Rendering of the soon-to-be-restored Hallock-McMillan building (Emerick Architects)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
As we reclaim more of Naito Parkway for bicyclists and pedestrians by making the annual summertime Better Naito configuration permanent, and following the restoration of cast-iron waterfront beauties like the White Stag Block and the Smith Block in years past, the oldest commercial building in the city, the Hallock-McMillan building from 1857, is finally getting restored and seismically stabilized.
What's more, the Hallock-McMillan, named for architect Absalom Hallock and builder William McMillan, his partner, who were responsible for the building, is now being restored using an innovative structural system that actually connects it with two other adjacent buildings. That makes for a potential precedent that could point the way to how other unreinforced-masonry buildings might be given earthquake protection a bit more cost-effectively.
As I was reminded in a recent conversation with building owner John Russell and Emerick Architects co-founder Brian Emerick, restoring the Hallock-McMillan has been, to borrow from a one of my favorite songs, a long and winding road. This blog first looked at Russell's restoration intentions eight years ago in a post by Fred Leeson.
Minor White's shot of the Hallock-McMillin in the 1940s (Emerick Architects)
Russell's interest in the building goes back to the early 1980s, when he leased the equally historic and perhaps even more beautiful structure next door, the Feichheimer & White building, dating to 1885 and featuring a cast-iron ornamental facade. (The Hallock-McMillan once had cast-iron facade ornamentation too, but it has been stripped away.) He eventually came to own the Feichheimer & White a building around the corner, from the Hallock-McMillan, the Dielschneider Building at 79 SW Oak Street.
"And then," explained Russell, "the obvious: How do I get ahold of the building that connects them? It was owned by a trust for the Longshoremen Union, upstairs on the second floor. [Former Portland City Council member] Randy Leonard remembers going up there as a kid with his father looking for work." But another buyer, Peter Corvallis, beat Russell to the purchase; Corvallis started using the Hallock-McMillan as a storage space for his party-rental business. When Russell took possession of 79 Oak, which Corvallis leased offices in, he raised Corvallis's rent, in hopes it could convince him to sell Hallock-McMillan. "Corvallis was pissed at me for doing that. But he still ran the Hallock and McMillan as a storage space for video equipment," Russell added. "It was just packed full of crap. All these years he resisted my efforts to buy it, until I got a call one day from his brother in law. He and I negotiated the sale over lunch in Milwaukie." The Hallock-McMillan was sold for about $700,000.
In 2011 (Fred Leeson) and under reconstruction today (Emerick Architects)
The Hallock-McMillan isn't just the oldest commercial building city. (Russel was given a photo of the building upon construction when it was the only building on a then-dirt road.) Its designer, Absalom Hallock, is known as Oregon's first professional architect. He and contractor William McMillan established the firm of Hallock & Company in 1852.
As explained in an Oregon Encyclopedia entry by Patricia Failing, the firm attracted prominent Portland patrons, including future mayor and major landholder William Ladd, who hired Hallock and McMillan in 1853 to design and construct the city’s first brick building (located on Front Street—today Naito Parkway between Stark and Washington but demolished in 1940). The partners also designed and built early homes for Oregon Supreme Court Justice Cyrus Olney and shipping tycoon George Flanders.
I've heard from one source that Hallock literally received a State of Oregon architect registration stamp marked 001, but Oregon didn't even become a state until two years after this building was completed. At the time of the Hallock-McMillan building's completion, there were no licensing requirements for local architects. So if he was registered architect 001, registration would have come after this building. In any case, he designed at least 18 early Portland brick buildings, as well as the Washington County Courthouse in Hillsboro, completed in 1852 (and since demolished). Hallock also served on Portland’s city council on and off from 1857, the year of the building's completion, until 1873, during which time he also acted as street commissioner, city surveyor, council president, and even a volunteer firefighter. Decades later, an Oregonian article from 1900 referred to Hallock as a “political boss” who “came near running the city.”
Absalom Hallock (Oregon Historical Society Research Library, Orhi9824)
Talking with Russell and Emerick, I also noted that while some of the Hallock-McMillan building's ornament had been removed generations ago, including the trio of cast-iron arches on the ground floor, and even in its restored form, it has less ornament than the later Feichheimer & White completed 28 years later.
"The urge for detail is a Victorian thing," Russell reasoned. "What you see is the beginning of the Victorian era and the end of it in the two buildings."
