Alameda Old House History

Albert Hugh Irwin was born in Cheboygan, Michigan on March 26, 1893 and came west as a youngster, settling in as a helper on a farm near Vanora, an unincorporated rural area northwest of Madras in Jefferson County.

3650 NE Merges Drive, built by A.H. Irwin in 1929. Photo courtesy of Paul Crocker.

He attended Oregon State College (now OSU) from 1913-1915 studying topics ranging from agriculture to architecture. Irwin enlisted and served in the military during World War I. Arriving in Portland in the early 1920s on the crest of a building boom, Irwin took to designing and building fine homes in northeast Portland and in the West Hills, many of them clustered in Beaumont and Alameda, several near NE Merges and 38^th.

In addition to designing and building homes, Irwin built a Buddhist temple in 1931 on North Benton Street, which no longer exists, cleared in the 1960s to make room for construction of Memorial Coliseum (Benton Street no longer appears on Portland maps). In 1938 he built the Helen Bernhardt Bakery building at 1717 NE Broadway.

In all, Irwin is known to have built 31 homes, several of them of significant size. His designs from the late 1920s and early 1930s utilize similar materials: rough stone around a rounded wooden door; steeply peaked roofs; ornate front windows. These earlier designs tend toward Tudor and Norman influences. His later homes utilize brick and tend toward Colonial influences. A complete listing of houses he built, is as follows:

Houses Built By Albert H. Irwin

NORTH

2515 Willamette Blvd           1938

2939 Willamette Blvd          1940

6136 N. Wilbur                       1922

NORTHEAST

2807 NE Brazee                      1925

2826 NE Brazee                      1925

2905 NE Brazee                      1925

2925 NE Brazee                      1925

3015 NE Brazee                      1925

3025 NE Brazee                      1925

 1717 NE Broadway               1938

635 NE Hazelfern                   1929

3236 NE Hoyt                          1921

3621 NE Klickitat                  1940

3715 NE Klickitat                  1940

 3630 NE Merges                     1929

3645 NE Merges                     1929

3650 NE Merges                     1929

3655 NE Merges                     1929

3660 NE Merges                     1929

 3046 NE 10^th                          1925

NE 18^th and Fremont           1921    John Irwin House (Brother, no specific address listed)

2321 NE 28^th                           1928

2415 NE 30^th                          1925

2425 NE 30^th                          1925

2507 NE 30^th                          1925

2508 NE 30^th                          1925

2805 NE 32^nd Place                1938

2815 NE 32^nd Place                1938

3045 NE 32^nd Place                1937

3117 NE 32^nd Place                1939

3126 NE 32^nd Place                1940

3120 NE 37^th Ave                   1928

3124 NE 37^th                            1928

1546 NE 51^st                             1922

SOUTHEAST

1193 SE Garfield (old address not yet converted) 1931

2233 SE Grant                           1925

7110 SE Lafayette                   1923

2304 SE Lincoln                     1925

2314 SE Lincoln                      1925

2612 SE Lincoln                      1923    A.H. Irwin Residence

2622 SE Lincoln                     1923

7535 Reed College Place     1931

3448 SE Sherman                    1922

1940 SE 27^th                           1923

1928 SE 27^th                           1923

3105 NE 60^th                          1923

3519 SE 71^st                            1923

1328 SE 86^th Ave.                   1923

SOUTHWEST

2661 SW Buena Vista Drive   1931

2667 SW Buena Vista Drive   1931

9420 SW Capitol Highway      1937

4405 SW Condor                     1925

2656 SW Georgian Drive        1929

2515 S.W. Timberline             1963    Built for son-in-law Jack Crocker

2323 S.W. 19^th                         1941

NORTHWEST

3087 NW Greenbrier Place     1936

Architect and builder Albert Hugh Irwin and his wife Ruth Marie Irwin. Taken in 1973. Photo courtesy of Paul Crocker, A.H. Irwin Collection.

Irwin’s interest in developing fine homes led to a career in real estate. In 1938, with his wife Ruth Marie Irwin (1899-2006), he opened the A.H. Irwin Company, later renamed the Irwin Realty Company, based at NE 27^th and Broadway. Albert and Ruth raised two daughters-Patricia Crocker and Susan Mosely-in their home on Northeast Clackamas in Laurelhurst. Irwin was active in business until his death at age 87 on August 21, 1980.

-Doug Decker