Property Watch: An Old-School Estate Perched High Above the City

Two weeks ago, we strolled through the most expensive house on the market in Portland today. This week, we’re looking at an equally prominent one built way back in 1887. In 1904, The Sunday Oregonian declared that this home “stands on a higher elevation than any other residence near Portland,” thanks to its perch in the Portland Heights neighborhood. Makes sense, as it was commissioned by J. Carroll McCaffrey, who is credited with developing the cable railway that made this neighborhood more accessible to ensuing development. (Until 1890, people could only get up here by stagecoach or horse and buggy.) This house was to be the neighborhood’s “showplace.”

After sinking $50,000 into the construction, McCaffrey never lived here, instead selling the home to financier George Markle in 1889 for $70,000. Markle stayed until 1894, when he went bankrupt and was indicted for the misuse of public funds. Eventually, ownership went to the Frederick Pittock family (Frederick being the only son of Henry and Georgina, the owners of Pittock Mansion). The family lived there until 1970—garnering the house’s name as the Markle-Pittock House—and the few owners since have worked to preserve it.

In that 1904 write-up, much was made about the exterior’s “pressed brick,” which was shipped from Philadelphia because it wasn’t available on the West Coast. And hey, we get it, because the brick is beautiful. It gets the basketweave treatment in a few of the arches above the windows, and even more decorative in the tympanum over the front door. (Yeah, we had to look up what a tympanum is, too, as it’s not something we see on Portland houses every day.)

The house’s original Queen Anne style got a bit of a Jacobethan makeover in 1928 from Jacobberger and Smith, a notable local firm that built 10 other houses in the neighborhood as well as St. Mary’s Cathedral. And while those alterations bear out on the exterior and upper floors, the interiors on the first floor hold a lot of the very fancy (some might say lavish) original detail.

We’re talking bird’s-eye maple paneling wrapping the foyer, lining the staircase and landing, and even found in a little powder room. The dining room has coffered ceilings, beveled glass in the built-ins, a carved fireplace mantle, and a signed Tiffany glass panel depicting swimming fish. The living room almost seems a little plain in comparison, and it has parquet oak floors, bird’s-eye maple built-ins, and a lovely quatrefoil plaster ceiling.  

Then there’s our favorite room: the library. Every bit of it is wood—including coffered ceiling, cherry paneling, built-in cabinets, another carved mantle—except for the copper medallion over the fireplace, the blue velvet cushion at the window seat, and the stained glass window by the Povey Brothers Studio. (There are several of those in the house, naturally, since the studio was known as the “Tiffany’s of the Northwest.”)

Since no one wants a kitchen from 1887, the room has been updated and enlarged. It fits right in with the rest of the main floor, with its cherry cabinets, Carrera marble countertops, and La Cornue range (with five burners and grill) flanked by corbels from the old Multnomah County Courthouse.

Because this is an estate, it comes with a lot of square footage, 9,831 for the main house alone, in order to accommodate six bedrooms, five bathrooms, two powder baths, and a top-floor ballroom covered in tongue-and-groove fir, not to mention more modern spaces like a fitness area and game room in the lower level. 

There’s over an acre of landscaped grounds, with an additional two-bedroom/ one-bathroom guesthouse, a carriage house with living space and six-car garage, a full-size tennis court, and a pool. And we haven’t even gotten to the view. In 1904, it was deemed “unsurpassed,” and we’d say that’s still a pretty apt description today.

• Address: 1816 SW Hawthorne Ter, Portland, OR 97201
• Size: 9,831 square feet, 6 bedroom/6 bath
• List Date: 4/15/2024 
• List Price: $5,500,000
• Listing Agent: Macey Laurick and MJ Steen, Windermere Realty Trust

Melissa Dalton is a freelance writer who has focused on Pacific Northwest design and lifestyle since 2008. She is based in Portland, Oregon. Contact Dalton here. 

Editor’s Note: Portland Monthly’s “Property Watch” column takes a weekly look at an interesting home in Portland’s real estate market (with periodic ventures to the burbs and points beyond, for good measure). Got a home you think would work for this column? Get in touch at [email protected].