Robert Ballantine Beat was one of Portland’s most influential and respected residential builders of the 19-teens and 1920s, producing more than 350 quality homes, many of his own design, in Alameda, Laurelhurst, Grant Park, Dolph Park, Eastmoreland, Portland Heights and Westover. He built more than 100 houses in Irvington, where he lived with his wife Mary and two sons.

Beat was a member of the Master Builders Association, known early in his career for his focus on Arts and Crafts style homes. In later years, he expanded his repertoire to include other styles including Mediterranean, French Manor, Spanish colonial and English cottage. Like many Portland builders, Beat re-used his designs in the neighborhoods where he worked. Here’s a very similar house in Laurelhurst at 3428 NE Hassalo built about the same time as 2704. From The Oregonian on March 19, 1916. The front porch balcony was a variation he made on other four-squares though he also favored the gabled porch present at 2704.

Beat frequently built houses on speculation as “owner/builder” and during his busy years there were always new Robert Beat-built homes advertised in the classified ads. His newspaper display ads often looked said

“You can’t beat a ‘Beat’ house: Beautiful – majestic – lasting.”

“An Honor Built home by Robert Beat”

Beat was born in Perth, Scotland on May 16, 1873. As a young man, he worked for a time in the Kimberly diamond mines near Johannesburg, South Africa. During his time there, he sent a ticket home for his childhood sweetheart Mary Rae Guillan, who joined him in South Africa where the couple married. Starting out on a new chapter in 1906, they immigrated to San Francisco, arriving on April 12, 1906. Six days later, when the great earthquake struck that city, the Beats lost everything and kept moving to Portland. Eldest son David was born in Portland on October 27, 1906. Son Robert Beat was born here on November 7, 1913. They lived for many years in Irvington. The family had a cottage—designed and built by Beat—in Seaside they called Glenalmond, after a famous lodge in Scotland

In the years that followed, Beat built a reputation as a fair businessman and careful builder with a designer’s eye. Though he drew many of the plans himself, he was never a trained or registered architect. The first home built by Beat was in Piedmont at 1715 N. Jessup, built in 1907.

In 1930, at age 57, beat built two residential-style apartment buildings as investments that would provide an income for his family: one at 2904 SE Washington, the other a project he called Glen Eagles, at 912 SW Vista, which would be his last building project. Tragically, while cleaning the gutters at Glen Eagles on December 5, 1930, Beat fell from the roof and sustained fatal head injuries.

A partial list of homes built by Beat:

2727 NE 13th              1910

2738 NE 9th                1910

2827 NE 10th              1911

2821 NE 10th              1911

2917 NE 13th              1912

2928 NE 12th              1912

2948 NE 10th              1912

3007 NE 10th              1912

2717 NE 8th                1912

2225 NE Mason          1917

2233 NE Mason          1917

2646 NE Hamblet       1917

2704 NE Hamblet. 1917

2924 NE 16th              1917

4315 NE 22n               1919

3933 NE 26th              1922

2536 NE 23rd              1926