Waiting for the #15 bus, I got to looking at these two houses located on Belmont just off Cesar Chavez. They seem to be the same house and presumably built the same time, so I thought it would be fun to do a comparison. Plus, I get to geek out with Portland Maps.
This is 3921 & 3923 SE Belmont. It was built in 1908 and is a duplex. It has 2,169 square feet. Both residences in the duplex are owned by a couple with an address in another part of the city so this is presumably a rental. The couple purchased the house in 2001 for (get ready to clutch your hearts, real estate hunters of today) $132,000. Portland Maps tells me that it also sold in 1992 for $59,000 and in 1991 for $42,500. It's current assessed value is $198,500 and its market value is $273,700. There are some fun historic permits on file for plumbing inspections.
This is 3927 and 3939 SE Belmont. It is owned by a couple who live in the house, though I assume they rent out the second unit. It was built one year earlier, in 1907, and is a tiny bit bigger at 2,171 sq feet. The couple bought the house in 2003 for (again, get ready to clutch your hearts) $47,800. The type of sale is listed as Bargain Sale and Deed and I don't know if that's why it was such a steal, selling for so much less than its neighbor. The historic permits on file list Albertsons, Inc. as the owner in 1965.
The upper story: you can see the type of siding and the roof which I would characterize as in good condition.
This one has shingled siding and what I would guess is a new roof.
Second story. It looks like the windows have been replaced with newer vinyl-style. You can also see the "peak" of the porch is placed to the right on this house.
This house still has the old aluminum frame windows and the "peak" is placed further to the left on this house.
Here, our house has an open porch, probably retaining the same style as it was built with.
This house has an enclosed porch, which I am not a fan of. They seem less pleasant to hang out on and they tend to become a place to stack things.
One thing that interested me was that both houses have heavy 60s/70s era doors that don't match the rest of the house.
Based on this, I assumed that both houses were owned by the same owner some time in their past. But no! Was there a traveling door-to-door door salesman with an irresistible pitch?
The carved wood, the dark stain, the brass mail slot! Does not match!!!
It looks like these steps have been scraped. Perhaps they are getting ready for a new coat of paint?
The steps on this house are not as wide.
These columns look as though they've been renovated at some point.
I would bet these are original.
Thus ends our comparison/contrast.
This was a really cool post! Loved the various comparisons. Is there any way of knowing whether the houses had the same builder? They look so similar, and were built so chronologically close together, that I would think they did. I'm not a fan of enclosed porches either. I wonder when they were "in fashion"? (Note: Enclosed, or at least screened-in, porches make sense in the South because of bugs.)
ReplyDeleteThey didn't list the builder, which would have been cool. I'm wondering if these were Sears houses? There are a lot of houses in Portland that were ordered through the Sears Roebuck catalog.
ReplyDeleteAfter I wrote this I read about "Buckman Threes" which are three of the same house built in a row and the Buckman neighborhood has a lot of them. Builders built three of the same for economies of scale, I guess. So maybe this is a "Belmont Two" if it's not a mail order house.
Or maybe there was a third that just doesn't exist any longer?
DeleteGood point. That's a possibility too. I wonder what the next house in the line looks like. Or, there could have been one on the corner, where the building is now.
ReplyDeleteThis is a ncie feature. Please do more comparison posts whenever possible. This Out&About-er quite enjoys them!!!
ReplyDelete