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The Hancock Street Fourplex

An English Cottage Styled Apartment Building
1414 NE Hancock Street

The area of Irvington between Tillamook and busy Broadway has long been a battleground between apartment developers who sought to exploit its proximity to stores and transportation and the single-family home-owners who valued the character of this neighborhood of stately homes.  As early as 1920, several large, rather awkward apartment buildings were constructed as in-fill on previously unsold lots.  The residents fought back, and stopped at least one such project.  This, plus the potential for higher rents from more attractive, more compatible buildings appear to have motivated the 1928 builders of this 4-plex to create a charming structure which could easily be mistaken for a single family house.  In doing so, they produced what may well be the only English Cottage style multi-unit residence in Portland.

The spacious units, fine woodwork, original oil paintings, art-tiled fireplace surrounds, and custom light fixtures which set this building off as one of the finer apartments in Portland, remain largely intact, providing further justification for the nomination of this building as a remarkably well preserved example of English Cottage and multi-family architecture from the 1920's.

Key characteristics of this architectural style as found in this building are the "medium-pitched gable roof with rolled eaves, prominent chimneys, small-paned windows, round-arched openings, and stucco and wide-shingle siding... climbing vines and window boxes full of colorful flowers lend a 'storybook' quality to the building." (from the National Register Nomination)