almost no one, even in Portland. It’s as close to Washington, DC’s DuPont circle neighborhood (and classic East Coast rowhousing as it gets in Portland. The townhouses were built as apartments in 1893.

The neighborhood this post will feature goes by many names. Despite being one of the most densely populated districts in Oregon, it’s generically and blandly known as “Northwest District” since it’s north of Burnside and west of the Willamette River. But that could mean *any* area in NW Portland, including 5100-acre Forest Park and the vast West Hills. Forest Park is, in fact, in the equally unimaginably named “Northwest Portland” neighborhood that borders “Northwest District.” And Portland has no neighborhood called “Southwest” or “Southeast” or “Northeast.”

This neighborhood just northwest of downtown Portland (and bordered by the Pearl District to the east, across I-405) is also known to many as Nob Hill, since it has some similarities with San Francisco’s popular Nob Hill neighborhood:  narrow streets lined with Victorian houses, an incredibly popular shopping street that contains dozens of Victorians that have been turned into trendy boutiques, an extremely hilly section on its western side, etc. But to me it makes no sense to co-opt the name of one of San Francisco’s most famous neighborhoods.

By far the best and most logical name for the neighborhood is the Alphabet District, which is fortunately becoming increasingly accepted as the default name for the 400-acre (5/8 of a square mile) area  bordered to the east by NW 17th Ave, to the south by West Burnside, and to west by a diagonal line stretching north and west from 23rd & Burnside to 30th & Upshur (the main entrance to Forest Park). The Alphabet District covers *only 3% of Northwest Portland* as a whole, so calling it “Northwest” (intentionally left in the map below) is highly misleading.

OK, I admit that I still usually call it “Northwest” to my friends in Portland. But I’ll stick with “Alphabet District” in this post—which, to offer another admission, much more resembles a full-length online coffee table book at this point.

NW 23rd Ave, or “Trendy-Third,” is by far the most visited street in the Alphabet District. It’s known to everyone in the Portland metro area, and it’s arguably the most beautiful retail street in the entire Pacific Northwest. Sadly, though, it’s often the *only* street the “bridge & tunnel” crowd will ever visit in this neighborhood, other than its upstart cousin, NW 21st.

The Alphabet District is a handy name because the streets go up alphabetically as you proceed north from Ankeny: Burnside, Couch (pronounced “cooch”), Davis, Everett, Flanders (the inspiration for Ned Flanders in “The Simpsons”), Glisan, etc. So, I’ll refer to this neighborhood henceforth as the Alphabet District.

Note: other neighborhoods in Northeast and Northwest Portland have some of the same alphabetical streets, but probably the best (and least known) reason to call the neighborhood featured in this post the Alphabet District is that it’s Portland’s only neighborhood which contains *every* lettered street from Burnside to Vaughn.

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Beautiful century-old apartment buildings

Walking through the Alphabet District, you can’t help but notice scores of gorgeous apartment buildings dating back to around 1905. The Wilmar Apartments at 2260 NW Everett St (built in 1911) are very typical of what you’ll encounter:

The Day Building at 2068 NW Flanders and the Ormonde Apartments (with the bay windows) at 2046 NW Flanders were both built in 1907. Both are built in the Colonial Revival style, and both are on the National Historic Register:

The first decade of the 20th century was by far Portland’s biggest-ever decade of growth (more on this later).

The Worthington Apartments were completed in 1929. The building is at 708 NW 18th Ave. It’s very easy to follow the address scheme: Burnside is the dividing line between north and south, and every letter after “B” corresponds to an additional block north of Burnside. Thus, 708 NW 18th Ave is just north of Irving St on 18th.

I love all the ornamental and artistic flourishes on the apartment buildings completed in the 1920s and earlier. Even the exterior stairs match the building in color and style.

The three buildings comprising Alhambra Condominiums  span the entire length of Irving St between 20th and 21st Ave. The block looks like a lush Italian villa; it’s absolutely gorgeous, and few people, even in Portland, are aware of this block. Each beautiful old doorway is completely different.

There are dozens of beautiful old brick apartment buildings throughout the neighborhood:

Many apartment buildings were completed during the 1920s, when much of humanity was obsessed with all things Egyptian. You’ll see signs of it on dozens of buildings throughout the neighborhood if you look closely:

Many Alphabet District apartment buildings were also completed during the height of the Art Deco era.

Flanders Apartments were completed in 1930. They’re at 2030 NW Flanders.

Chesterbury Apartments were completed in 1911; this clearly long pre-dates the Art Deco buildings above. The Chesterbury is at 2015 NW Kearney.

The Victorian (2255 W Burnside) is even older; it was completed in 1908.

Some full-block-long apartment buildings even resemble historic high schools. Below is Embassy Apartments, completed in 1925, the year after Portland’s original zoning code was adopted. In those days—and right up until 1959—large apartment buildings regularly rose in residential neighborhoods, and few people needed to drive to work.

There are many apartment buildings completed in the 1920s that provide more affordable housing today.  The Forest and Garden Apartments pictured below were completed in 1925. Rental units range from 1200 to as small as 340 square feet. It’s in a gorgeous setting, directly across from Couch Park and near numerous historic mansions:

Portland Rose Apartments at 2284 NW Everett were also built in 1925:

I’ve never seen a neighborhood with such a variety of balconies:

Every season and every block in the Alphabet District is impossibly beautiful.

The Margaret Apartments were completed in 1909. It’s yet another beautiful building on the National Historic Register. What few know is that it has one of Portland’s few 120-year-old elevators that’s still fully intact and operational.

