Overview

Captain Willard Young commissioned architect William F. McCaw (1850-1923) to design this residence in 1888. He named the house, done in the Colonial Revival Style, "Portland Heights." It is not clear if it was ever completed. If so, it would have been one of the earlier Colonial Revival buidings erected in Portland, OR.

Building History

Willard Young (b. 04/30/1852 in Salt Lake City, UT-d. 07/25/1936 in Salt Lake City, UT), son of Morman leader Brigham Young (1801–1877) and Clarissa Ross Young (1814-1858), had a long career as a surveyor and construction manager in the US Army. His father, Brigham Young, was a pivotal figure in the church of Latter Day Saints following the 1844 death of Joseph Smith, who subsequently led the faithful to a new, safer home at Salt Lake City, UT. Brigham Young practiced polygamy, and had 56 children with 16 women, 46 of whom survived into adulthood. Willard Young was baptized into the Mormon Church in 1860, after which he became increasingly influential within it. Young taught at West Point between 1879 and 1883, before heading West, to supervise construction of the Cascade Locks in Hood River County, OR. This project continued from 1878 until 1896, although Young was in Portlamd only from c. 1888 until about 1889, when he returned to Utah to take over as President of Brigham Young University between 1891 and 1893.

It appears that Young had this house designed while he was in OR during the locks' construction, although he did not reside in Portland for any length of time. In 1888, he supervised the US Army Engineer's Office office was located at 73 4th Avenue; he lived at 474 J Street. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Portland City Directory, 1888, p. 558.) A year later, R.L. Polk and Company's Portland City Directory, 1889, indicated that he manged the engineer's office at 42 1/2 Washington Street, and lived on the west side of 17th Avenue near Hall Street. He was not listed in the directory for 1890.

PCAD id: 22342