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Building History

Shoe and boot merchant Morris Marks and his wife Annie owned this house briefly in the early 1880s, before commissioning another residence by Portland architect Warren Heywood Williams in 1882.

Steven and Susan Blindheim, owners of the Marks House #1 and an another apartment building on the property, and arranged to donate the house to a new owner if they would agree to find an appropriate lot and pay $440,000 to cover the costs of permitting and moving expenses. (See Janet Eastman, Oregon Live.com, "Portland shoe baron’s 1880 mansion saved, moved and now for sale at $1.8 million," published 09/01/2020, accessed 12/28/2020.) Portland historic preservationists Rick Michaelson and Karen Karlsson purchased the Marks House #1 (aka the Fried-Durkheim House) in 2017 for $1. Michaelson, an architect and historian who operated an historically-conscious development firm, Inner City Properties, and Karlsson, an engineer who owned KLK Consulting LLC, a firm offering "regulatory, planning and construction management services to public and private clients," set about saving the residence by cutting it in two and moving it twelve blocks east and five blocks south to a new site. (See Linkedin.com, "Karen Karlsson," accessed 12/28/2020.)

Karlsson and Michaelson engaged Oxbo Mega Transport Solutions to do the move in 09/2017, one that was difficult from both a physical and regulatory standpoint. According to the web site of Portland's Architectural Heritage Center (AHC): "Several longtime AHC Board and Board of Advisors members—architect William J. Hawkins, FAIA, historian Tracy Prince, Ph.D. and longtime civic activist Bill Failing—led the Save the Morris Marks House Committee. City officials and Portland State University worked with Karlsson and Michaelson through the necessary permitting related to moving and relocation. 'Everyone was supportive of preserving this house,' says Michaelson. Portland Water Bureau property was secured as the landing spot for the home, the city waived development fees for the land, and access for the move across the Portland State University campus was granted. A move date was set for September 30, 2017." (See Architectural Heritage Center.org, "The House of Morris Marks: A Preservation Story," accessed 12/28/2020.)

Michaelson and Karlsson also commissioned Arciform, a Portland design-build architectural firm, to assist in putting the house back together and making it ready for resale. In late 2020, the pair put the renovated Marks House #1 on the market for $1.8 million.

PCAD id: 23811