There are dozens of additional beautiful old apartment buildings, many of which have great bay windows like this:

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Close-ups on entrances to historic buildings

Nearly all of these old apartment buildings have lush, beautiful entrances. Below is the entrance to the Highland Court Apartments at 2181 NW Glisan St. The building was completed in 1911:

If you look close enough (or up 15 feet), you’ll see details that reveal the neighborhood’s fascinating history; it’s found on every block! In 1909, Linnea, Portland’s oldest Swedish organization, built the fraternal organization pictured below (known today as Linnea Apartments). It was part of the Vasa Order of America, which helped Swedish immigrants get established in the U.S. The building is probably Portland’s only remaining Scandinavian Baroque Revival building.

The Swedish Coat of Arms pictured above consists of the royal shield and insignia from the Order of the Seraphim. The shield is supported by two upright lions (an important element in Swedish coats of arms), who are themselves crowned and sport forked tails. The “Three Crown” arrangement was commonly seen in the first and fourth fields, and all versions are topped by the largest crown.

Moving across the Atlantic, the doors on nearly all buildings in the Alphabet District remind me of huge, beautiful doors in old Manhattan apartment buildings:

Every corner evokes a new distant land and more layers of history. Zenabe Court Apartments, completed in 1929, were built in the Spanish Colonial style, but they have beautiful, very detailed Moorish influences. I have additional close-ups of Moorish doors and tiled entryways not shown here:

The “King Davis” building is *definitely* where I lived if the Alphabet District were my home! 🙂 King Davis (well named for another reason: it’s at the corner of NW King & Davis) is a fully updated condo conversion of what was once a very upscale 1909 apartment building. Its five floors contain only 16 units.

Completed in 1929, the elegant Spanish Revival style Teshnor Manor was designed by renowned architect Elmer Feig. Like many Alphabet District buildings, Teshnor Manor offers free WiFi and bicycle parking.

The Irving, at 2127 NW Irving St, has my perhaps my favorite courtyard-style entrance. It has a very tropical feel. Palm trees and bamboo actually thrive in Portland’s mild climate.

The Irving is also famous for being in the movie “Drugstore Cowboy,” which was shot in Portland’s Pearl District (LONG before it became fashionable), as well as in the neighboring Alphabet District. The movie, which starred  Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham and William S. Burroughs, was written and directed by Portland’s own Gus Van Sant, who also directed “Goodwill Hunting,” “My Own Private Idaho,” “Finding Forrester,” “Milk,” and numerous other critically acclaimed movies.

Apartment residents don’t have to spend one second on interior or exterior maintenance. This gives people a lot of extra time to just enjoy the constantly varied beauty of every block of this neighborhood. These are the Olympic Apartments at  707 NW 19th Ave, completed in 1929.

Another view of the courtyard entrance of The Olympic:

The Flanders Apartments, several blocks away at 2030 NW Flanders St, have a very similar look to the Olympic; they were completed in 1930. The character “Ned Flanders” from “The Simpsons” was named after Flanders Street.

The vast majority of people outside the U.S. have zero control over the landscaping of their buildings, and they don’t seem to mind a bit. In fact, the time and money saved on constant upkeep, design, maintenance, etc of private homes is instead spent on being social and enjoying lively public spaces. The Alphabet District has a *much* more European feel than 99.9% of all American neighborhoods.

The building below consists of condos at 2109 NW Irving St. It was completed in 1910.

Amber Court Apartments has some units renting for as low as $800/month. A later section will go into much more detail about the incredible variety of prices and services in the Alphabet District.

Day or night, every entrance of every historic apartment building in the Alphabet District is beautiful to behold:

I never tire of seeing the beautiful, highly varied courtyard entrances to the Alphabet District’s endless beautiful historic buildings. The Biltmore at 2014 NW Glisan St and completed in 1924, is one of dozens of apartment buildings in the neighborhood that are one the National Historic Register.

Italian flourishes can easily be found if you look up from your phone. 🙂 These are the Villa Florence Apartments at 507 NW 22nd Ave. They were completed in 1925.

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Beautiful semi-hidden courtyards

This is a small, “natural” extension of the above section, with an emphasis on nature! This is Patricia Court, one of many courtyard apartment buildings that offers a beautiful, lush path to each door.

Cats seem to approve of every apartment building in the neighborhood:

Though the large apartment buildings are more noticeable, the Alphabet District also contains many low-rise courtyard apartment and condo buildings. It’s really difficult to get good pictures on clear days, due to the extreme contrast between the heavily shaded areas and the bright sky. This is just a tiny glimpse of what this and many other courtyard apartments in the area offer:

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More beautiful and leafy than any suburb

Expanding on the nature theme in the previous section… Nearly every linear block of the Alphabet District, whether residential, retail or mixed, is lined with old trees of amazing types and sizes. The neighborhood dates back to the 1870s, and it was planned beautifully.  I don’t know of any suburb in the U.S. in which every block has such a dense, varied and well aged tree canopy.

Also, unlike many suburban areas, every block of the Alphabet District has nice wide sidewalks. Pictured below is NorthWest Place, a beautiful senior housing community within walking distance of countless restaurants and services. Maintenance and housekeeping is all taken care of, so your time is freed to discover gorgeous new vistas at every turn:

“Leafy” typically refers to bland single-family-only suburban areas. By contrast, I love how incredibly varied the Alphabet District’s architecture is. Its famous century-old apartment buildings actually compose at most 20% of all the buildings in the neighborhood; I just chose to focus on those for several reasons; two important reasons are that 1)  “high density” can be stunningly beautiful, and 2) with sufficiently high density comes great walkability.

Nearly every minute on every block of the Alphabet District, you’ll find someone walking under the beautiful tree canopy:

Or biking, of course, this being Portland:

Here’s  a classic midcentury little office building at 2049 NW Hoyt St that’s tucked right into the fall splendor. You wouldn’t know it from this picture, but it’s right next to Portland’s finest Richardsonian Romanesque home (featured later in this post):

This cute perch at Alhambra Condos reminds me of where Rapunzel from fairy tales might hang out. 🙂

Here’s another view of one of the gorgeous Alhambra Condos  that were also featured in the previous section. Who wouldn’t want to skateboard down this impossibly gorgeous block? 🙂 Note: you always find *people* outside on every block; this is a preview of the “walkability/vibrancy” section.

