History of the bungalow at 4624 NE Fremont Street in Portland, Oregon

This home is located in Beaumont, “the beautiful mount” so named to highlight the heightened elevation above the rest of the city. Built in 1914, this classic Craftsman Bungalow was featured in the Oregonian on Feb 25, 1999 in the article “What Makes a Bungalow?”. The feature used a photograph of the home to highlight all the classic architectural details of the Craftsman style.

The original home owner was Herbert Bryan Ewbank, Jr., a New Yorker and inventor who worked for Thomas Edison prior to moving out west, according to the Oregon Historical Society. The invention that he was marketing was the Ewbank electric transmission car which was placed in service briefly by Southern Pacific on 4/19/1914. This new electric transmission replaced the gas motor and the electric trolley. A photo of Mr. Ewbank seated in the engine with his invention was purchased from the University of Oregon Archives and is posted in the home above the unique glass-framed electric panel.

Mr. Ewbank’s future was rosy in 1914; he built a beautiful home for his new wife, Hattie. The home stretched along Fremont Street for one city block. (Note the original hedge along Fremont between 46th Street and 47th Street). The garden was grand, a former neighbor remembers a pool and even a pony. A dumb waiter was constructed to haul coal up to the kitchen. The interior walls were originally painted in a ‘bungalow’ shade of green. The exterior concrete block was a new material at the time: An Oregonian article “Concrete is Used—Results are Striking” proclaimed that “the concrete block houses seem to afford a wide and varied range of design to the architect, as much as does wood or any other material, while the general impression gained is that the structure is an extremely high-priced stone building”. The advantages have been a cooling effect in summers and natural insulation in the winter without the normal exterior maintenance required from other materials. (No dry-rot, ever!). The original one-of-a-kind mission iron latches adorn the French doors and windows.

A fifties-style makeover left marmoleum in the breakfast room and a new sunroom fashioned out of the covered side porch. The kitchen was remodeled at this time and then updated again with top-end appliances, granite and flooring in 2005 by the current owner.

The home is listed in Portland’s Historic Resources Inventory published in the early 1980s which can be found in the library downtown. It is listed as ‘architecturally significant’ and could qualify as ‘historically significant’ for the National Register of Historic Places if more research was done regarding the architect/builder.

At some point, the large grounds became undesirable and the house became a rental. A developer purchased it and proposed to the planning commission that the historic home would not be demolished but would be surrounded by new condos that would mimic and compliment the original style of the Craftsman home. (See the article The Purple Box Pox from The Sunday Oregonian on March 16, 2008 describing this concept and highlighted in this website alamedahistory.org to get a feeling for the neighborhood and its rich history).

My name is Dennis Eckols and I currently live a 4160 N.E. Alameda. Prior to that I lived at 2866 N.E. Dunckley. I’m not usre if this is of interest, but our home on Dunckley was supposedly built by Carl Mays. This was told to us by the neghbor behind us who has since passed away. Carl Mays in an infamous character. He was a professional baseball player and played for both the Yankee’s and Red Sox but was generally disliked by all even though he was one of the best pitchers in baseball between 1916 and 1926. He supposedly built the house and moved to Portland to get away from the media and attention. He is only one of 2 pitchers in history to kill a batter by hitting him with a pitch. He was also accused of some other shady things, but they were never proven I don’t think.

The house on Dunckley sits on 2 lots and we loved living there. There was a room above the garage where the maid supposedly lived according to our neighbor, but I can’t imagine doing that. Although, based on the storeis about Carl, maybe I should.

Dennis Eckols
503-284-1641