With less than a week until Christmas–and everyone talking about favorite books–I thought I would start a list of books you should have on your shelf if you are a fan of old houses. Please feel free to suggest from your library….

The Seattle Bungalow, by Janet Ore, University of Washington Press, 2007. This is an excellent, readable, personal and thought-provoking social history of the Pacific Northwest bungalow. Don’t get hung up by the title, though it does focus on the bungalow in the Seattle area, virtually all of what you read is applicable to how people were feeling about their beloved houses in Portland too. This could be renamed “How the Bungalow Saved The Industrializing World.” You need to read this book.

Wade Hampton Pipes: Arts and Crafts Architect in Portland, Oregon, by Anne Brewster Clarke, Binford and Mort Publishing, 1986. This thoughtfully researched and written monograph details the life and work of the prolific Portland architect and includes many photos and details about his houses, including one in the Alameda Park neighborhood.

Architects of Oregon: A Biographical Dictionary of Architects, by Richard Ellison Ritz, Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. This excellent source covers 650 Oregon architects, including many who specialized in residential work, including houses right here in Alameda. You’ll find it for sale at the Architectural Heritage Center.

The History & Development of Portland’s Irvington Neighborhood, by Roy E. Roos, self-published, 1997. This is a great home-grown work that describes how our next-door-neighborhood evolved. Roy’s work provides insight into prominent local builders, many of whom were busy in the Alameda neighborhood too.

The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain De Botton, Pantheon Books, 2006. While not directly about residential architecture, this book takes on the question of why and how we make connections with the spaces in which we live and work. This is a book that will have you appreciating your own four walls in new ways.

Other suggestions?