Mature trees even line the blocks that are lined with more modern buildings, such as this block of townhouses on the 2700 block of NW Upshur, which is a 2-minute walk east of the entrance to Forest Park:

There are also numerous huge trees that were planted over a century ago. The one below completely dominates the Metropolitan Learning Center (an alternative K-12 school); it’s surrounded by seating for kids of all ages. Most people walk or bike to this school, which is in beautiful Couch Park:

I love how the trees and sky are reflected in the windows on both floors:

Pharaohs and Egyptian-themed ornamentations are fairly common sights among the trees and lobbies here. Nefertiti’s perfectly intact painted limestone bust was discovered in 1912, and just ten years later, previously unimaginable treasures encompassing King Tut’s tomb were found. Thus, the entire world was consumed with everything Egyptian when many of the Alphabet District’s apartment buildings were completed during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Adornments like this are found only on large commercial and residential buildings. Any walk in this neighborhood can be turned into a treasure hunt of random icons that’s not possible in single-family or suburban neighborhoods:

The blocks west of 23rd all the way to Forest Park (NW 30th) along Thurman and Upshur are almost entirely under full tree canopies. And a later section will showcase the stunning courtyards dotting this area that are semi-hidden from the street.

Every minute of every day, people are seen walking dogs under the neighborhood’s tree canopy:

Classic Bay-style architecture meets lines of mature trees that are found on every block of this 400-acre neighborhood:

The neighborhood is so tree-dominated that even fire hydrants are no match! This one’s been semi-buried in a tree for decades. Check it out; it’s fun! You’ll find this literally semi-hidden treasure at 2541 NW Thurman St. And if you’re *really* observant, you’ll find one of the most beautiful tiny houses imaginable in a back yard half a block east of here:

I love how Portland combines classic Manhattan-style historic apartment buildings with some of the nation’s largest urban trees. This building is at NW King & Davis, across the street from my favorite building (at least for its name): the “King Davis” condos. 🙂

When greenery isn’t constantly broken up by driveways and individual private homes, you get a much longer, continuous and cohesive flow of beautiful plants lining your neighborhood walk. This is yet another way in which higher population density can create beautiful, unique streetscapes. And the photo does no justice to the fascinating wisteria-like plants and other colors lining the sidewalk:

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Not all the buildings are old

As you can see from the section above, there are actually quite a few buildings completed long after World War II—and several being built right now—in the Alphabet District.

This building at 808 NW 19th Ave was completed in 2014:

This beautiful set of around 10 townhouses completed in 2003 are at 2415-2435 NW Thurman St, across from the very popular Dragonfly Coffee House and Food Front Co-op:

The modern attached homes border Tin House, which is an innovative publisher, library, literary magazine and headquarters for numerous writers’ workshops. I like how the silvery snow mimics the building and contrasts with the sky:

The 16-unit Quimby Court Apartments were built in 1944. They’re among around a dozen midcentury buildings that naturally provide more affordable housing than is found in either fancy new buildings or beautifully renovated century-old buildings:

Residents can save on transportation costs, since nearly everything they need is within a quarter mile. For example, Stepping Stone Cafe is right across the street. The popular cafe in a “residential area” – and it’s too bad that this is so incredibly rare. It’s a preview of my section called “Why these buildings are illegal – a history of zoning in Portland:”

Below is another of numerous large midcentury apartment buildings that offers much more affordability through a process that occurs naturally when cities allow enough housing to be built. Jane Jacobs famously said that successful urban neighborhoods need to have buildings in a variety of ages *and* conditions. I’ll reference her again in the “zoning” section.

The modest-height Westerly Condos at 2351 NW Westover Road are at the base of the West Hills. The building was hotly contested by NIMBYs (“not in my back yard”) before and during its construction in 2008. One might have gotten the impression that this building’s height was a sure sign that the world was ending. I haven’t heard a peep since its completion:

There’s still plenty of room in the neighborhood for new buildings to go up. The Astor Apartments (below) are nearing completion at 921 NW 21st Ave. The ground floor will contain several great local retailers, such as Laughing Planet Café. The older man seen here lives around the corner, at Gallagher Plaza, which provides affordable housing for elderly and disabled residents. The neighborhood provides every possible service for aging in place.

The Park 19 Apartments at 550 NW 19th Ave were built in 2008:

Muse is a brand new, very artsy and colorful apartment building at 1315 NW 19th Ave. Like nearly all apartment buildings in the Alphabet District, free and secure bicycle parking is provided:

The Argentier, at 1415 NW 24th Ave, is one block east of Wallace Park and one block west of a streetcar stop on NW “Trendy-Third.” It offers a completely different type of apartment living. Built in 1949 and completely renovated a couple years ago, it consists of just four loft-style apartments with great finishes—and low rental rates by Portland standards. The units are also tucked back in a quiet courtyard behind tall hedges:

Finally, the far east end of the Alphabet District (Slabtown) was a no man’s land for decades. But it’s now the hottest part of the district, with the most construction activity. This was inevitable, because Slabtown is the bridge between the white-hot Pearl District and the impossibly beautiful Alphabet District. The freeway that divides the two neighborhoods is no longer seen as an impenetrable barrier.

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Pedestrians enjoying every block

It’s hard to take a picture anywhere in the Alphabet District without capturing a pedestrian in it. If you don’t like encountering people walking and biking through a vibrant neighborhood, then 99.9% of American neighborhoods will suit you just fine.

Walkscore ranks the Alphabet District in the top 0.01% of all American neighborhoods for walkability; nearly every address has a Walkscore between 95 and 100.

