Home builders arrived on Hazelfern Farm in what would be renamed Portland’s Laurelhurst neighborhood in 1909 with plans to construct newly popular Craftsman bungalows.
The custom houses would line curving streets contoured as carefully as the development’s centerpiece, Laurelhurst Park, which was famously laid out by co-investor and renown landscape architect John Charles Olmsted.
Portland architect A.L. DuPuy was also on the scene. Not only did he design residences for clients in Laurelhurst, but also a 1914 Craftsman for his family. He lived the rest of his life in the handsome house about 200 steps from the park. His widow, Jessie, remained there until 1952.
Over the decades, two other owners have preserved DuPuy’s plans. There have been updates but most of the rooms on the main level have retained their 107-year-old woodwork and fixtures.
The A.L. and Jessie DuPuy House, designated one of the first Laurelhurst Century Homes, is ready for its fourth owner. The property at 3703 E. Burnside St. is listed for sale at $949,000.
“Anyone who loves Craftsman architecture and interiors will love the house,” said listing agent David Abrams of Think Real Estate. “It’s really special. Original details that you see in coffee-table books and magazines are everywhere you look.”
Improvements include a remodeled gourmet kitchen and mudroom.
Creating a loft bedroom on the top floor under the cross-gable roof and an exercise space with a spa shower and laundry on the lower level expanded the living space to 3,295 square feet. In all, there are five bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a powder room.
The house shares the 7,723-square-foot lot with culinary gardens plus a garage with a workshop area.
In 1907, DuPuy joined forces with carpenter Herbert L. Camp. Their slogan: “Contractor-Builders of Good Houses.”
The next year, the firm designed and constructed Craftsman bungalows, Colonial Revivals and other houses in Ladd’s Addition, Portland’s first planned residential development.
They then moved on to Laurelhurst after it was platted in 1909, according to National Register of Historic Places documents.
The development, which blankets parts of northeast and southeast Portland, was influenced by Portland’s City Beautiful Movement with the goal to highlight the region’s natural beauty.
The 32-acre Laurelhurst Park was inspired by the English naturalist style of New York City’s Central Park, which was also designed by the Olmstead Brothers landscape architectural firm of Brookline, Massachusetts.
The city of Portland also hired the Olmsteads to design Forest Park and sites for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.
Like the A.L. and Jessie DuPuy House, about 500 of the dwellings in Laurelhurst, a National Register Historic District, are at least 100 years old and qualify to be deemed a Laurelhurst Century Home.
The Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association has custom bronze plaques made to display outside these residences.
The neighborhood association has also addressed historic racial restrictions. A statement on its website reads: An “aspect of the neighborhood’s history is, sadly, neither lovely nor uncommon in Portland and Oregon. The Board of the Laurelhurst Neighborhood Association (LNA) believes that this aspect of Laurelhurst’s history must be documented and confronted.”
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
[email protected] | @janeteastman
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