Marshall-Wells Loft Condos

Marshall Wells

Guide to Marshall Wells Loft Condos for Sale

I love Pearl District lofts – especially historic ones. In each building you find a little history and a little mystery.

The Marshall Wells Lofts are no exception. The Doug Firs that became their support posts were seeded 350 years ago.
The building itself went up in 1910 at a time when the Pearl District was rapidly changing. European immigrants who lived there were squeezed out to make way for warehouses and manufacturing plants. Business needed to be close to the railway lines – Union Station, built in 1896.

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History

Marshall-Wells Hardware Company was part of the makeover. In 1901 the chain store from Minnesota opened its west coast branch at SW 4th & Pine. “Warehouse #2″ built in 1910, still remains at its original location on Lovejoy between 14^th & 15^th.

The expansion was undertaken by Daniel Burnham, one of the country’s most famous architects. His Montauk Building in Chicago, the first to be dubbed a “skyscraper,” was completed in 1881, and in 1902 his iconic Flatiron Building was completed in Manhattan.

The “mystery” of the Marshall-Wells building is in Burnham’s design. The walls are reinforced concrete; its frame uses heavy timber posts and beams, and Burnham set the frame at a 45° diagonal to the walls.

Why he chose this odd, experimental shape, is unknown. Some speculate that, following the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, he saw it as a safety feature. Others believe, having achieved all manner of success, he’d simply grown bored and eccentric.

Whatever the case, these exposed beams, at their striking angles, give the seven-story space a character all its own.

For four full decades, the Marshall-Wells business was a success. In addition to hardware, they sold saddlery, mining and railroad supplies. In the 1950s, though, the Pearl changed again, when highways grew, and warehouses and manufacturing moved to the suburbs. In the decades that followed, buildings began to stand empty.

Thirty years later, in the 1980s, another transition began. Powell’s Books opened on 1005 W Burnside. In 1982, the North West Artist’s Workshop opened at 622 NW 12th, the Pearl’s first art gallery. Soon developers were buying buildings and “converting” them into work spaces for commercial artists, architects and designers.

The Marshall-Wells warehouse was about to be purchased for a different kind of development. In 1978 it had been sold to a pillow manufacturer. In 1988, the building joined the list of National Register of Historic Places. And in 1990, the property was purchased by Bob Ball’s real estate company, Evergreen Northern, LLC. In 2001, Ball started reconstruction, building 164 residential lofts.

The building is a classic. Ball, who prefers the term “historic preservationist” to “developer”, has filled the lofts with wonderful features: large, well-insulated windows, high ceilings with exposed beams (yes, those original 350 year old Doug Firs), warm cork floors, and custom cabinets. At the center of it all is a new touch: a 4,500 square foot open air atrium created by Ball for the residents.

A walk through the Pearl can be a walk through Portland’s, and America’s, history. You just need to know what you’re looking at!