The image below is a classic example. Dogs, people, trees and birds enjoy public spaces free of charge. But parking a car often requires payment. This is a highly unusual neighborhood that appears to value people over cars.

Most buildings have free bicycle parking. And to me, biking is by *far* the fastest, cheapest, easiest and most enjoyable way to move around this large, beautiful, and highly varied neighborhood:

The neighborhood lends itself to pop-up installations such as parklets for PARK(ing) Day. America’s first modern streetcar, running by in the background, stops a block from this game-filled installation that temporarily replaced two parking spots with a parklet in April 2017. It was installed by my friends at Opsis Architecture; they also participate in the wonderful annual Design Week Portland tour of open houses. I *highly* recommend visiting every single creative studio’s open house offered in the Alphabet District:

Many blocks of what were once parking lots on freight company Con-Way’s huge Portland campus are being converted into housing and retail. By far my favorite part of the project is that four consecutive blocks will have car-free mid-block passageways. These gorgeous features are common in the neighboring Pearl District:

You’re never more than a 5-minute walk from a Biketown station. Hop on a bike, go for an impossibly scenic ride through the neighborhood, and dock it next to your favorite cafe or pub!

Speaking of pubs, there are ways to bike & drink simultaneously while enjoying the neighborhood:

I’ve never seen another urban neighborhood with such a high percentage of seniors walking all the time. And there are plenty of different building types to suit every need. This block, with its solid brick walls rising straight up from the sidewalk, reminds me of Society Hill in historic Center City Philadelphia:

Where else do you see people walking home from work and casually stopping to look at all the varied housing?

Speaking of diverse scenes, I love how it looks like winter, spring and fall all seem to converge on one beautifully chaotic spot. People are out enjoying it while cars sit unused and covered in snow. 🙂

With so many colorful sights everywhere–not to mention great cafes within a 2-minute walk of every resident–who wouldn’t want to walk all the time in the Alphabet District?

This guy is enjoying a Biketown bike; they’re the world’s most modern and comfortable bike-share bikes. He’s crossing Flanders St. Once the Flanders Street car-free bridge goes over I-405, it will be an instant game-changer for cycling from NW Portland right through the Pearl District, leading directly to the car-free portion of the Steel Bridge. This will give people on bikes an easy, fast, safe, and super enjoyable way to bike from the Alphabet District to Portland’s east side across the Willamette River. There are many wide bike lanes in the neighborhood, but the car-free I-405 passage will surely multiply the number of people who commute downtown by bike.

Snow only makes the scene all the more magical for pedestrians. It’s yet another reason to leave the car behind.

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Retail vibrancy, even on side streets

The main shopping/cafe/restaurant streets of the Alphabet District (NW 23rd and NW 21st) are so well known throughout Portland that I’ll concentrate instead on some of the beautiful surprises you find when casually strolling through the neighborhood.

None of this retail would be possible without having sufficient population density—again, a preview of sections to come.

Cafe Nell is one of many beautiful restaurants and shops found on random corners, tucked under the tree canopy and yet providing sunny spots in which to watch the world quietly walk by.

Every time you walk the neighborhood, you’ll discover another cute retail corner—or even mid-block retail sandwiched between housing (this type of mixed use found almost nowhere else in Portland—much more on this later).

And the architecture couldn’t be more varied or charming. Pictured below at 909 NW 19th Ave is Christopher David, a cafe inside a floral & design store. Unseen in the image is one of Portland’s 150 bike corrals that replace car parking. Businesses in Portland ask for more bike corrals all the time. You can see the Italian touches applied by Chris Giovarelli:

Not surprisingly, specialty grocers and other food outlets abound in the Alphabet District. Elephants Deli, Portland’s original in a long line of specialty grocers, is reminiscent of an old-world épicerie. It’s also an ideal place to pick up salads and box lunches for those  on the run. And a store like this would be illegal today; it contains fewer than 20 parking spaces. Most people arrive here by foot and bike.

Again, NW 21st and 23rd dominate the Alphabet District’s retail scene, but this section features some of the charming side streets that almost none of the “bridge & tunnel” crowd knows about, such as this beautiful leafy stretch around 1910 NW Lovejoy that was also featured in an earlier section:

Montgomery Park, in the far northwestern corner of the neighborhood, happens to located at the exact spot where the Lewis & Clark Centennial Expo was held in 1905. The building has more office square footage than downtown Portland’s 41-story Wells Fargo Center (though much less than the “Big Pink” office tower). Only the “W” and the “D” on the historic sign were changed; it used to say MONTGOMERY WARD. The huge mixed-use building will soon be served by an extension of the Portland Streetcar.

I’ve been at numerous events in its stunning 9-story atrium. All the old Sears buildings are must-sees; I’ve taken hundreds of pictures inside every one of them, from coast to coast. Each building could be the subject of fascinating blog post:

The Wild Arts Festival Book Fair brings out dozens of my favorite local authors. Pictured with me (clearly I need a new razor) is Grant McOmie of “Grant’s Getaways,” which I record every week!

New Seasons Market is anchoring an unprecedented wave of new development where the Alphabet District meets Slabtown. I love all the environmental features incorporated into the design: living walls, bioswales, tons of bike parking, a Biketown station, four consecutive blocks of car-free corridors, etc. I only wish that Con-Way planned to *activate* the mid-block corridors with retail.

Heading a few blocks east of New Seasons: Besaw’s, The Solo Club, Breakside Brewery, etc are in the far northeastern corner of the Alphabet District. In just two years, it has transformed from a barren stretch of pavement to the hottest part of the district:

Turn the corner, and Besaw’s looks totally different and equally inviting, even in early February:

Mixing theater and cleverly named retail “seams to fit” the neighborhood:

Even on a rare snowy day, locals enjoy exploring beautiful semi-hidden retail courtyards that almost no one outside the Alphabet District is even aware of:

After hours in the same courtyard on a beautiful fall day:

Even the community centers have friendly names. Friendly House, which has served a diverse community since 1926, one of several community centers within a quarter mile. A later section will feature the amazing number and variety of resources for people of every possible mental and physical ability and background.

