Willis Monroe Chandler and wife Malissa arrived in Portland in 1915 from Texas; he was born in 1881 in Leesville, Louisiana. During his first years in Portland, Chandler managed a local building supply business called Pacific Fireproof Paint and Waterproofing Co. In July 1921, he incorporated with partners J.A. Hiller and John Olsen as the Chandler Construction Company to take advantage of the improving housing market, specifically focusing on Beaumont and Laurelhurst.

In a period of just a few years, Chandler proceeded to build, own and sell dozens of homes in Northeast Portland. In the mid- and late-1920s, he built a cluster of a dozen homes in Beaumont near NE Alameda and 40th, many have a strong family resemblance.

Advertisements for three of the homes he built along the Alameda Ridge appeared in the August 29, 1926 edition of The Oregonian. Note that addresses for these three homes are in the pre-1930 address change format: 1130 The Alameda (3800 NE Alameda); 1134 Alameda (3818 NE Alameda); and 1138 Alameda (3828 NE Alameda)

Here’s a partial list of homes built by Chandler during the busy years of the late 1920s.

Address	Date	Comment
3800 NE Alameda	March 1924	Chandler reported that this new but vacant house was robbed of all window shades, electrical fixtures and 40 light bulbs in February 1927
3810 NE Alameda	October 1928
3818 NE Alameda	January 1926	Cost $18,000
3828 NE Alameda	February 1926
3838 NE Alameda	September 1926	Cost $19,000, for F.H. Lyons
3844 NE Alameda	September 1928
3860 NE Alameda	July 1930	Chandler family home Cost $22,000 Design by Carl L. Linde
4111 NE Alameda	December 1927
4121 NE Alameda	February 1928
4131 NE Alameda	September 1926	Cost $16,000, for N. Norton
4140 NE Alameda	September 1926	Cost $12,000, for Fred Marx
4431 NE Alameda	March 1926	Cost $18,500, for Ben Rybke
2804 NE 38th	March 1924	Design by Hubert Williams
2824 NE Cesar Chavez	August 1923	Design by Universal Plans Service

In their later years, the Chandlers moved to the home at the southwest corner of 24th and Hancock, where Malissa died in 1958. Willis moved to Astoria in 1960, where he died on December 11, 1962.