Irvington in Brief...
Few city neighborhoods in the West have
the variety and quality of early 20th Century residential architecture
to equal Portland's historic Irvington Neighborhood.
Portland's population boomed in the years after 1900, spurred by the
1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition. With the west side of the Willamette
River fully built up, the city expanded to the east side trolley car suburbs like
Irvington in the years from 1900 through 1948 (when trolley
car service was suspended).
Upper middle class Portlanders built
substantial Irvington houses in the styles common to the period -- Arts
and Crafts, Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Prairie Style, Bungalow -- many
with an inventiveness and creative touch freed from East Coast
architectural proprieties.
And now,
Irvington has been designated a National Register listed
Historic District. The largest Historic District in
Oregon, Irvington comprises over 2800 properties, of which
85% are considered "contributing" and retain their original
appearance. Strolling Irvington's leafy streets is
like walking through a time warp into the first years of the
20th Century.
Come
see for yourself...
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