Even rug sellers have creative rooftop adornments:

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Plenty of historic single-family homes remain

Manhattan used to have thousands of beautiful single-family homes; the Mayor’s Mansion is the only one left. Meanwhile, the Alphabet District maintains a fascinating diversity and juxtaposition of many home and building styles. There are more intact single-family historic homes remaining than most may realize; they come in every size and style, and they blend into nearly every square block of the neighborhood. The homes date as far back as the 1870s, and many hold stories of Portland’s early business and government leaders.

Just one of many such homes, for example, is Portland’s greatest remaining house that  was designed by legendary local architect Albert E. Doyle. Completed in 1908 and located at 2642 NW Lovejoy (just below a beautiful set of public stairs leading into the West Hills), this home is across the street from the most innovative car I’ve ever heard of; it’s a car that almost no one is aware of, even though it’s hidden in plain sight. The car became the focus of a separate blog post whose parallel theme is all about the incredible discoveries that can be made when walking through a neighborhood and really noticing what’s around you.

Of all the homes designed by David C. Lewis, who also designed many of the buildings for the 1905 and 1909 World’s Fairs, the Walter & Myrtle Honeyman House (completed in 1911) stands as the purest example of  the Tudor Revival style. A beautiful public stairway accesses this house that has panoramic views of several glaciated peaks and all of Portland.

The home pictured below, built in 1892, belonged to Portland’s first Jewish mayor, Munich-born Bernard Goldsmith. In his short term (1869-71), he added to Portland’s collection of park blocks (which began in 1852; they precede New York’s Central Park!). He also purchased 40 acres in the hills that would later become the centerpiece of what’s now called Washington Park. He even paid $200,000 of his own money (in 1871!) to help create a system of locks that would allow goods produced in the Willamette Valley to reach Portland by Willamette River shipping. He’s regarded as one of Portland’s most successful mayors. Goldsmith switched parties during the Civil War to support President Lincoln in opposing slavery.

Here’s another view of the Goldsmith Home (1507 NW 24th Ave, at Quimby St), which was narrowly saved from demolition when neighbors bought the home from Lake Oswego-based developer Marty Kehoe. The Shingle Style home was designed by Edgar Lazarus, who designed many famous buildings in Oregon (Vista House in the Columbia Gorge, Salem’s Dome Building, Astoria’s Clatsop County Courthouse, etc).

The George F Willett home pictured below was built in 1911. It occupies a rare large, level lot. It was saved from bulldozers when neighbors came together to buy the house. It has scrolled brackets, an iron balcony and a portico under a Palladian arch:

These colorful townhouses are actually separate homes; they’re each separated from their neighbors by an inch of sound-proofing. It’s a little touch of San Francisco “painted ladies” in Portland. They span the entire 2300 block of NW Overton St:

The George F Heusner House is a Shingle Style home built in 1892:

The Sackett House, built in 1896, is a more modest Queen Anne style home. It’s just three doors down from the very popular Stepping Stone Cafe that occupies a corner spot in the heart of a residential area. There are dozens of gorgeous old homes lining NW 24th and 25th avenues:

There are plenty of older single-family homes in the neighborhood that aren’t mansions. Many of them are creatively “decked out” and otherwise decorated, such as this house:

This home at 1333 NW 24th Ave, built in 1904, was home for a half-century to the Boys and Girls Aid Society of Portland. It’s another preview of the “Serving the needs of a diverse community” section:

The E.S. Jackson Home is a Colonial Revival, built in 1902:

If you walk up any number of gorgeous public stairways leading up into the steep hills directly above the neighborhood, you’ll, of course, encounter tons of stunning homes. Below are just two out of hundreds of them.

Portland-based rock group Everclear has a famous song called “I Will Buy You a New Life” in which they sing, “I will buy you a garden where your flowers can bloom. I will buy you a new car, perfect, shiny, and new. I will buy you that big house way up in the West Hills.” But many large, old homes remain in the flat part of the Alphabet District, as well. And many of them have been creatively re-used, as the next section will show.

Walking the neighborhood will reveal old homes in seemingly every style. This section is just a tiny preview of what you’ll find in the Alphabet District. Go, explore and enjoy! 🙂 Walking is free, and if doctors could name the best possible magic pill for health, they’d call it “Walk for 30 minutes daily.” Again, you’ll never be bored walking here.

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Adaptively re-used single-family homes

A great way to save old homes is to convert them into all kinds of creative re-uses. For example, the beautiful Victorian below, completed in 1894, is now home to the Portland Theosophical Society Library at 2377 NW Kearney:

What few realize is that there are also many *very small* single-family houses in the neighborhood. And many are home to creative businesses–and sandwiched between buildings of different types. This NEVER happens in other Portland neighborhoods–again, a preview of an upcoming section.

For example, the house below reminds me of the famous “Up” house in Seattle that inspired Disney’s “Up” movie, as well as a “99% Invisible” podcast episode titled “Holdout” to which I highly recommend listening.

This is an entire block of really cute little houses that are bookended by large corner buildings:

The home below (the Isam White House, designed by Whidden & Lewis in 1904) belongs to friends of mine who run Arciform (which does a wonderful job bringing stories of dozens of Portland historic homes back to life). It’s one of the last grand Colonial Revival homes in the neighborhood that’s still a residential home. Construction is evident in the photo; they’re adding several residential units within the home:

9-story Williams Plaza is literally right in their back yard, as you can see above—and they don’t mind at all. In fact, my friends say that Williams Plaza residents are great neighbors! The building is a public housing (Home Forward) apartment community with over 100 units, many of which cater to the elderly and persons with various ranges of disabilities. It’s a classic juxtaposition that’s just not found in other neighborhoods—and it’s a preview of my favorite section of this entire post: “Serving the needs of a diverse community.”

