A Few More Houses on the Chopping Block in Arbor Lodge

Since I moved to the Kenton neighborhood, I’ve always liked the swath of houses between I-5, Interstate, Lombard, and Rosa Parks Way. Like my little section of Kenton, this stretch of blocks used to be mostly cute bungalow-style housing with good amounts of yard.

In the past five years it’s become cute bungalow-style housing interspersed with large multi-unit spaces, only one of which has parking. This area is a good spot for multi-unit construction as it’s right on the Yellow Line and a very walkable neighborhood. But without neighborhood regulation of parking, it’s not the most ideal. And I miss the little houses when they go.

This house is holding fast. It’s on a corner, so it won’t be hemmed in on all sides by multi-unit housing. It will stay for now, but that fence indicates that the lot next door is changing.

Its neighbor is not long for this world. This is a 1926 861-square foot house with a 600-foot unfinished basement that last sold in 1997 for $88,500. It sold in March, 2020, for $540,000.

This was part of the lot. It had a big, shady yard due to those trees.

Next door to the little house above was an empty lot. I’m not sure, but I think it might have been the garage for this little house, which is also for sale. You’ll note that the empty lot has become a multi-unit structure. The yellow house was built in 1926 and it looks like the owner recently died. If Zillow is to be believed, the house has sold for $372,500. This has a chance of not being torn down, but I’m not holding my breath.

Next to that little house, is one that I’ve got my eye on. This one is owner occupied, but I’d guess the owners are getting up there in years. This house has a garage on its lot that looks to be bigger than the house.

Here is another one of my favorites, a few blocks down. It’s a 1941 Ranch house (so compact and cute.) It was last sold in 1987 for $38,000. Zillow tells me it’s off market. I thought I had seen that it sold, but who knows. I love the siding. I’m guessing this lot will be subdivided and the house torn down.

One street over, is this little gem, slated to become a multi-unit corner of the block like you can see in the right side of the photo. It was built in 1925, is 932 square feet, and has at 440 square foot unfinished basement. The previous owners bought it in 2009 for $234,000 and it sold in June of 2018 for $650,000. Next Portland reported in 2019: Construct 3 story (18) unit apartment building with associated site work, but that might be those ones across the street. Read on to hear about that project.

Across the street from the 1925 house were two houses that will become the Norway I and II. That will be two three-story buildings with five units on each floor. That’s 30 units total. But not in one building. In two buildings. Why? Perhaps it has something to do with a new law that requires all buildings with 20 or more units to provide low-income housing.

3 thoughts on “A Few More Houses on the Chopping Block in Arbor Lodge”

  1. Wow. I know density is important and part of the wave of housing needed to support the city’s population. But these adorable little historic homes are quite a loss. Such big things to come. I am sure that it is hard to resist that equity and income from the sale of these properties with such a massive increase in their value. It is bananas though!

    1. Yeah. The single lot houses need to go to make way for housing that more people can access, but they are so cute. And generally what follows is not nearly as cute. I wish there was a better way.

  2. Woo woo!! All caught up with most recent posts! I am very much enjoying your catching up as well!

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