OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Building History

German-born baker and confectioner Frederick Bickel (born 05/21/1832 in Hesse, Germany-d. 1929) --with his partner Frank Dekum (born 11/05/1829 in Deiderfeld, Germany-d. 10/19/1894 in Portland, OR)--made money with an early candy business in Portland, OR; This business opened in 1853 and had grown prosperous enough to enable both men to develop several other commercial interests, including fruit-growing, maintenance of storage buildings, and real estate development. Bickel commissioned the noted German-born architect Justus Krumbein (1847-1907) to design this commercial investment block. The building featured architectural columns made of cast iron, fabricated by the Architectural Iron Works of San Francisco, CA; this was the West Coast subsidiary of a foundry begun by Daniel D. Badger (1806-1884), an innovative New York producer of cast iron architectural components.

The Parke and Lacey Machinery Company, a producer of engines, boilers, sawmill machiney and logging cars, originally occupied the Bickel Block, using its north portion for its retail business, the south for manufacturing and warehousing. Ownership of the building passed to the Fraser Paper Company in the 1950s.

Alteration

In 2008, the University of Oregon, Portland, completed its renovation and merger of three historic buildings, the Bickel Block, Skidmore Building, and the White Stag/Hirsch-Weiss Building. This new merged facility became its main campus and was known collectively as the "White Stag Building."

PCAD id: 13855