Speaking of preview of future sections…Below is a preview of the “zoning” section on zoning. Most of the homes and commercial apartment buildings I’m showing here (along streets not “zoned” for them) would be illegal today, for a variety of reasons, one of which is that there’s “not enough parking” provided. The low parking ratio seems inversely proportional to this neighborhood’s popularity and walkability. But if you’re someone who likes (or needs) to drive and park multiple times daily, the Alphabet District won’t be a good fit if your residence doesn’t offer private parking.

Several homes have been expanded and subdivided in creative ways. I think I counted 7 mailboxes on this house. Some hate the design, but I love the variety. The Alphabet District is *never* boring.

Only in the Alphabet District would a hair salon be tucked into a small house that’s itself tucked beneath a large apartment building:

Several old mansions in the neighborhood have been converted into law offices, such as this beautiful home completed in 1908:

The creative re-use of old homes is just amazing. I SOOO wish other neighborhoods would have even a fourth the amount of mixed uses on residential streets. Stepping Stone Cafe is very popular, even on cold winter mornings.

And many have been converted to other uses today. Counting mailboxes will often show homes that have been converted into four-plexes in ways that are invisible from the street. I have many such pictures, but I invite you to walk the neighborhood and discover them for yourself! 🙂

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Serving the needs of a diverse community

This might be my favorite aspect of the Alphabet District. It’s also probably the neighborhood’s least known feature. Blending in among all the diverse homes and buildings are organizations that serve people of every possible type. Social service agencies have filled many of this neighborhood’s historic homes since the 1950s, and it had the double benefit of saving these irreplaceable locally designed treasures.

Though the pictures are nowhere near as scenic as those in this post’s other sections, it’s the most meaningful section to me. I’ve always wanted to share stories about some of the incredible organizations serving a diverse community—including many that are hidden in plain sight in gorgeous old homes.

For example, many Portlanders will recognize the mansion pictured above; it occupies a prominent, elevated corner at 909 NW 24th Ave. But few are aware of the great organization housed inside. (Note: Built in 1904, the stunning Colonial Revival home was almost entirely rebuilt following a fire in August 1989.) The building is home to the Alano Club, a unique community center that serves as Oregon’s largest and oldest resource center for individuals and families recovering from a variety of addictions and disorders. Alano Club holds over 100 recovery support meetings, seminars, workshops, yoga and meditation classes, and more each week.

Below is, of course, a totally different type of recovery center. Most urban neighborhoods would NEVER allow a giant hospital to be plopped right down in the middle of single-family blocks, but the Alphabet District is full of beautiful dichotomies like this. Legacy Good Samaritan literally breaks up the exact center of Portland’s greatest retail street (NW 23rd)—and no one complains. It also offers literal reflections of a variety of architecture and nature:

But what almost NO ONE notices (because people rarely explore anything 10 steps outside of their normal routes) is the hospital’s beautiful, totally publicly accessible block-long corridor filled with healing gardens and horticultural therapy!

I had a nice talk with this woman as we admired many of the creative art in this car-free mid-block passageway provided by the hospital. We agreed that almost *no one* explores their own city enough to spot treasures like this found all over Portland. 🙂

There are several environmental aspects to the healing gardens, as well. Interpretive signs describe the solar and water features in a peaceful semi-covered environment:

There are also several large Home Forward affordable housing projects in the Alphabet District. This building at 2140 NW Kearney St is called Gallagher Plaza. It’s a Section 8 apartment community that has a waiting list preference for seniors with a disability. I had a nice long talk with the woman in this picture:

Portland’s grandest extant Richardsonian Shingle style house is the MacKenzie House, built in 1892.  It’s now known as the William Temple House, which is at 2023 NW Hoyt St, across from Couch Park.  The nonprofit social services agency supports individuals and families from throughout the area with affordable mental health counseling, spiritual care, and emergency assistance for healthy food, hygiene items, clothing, dental and vision care, rent, utilities, and more. They also operate the William Temple House Thrift Store, a resale shop benefiting our programs and client services.

The home looks equally inviting in winter:

Some of Portland’s oldest diverse-community-centered religious organizations are also found in the neighborhood. The beautiful Byzantine Revival Jewish temple built in 1928 is home to Congregation Beth Israel. This is merely the centerpiece of a beautiful Jewish campus and community that also contains the Sherman Education Center, the Amy R. Goldsmith Library, Shemanski Chapel, Blumauer Auditorium, Miller Room, the WRJ/BIS Judaica Gift Shop, Schnitzer Family Center, Pollin Chapel, Lipman Foyer, Goodman Reception Hall, Robert P. Weil Administrative Offices and the Shirley & Herbert Semler Board Room. The Oregon Jewish Museum also happens to be just four blocks north of here.

Speaking of the Jewish community, you can even pass Vera Katz’s old house while walking there! Beloved (and sadly recently departed) long-time Mayor Katz has such an incredible biography that I wouldn’t know where to begin.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral proudly welcomes people of all faiths:

Both Trinity Cathedral and St Mary’s Cathedral (one block to the east) serve free food daily to an incredibly diverse community of need. And both campuses are fully ADA accessible and completely open to the public.

Green Gables Guest House (2183 NW Northrup St) provides low-cost housing (just $25 per room) for out-of-town patients who lack the strength or ability to travel each day to and from the hospital or who need to be near a patient.

Green Gables is even located directly at a stop of the Portland Streetcar.

Finally, no great urban neighborhood would be complete without a great public school or two. Chapman Elementary is extremely popular, and Portland’s top-rated public high school (Lincoln) is a 5-minute walk from the southern edge of the Alphabet District.