Added Emerick: "What’s interesting to me about cast-iron architecture is it’s actually much more modern than what comes afterward. This is basically like a modern structure. They’re using steel to create a wall of glass on the Feichheimer building. Then it goes more into stone and masonry like the Dekum Building [from 1892]."
Perhaps what's most interesting about the Hallock-McMillan restoration is the replication process for the cast-iron facade, which involved architect and architectural historian William Hawkins using historic photos and researching the ornament of other 1800s Oregon commercial buildings to create new drawings from which new moldings for the cast iron could be created. The original cast iron was cast in San Francisco, the nearest foundry at the time.
Cast iron detail studies by William J. Hawkins (Emerick Architects)
Did I just say the facade was being replicated with actual cast iron again? It surprised Russell too. But that's what happened at the Silverton Foundry, where furnaces heat scrap metal to 2800 degrees and pour the molten liquid into sand-cast molds.
"I assumed that they would fashion these things out of fiberglass," he said. "Then the second choice was cementitious material, because you can cast it. But it turns out fiberglass is damaged really quickly if it’s exposed to the light. If you have a fiberglass casting, and there’s a chip in it, sunlight will destroy it. The problem with cementitious material is if it gets damaged you can never really repair it. Cast iron: this old, old, old, technology? You’ve got to be kidding me. But it turns out it is the best material."
In a way, replicating the original historic facade elements could be construed to be going against historic preservation strictures, which call for any new physical additions or alterations to be distinct as contemporary interventions. The Hallock-McMillan restorers are essentially making a 1857 building rebuilt in 2019 look like an 1857 building that simply stayed in good condition. Even so, I think it's pretty hard to argue with restoring the cast-iron details as faithfully as possible, and it seems off-base if not silly to call this effort inauthentic in any way.
There's one touch of modernity to the renovation, or at least a modern material: glass. For a former loading derrick turned asphalt courtyard in the back of the Hallock-McMillan between it and the Dielschneider building, currently blocked off by a non-original masonry wall, the Emerick Architects design instead adds a glass wall. It was approved by the Landmarks Commission. "You’ll be able see the three walls of the three buildings that make that courtyard space," Brian Emerick explains. "It became an obvious place for ADA access and intervention without altering the history."
Rendering of the glass wall behind the Hallock-McMillan (Emerick Architects)
I then asked owner and architect to tell me more about this unique three-building structural system.
"We rebuilt this whole thing with a concrete moment frame," Emerick explained. "We want to build it to last. There’s steel inside. There was previous seismic upgrading of the Feichheimer building. We’ve connected it to this [building]. The Hallock is designed to take lateral load off the Feichheimer building. By being able to anchor into this building, we‘ve essentially got one 50-foot-long façade. But on the other side we’ve got sheer-wall brace frames that connect into this [other] building [79 Oak]. We’ll brace this building and cast this three-story elevator tower that will provide additional bracing in an east-west direction. It’s pretty unique to take one building and strengthen two others."
Renovation work is continuing on the Hallock-McMillan, but I believe it will be done this year, and will become leasable office space and part of Russell's broader portfolio. It's a relief because if the region really is destined to face a major earthquake in the years ahead, we've got to seismically upgrade these priceless few historic cast-iron buildings that weren't demolished for parking lots in the mid-20th century. Buildings like the Hallock-McMillan were once part of a collection of beautiful old buildings lining Front, First and Second and their cross streets.
There also seems to be modest progress being made on the waterfront, where new buildings are going up on Naito for the first time in years. It's always been an under-walked street, too car-centric to be pleasant. But as more businesses locate here and the street gets tamed a bit more, the timing for a Hallock-McMillan coming out party may be ideal. And even if recession should come and it takes time to fill it, a building like this has survived worse. It's meant to prosper again.
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Terrific article about an amazing preservation effort that brings a remarkable contribution to the Naito streetscape. I probably missed an open house opportunity but will venture by and explore.
The combining of two buildings for seismic and economic restoration purposes also reminds me of the 1909 Seward Hotel and the 1923 Elks Temple and the more recent 1908 Cornelius Hotel with the 1912 Woodlark Building.
Thank you!
Posted by: Bob | September 27, 2019 at 08:48 AM
Here’s a link to a beautiful film that John commissioned of the completed facade:
https://waveonefilms.com/casestudies/2019/7/29/hallock-and-mcmillan-building-history-transformed
Posted by: Wayne Paige | September 28, 2019 at 09:58 PM
Did they look into using any of the original iron pieces that AHC has in storage?
Posted by: Grant | October 08, 2019 at 12:05 PM