The changing face of Hawthorne Boulevard

This old house, and another of the same vintage, have graced Hawthorne at SE 26th Avenue for over a century. Now one has been demolished and this one is moving to a lot across the street. Taking their place will be a large apartment building with 77 units (and an undetermined number of parking spaces).

This has been happening more and more frequently here in Portland, and it's a trend a lot of us are not happy about. I'm all for infill and multi-use buildings, but these are drastically changing the character of our unique inner city neighborhoods. Initially a lot of these high density units were built as condos, meant to be sold rather than rented or leased. But many of them have been left vacant and so turned into apartments. And many have limited parking in neighborhoods that already struggle with enough parking spots for businesses and residences.

You can read about the development - and the tenants (mostly with professional offices) who were forced out of the houses with 30 days' notice - in this article.


I am pleased that this building is being salvaged. And that the deconstruction of the other one was done in an environmentally conscious way, with many of the materials sent places to be reused. But I'm sure going to miss seeing these beautiful houses along Hawthorne.

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So Day 2 of One Street and I've already gone off my plan to work my way east block by block. But I couldn't pass up this photo op! I may toddle over Sunday morning at 7 to photograph the house move. Or not.