Chapman is also where the world’s greatest concentration of Vaux’s Swifts dives into the school’s giant chimney every night in September, drawing thousands. Kids love to sled downhill while waiting for the Swifts. I have a long post about a particularly rare night while watching the Swifts! 🙂

In short, the Alphabet District is much, MUCH more than what outsiders view it as: “Restaurant Row” (a very inaccurate characterization of NW 21st) and “Trendy-Third” (NW 23rd). It also clearly offers generous services and housing for a huge variety of needs.

In fact, there’s a 100% affordable project being proposed at 624 NW 18th (that’s between Hoyt (the 6th letter past “Burnside”) and Irving (7 blocks north of Burnside). I’ll be following the development closely! The nearby historic Buck-Prager building at 1727 NW Hoyt St might also become affordable housing.

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Why these mixed uses are illegal nearly everywhere in Portland – a brief history of Portland zoning

A century ago, Portland created some of the most beautiful middle-density, middle-income housing in the U.S. I like to think of them as a unique Pacific Northwest answer to East Coast rowhouses. The apartments and their lush landscaping and trees have aged beautifully over the decades.

Until 1959, all kinds of residential housing were allowed in every part of every neighborhood in Portland, except for some locations in Laurelhurst, Eastmoreland, Overlook and the West Hills.

Notice how similar the apartment building below (along ultra-popular Hawthorne in Inner Southeast Portland) looks to several in the Alphabet District. It was built in 1911, decades before Portland decided to severely restrict development nearly everywhere outside of commercial corridors to single-family lots. Now, with the city more popular than ever (and with well over 100 people moving to the metro area *every single day*), housing like this is desperately needed throughout the city:

In the original 1924 zoning code, the vast majority of Portland’s developable land was designated Zone II (multi-family). Even well into the 1950s, very few areas (mainly wealthy areas in the hills) got converted to Zone I (single-family).

Equally importantly, single linear blocks often contained—totally legally—a wide variety of buildings and uses. For example, Fire Station 17 (below) was built in 1913; its seven nearest neighbors include two small homes, two mansions, two apartment buildings, and a cafe located in a historic home. This mid-block “disruption” (in a block that has aged beautifully) *never* appears in any other Portland neighborhood—or in nearly any other American neighborhood.

Then, the post-WWII era filled everyone with fantasies about escaping to newly developing suburbs. The private auto ruled literally every decision made regarding land use, zoning, parking and urban planning in general. From 1946 until the late 1950s, St Louis-based Earl Mills traveled throughout the West, promoting his private-car-based code with great success. Portland was one of many cities that totally overhauled its zoning code.

In 1959, the zoning code that we’re largely stuck with today was adopted. There are currently fierce negotiations on changing the code, but to me they don’t go nearly far enough.

There are a few “cottage cluster” communities in Portland’s very popular (and incredibly expensive) Inner Southeast/Northeast neighborhoods, but, naturally, they were all built before 1959, when apartments were discouraged (and were suddenly made illegal nearly everywhere), and cars and suburban lifestyles were all the rage—and “parking minimums” began to rule our urban land use.

The beautiful multi-building Mediterranean-style apartment complex pictured below (address: 3087 SE Ankeny St) was built in 1928. It’s just east of where the old “East Ankeny Line” (historic streetcar) turned off of Ankeny and headed north on 28th Avenue, which is still a major commercial district. It’s *stunning* in the spring, when the magnolias and rhododendrons explode in color. And all that time residents can don’t have to spend landscaping can be enjoyed two blocks away at one of Portland’s favorite parks, Laurelhurst.  The housing below is some of the most affordable—and literally coziest—in Laurelhurst. And it’s totally illegal to build now:

The Buckman Gardens Apartments at 537-539 SE 15^th Ave are also obviously illegal today, since they’re in the dominant “R5” zone (one house per 5000-square-foot lot). Not only do they offer a very rare affordable option to $1+ million homes found everywhere in the vicinity, but they have whimsical touches such as electrical boxes that are painted in bold, playful colors. Good thing they were built before 1959:

And the gardens in the center of this affordable cottage cluster are maintained year-round by one of the residents. It’s ideal “missing middle housing” that’s so badly needed, especially within several miles of downtown Portland.

The image below depicts one of the most fascinating mish-mashes of building styles, ages I’ve seen in all my travels—and I’m always seeking them out. NC3D, an ultra-modern design agency (whose 3D Portland city model is something design nerds *must* see) is immediately surrounded by a junky old auto repair shop, a new apartment building, a brownfield, and an animal hospital—and the occasional pop-up nano-brewery and indoor-outdoor open houses.

In 2015, former Metro Councilor and Alphabet District resident Robert Liberty wrote a love letter to his old neighborhood called “My Illegal Neighborhood” in which he talks about all the great urban features that are now illegal in most cities.

Portland for Everyone‘s Michael Andersen quoted Robert Liberty’s letter in his own great photo-dominated article for BikePortland that also focused entirely on the Alphabet District; fittingly, in these days of the greatest housing affordability crisis Portland has ever faced, his article is titled, “Portland’s best model for population growth without catastrophe is right in front of us.”

I couldn’t agree more with the great observations that Robert Liberty and Michael Andersen made about this great neighborhood!

Decades earlier, of course, Jane Jacobs wrote the now famous four necessary conditions (but not necessarily sufficient) for creating thriving diverse districts. The Alphabet District clearly meets all four:

1. Short blocks (Portland’s blocks are famously short—just 200 feet long, not including intersections). Michelle Stockwell explains this criterion really well: “Short blocks ensure that pedestrians aren’t limited to an isolated route. Allowing frequent opportunities to turn the corner and explore a new path can enrich the social life of a district and help businesses in all locations flourish. This gives the independent grocer or new bookstore a fighting chance of attracting customers, strengthening the economy overall.”
2. A variety of ages *and conditions* of buildings. Michelle Stockwell again does a great job of summarizing its importance: “Buildings must be mixed in age and condition so that people of all socio-economic backgrounds are able to make the neighborhood home and participate in its economic life. Aging buildings are necessary in order to be able to host non-profits, artist studios, and affordable housing units. Older buildings and lower rents create opportunities for news businesses to gain their footing.”
3. Primary mixed uses; this ensures that people visit the area on different schedules and for different purposes, while using many of the same facilities. This helps keep the area activated throughout the day and evening with all kinds of people.
4. A sufficiently high *population density* to make the “sidewalk ballet” come to life.

