Southwest Neighborhoods newsletter, October 2024. Page 3.

Reprinted with permission from the Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. swni.org

Southwest Neighborhood Inc (SWNI) Newsletter Article

2024-10-02

Tigard-Rogers House_Oct2024_v02

Preserving Portland’s History

By Mark Barnett

Southwest Portland’s Tigard-Rogers House (4504 SW Shattuck Road) is the oldest building in Portland. It is one of Portland’s last real physical connections to its pioneer Oregon Trail ancestors. The house, with its surrounding 2.86 wooded acres, including tall redwoods, old pear trees, and a meandering stream, is also perhaps the most quiet and peaceful location in the entire city.

Back in 1855, it began as a simple farmhouse on a 180-acre farm. It was the creation of Andrew and Sarah Tigard – Andrew’s brother, Wilson, started the town of Tigard. Around 1875, the family sold the farm to Esther and Edwards Rogers. In the 1930’s, the Rogers family sold most of the surrounding land to pay off depression- era debts.

Then in 1981, Roger Hancock, the great-grandson of Esther and Edward, bought back the family’s original farmhouse. He lived there until he died in 2022. The 11 heirs of Mr. Hancock have been trying to sell all 2.86 acres. They originally asked $2.75 million for everything. Recently, they lowered the price to $1.95 million. (Ed: Asking price reduced to $1.02 million on 2024/11/01).

What Could Happen?

One option they have is to sell the property to someone who would turn all 2.86 acres into a private estate. That would mean replacing the old farmhouse with modern structure.

A recent Oregonian article quoted real estate broker Marilyn Brown of (W)here Inc, as saying: “The interest I have had so far is from people who want to build a home on the land ... I think someone could create a private estate with one environmentally conscious house, or maybe two, for a multigenerational family. I don’t think that would ruin the integrity of the property.”

So far, the property has not been sold despite being on the market, as of September 19th and per Zillow, for over 200 days. One reason for the property not being sold may be that it is tough to develop. Environmental rules restrict how close new construction can come to the stream that runs through the property. Other rules restrict how close a building can be to SW Shattuck Road. Other rules restrict how or if one can tear down the 1855 house, not to mention clearing the front yard’s tall Ponderosa Pine Portland Heritage Tree #130, which was planted by one of the early Rogers family members.

What are the impediments to preserving the house? Why haven’t preservationists already just jumped in, purchased the place and started renovations? One reason for that may be the same as why the developers have not bought it. The lack of a sale for a long period of time implies that the current asking price may be high for both developers and preservationists.

Left, a photo of the Tigard-Rogers house taken by Mark Barnett in 2022. Right, an aerial view of the property and the four parcels from the (W)here Real Estate listing.

Why Save It?

For preservationists, the reason to keep the house is that it is a testament to Portland’s history. A preserved 1855 Tigard-Rogers house might be about the last way to physically show new generations of Portlanders how average Oregon-trail immigrants, who came here in covered wagons, lived and worked.

One option could be to acquire just the house (not the land) and to move it to another location. The sellers would have a motivation to give away the house gratis to clear the site for sale to a developer who wished to build a modern home there. Moving it would let the buyer avoid a lot of bureaucratic red tape, since the house is on both the Oregon Historic Sites Database and is a City of Portland Historic Landmark.

City codes provide special protections for historic landmarks, which could delay or even prevent new construction. However, even if the preservationists got the house for free, they would still need to cover moving costs, but that would hopefully be much less than $1.95 million.

Moving old Portland homes has been done successfully before. For example, the 1880 Morris Marks House cost $444,000 to move in 2017. The 1900 Simon Benson house was moved to the PSU Parks Blocks in 2000.

Still, whether or not the home remains on the old site or moves to a new one, preservationists also need to consider the cost of renovation. It is an aged structure that has been sitting vacant since 2022. Before buying the property, a professional historical architect should inspect it and assess the required amount of renovation work.

On the other hand, if after figuring out the costs of purchasing and renovating the place, preservationists wanted to continue, they would need to figure out what to do with it when the work was finished.

One idea would be to simply donate the house and land to a local government body to use as a park or a museum. However, local governments with limited budgets may not wish to or be able to cover the costs of a new park or history museum.

So, instead of donating the historical parcel to local governments, preservationists need a workable business plan that addresses other post-renovation ways to cover the ongoing costs of operating and maintaining a historical landmark. For example, they could rent out the place to a historical museum or as a B&B or a residential rental. Perhaps, this would bring in enough income to cover the short and long-term expenses.

Keeping the Tigard-Rogers house could be the most direct, hands-on way to help future generations of Portlanders learn about the lives of their pioneer Oregon Trail ancestors. However, the road to doing that would be long. There is no guarantee that it would work out in the end.