I’ll end with my favorite only-in-the-Alphabet-District example of crazy juxtapositions. Below is Thunder Road Guitars, at 1024 NW 19th Ave. There’s a single-family house directly behind it. And they’re both crammed between—literally touching on both sides—large apartment buildings. And a perfectly flowering Crape Myrtle is thrown in for good measure. The whole scene looks like something out of the movie “Up,” with the thousands of flowers representing the thousands of balloons that launched the cartoon house, well, up!

The Alphabet District successfully dodges the colonial imperialist separation of “home zone” from “work zone” and other 100% private-auto-based separations of single-purpose areas. Modern zoning rewards both sprawl and large new developments that appear successful in the short term. But the long-term consequences are devastating, both financially and environmentally.

Finally, I wish to conclude with a bit of a sidebar that’s worth mentioning, as I’ve thought constantly about great urbanists while creating this post. For example, Charles Marohn of Strong Towns talks weekly about how post-WWII development patterns are making our cities broke; no one explains it more clearly for the lay person than he does. Every elected official and city planner in the U.S. needs to pay very close attention to Strong Towns.

Chuck also offers a very low-cost alternative model of development. It features insights from some of my favorite urban thinkers: Mike Lydon (of tactical urbanism fame), Portland’s own R John Anderson (a nationally known small developer educator), and Paul Stewart (whose work to turn Oswego, New York around is a *must* read).

Portland and its peer cities (Seattle, Austin, Denver, etc) have nothing short of a housing *emergency*; housing supply continues to fall *thousands* of units behind demand every single year. The Alphabet District, while far from perfect, provides a model that planners in many American cities need to study as they review post-WWII downzones that increasingly create low-density cities that cater increasingly to the wealthiest or luckiest few.

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Bonus section: incredible scenery found within and just outside the Alphabet District

The Alphabet District is in the center of–but hidden in–the picture below. It lies directly between all the buildings in the foreground (the Pearl District) and the deeply forested hills of aptly named Forest Park. Nowhere else in the U.S. do so many great urban and nature elements come together in such close proximity: America’s widest river, a 5100-acre forested city park, hills reaching over 1000 feet above downtown, every type of land-based public transit, widely varied architecture, and dense vibrant neighborhoods.

Here’s a closer view of a tiny part of the West Hills:

From Chapman Elementary (referenced above, where large crowds gather in September to watch the Vaux’s Swifts), there’s a beautiful, steep trail through the woods that leads to Pittock Mansion, where you’ll have views of the skyline and Mt Hood such as this:

The view is pretty cool in the winter, as well:

Here’s another view of the crowds that gather every evening in September to watch thousands of Vaux’s Swifts descent almost all at once into Chapman Elementary’s chimney. I have a separate post with many more pictures taken on the most unusual type of evening.

This is one of the most photographed Japanese Maples in the U.S.:

I actually took this shot on the same day. It’s amazing how much the colors seemed to change under different lighting. This was 2 hours earlier:

Between Hoyt Arboretum, the Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden, the World Forestry Center, the many powerful memorials, and all the trails and historic reservoirs in the park, you could explore Washington Park for years and never be bored:

The International Rose Test Garden is America’s premier rose garden. I’ve taken hundreds of far more scenic pictures of this garden than the one below, but I don’t have time to go through them. This is the first one I came across, and it’s good enough for now. 🙂

But the biggest attraction by far to lucky Alphabet District residents is Forest Park, the nation’s largest urban forested park (5100 acres). It’s incredible to have such a stunning park *exactly 1 kilometer* west of the Northwest’s most iconic shopping street (NW 23rd):

Forest Park is a world-class free public amenity. People in the Alphabet District spend far less time taking care of huge lawns and much more time in REAL nature. Often in winter, Forest Park will be snowy, while nearby downtown will have no snow.

Here’s a fact that’s surely never appeared on any blog until now: The main entrance to Forest Park (close to where this couple is holding hands) is exactly 10,000 feet from Pioneer Courthouse Square, the center of downtown Portland. I love seeking cool numerical coincidences like this. 🙂

There are many other great options for recreational walkers, runners, cyclists and paddlers in the Alphabet District. The river is just two blocks from the NE edge of the neighborhood. And every single morning, regardless of the weather, walkers and runners love to climb the Alphabet District’s many public stairways. This woman is about to reach the base of one of them. The image’s background is all the new towers in the Pearl District, along with the Fremont Bridge to the left and Mt Hood to the right:

These are the stairs she’s climbing. I absolutely love such unusual scenes like this in the heart of a big city. I’ve also been a guest at the beautiful B&B from which this picture was taken. It was about 15 years ago, and the owner (Betty) was about 85 years old. I don’t know the current status of the owner or the B&B. 🙂

At the top of the stairs, one’s immediately rewarded by a clear shot of Mt St Helens. Mt Hood and Mt Rainier (hiding behind Mt St Helens in this shot) are also visible from here:

Go out and spend a day or a week in the Alphabet District—aka Nob Hill, or “Northwest.” Whatever you call it, ENJOY it! You’ll never be bored. And my sincerest hope is that other neighborhoods and especially our civic leaders can learn a LOT from observing the beautiful mixed uses found on nearly every block of this amazing neighborhood.