Editor’s Note: Portland Monthly’s “Property Watch” column takes a weekly look at an interesting home in Portland’s real estate market (with periodic ventures to the burbs and points beyond, for good measure). This week: a modern cottage in Woodstock. Got a home you think would work for this column? Get in touch at [email protected].

Portland’s “Golden Age” of the streetcar was between 1900 and 1915. The system’s routes formed the backbone of the city we know today, shaping neighborhoods, and giving rise to the little pockets of commercial districts that are still a defining feature of so many of them. Once the streetcar lines started going in, homes and businesses would follow, something James Havely knew well.

Havely was a dealmaker in the early days of the Woodstock neighborhood’s development, acting as a trustee and member of an investors group that bought the 194.5 acres to plat it in 1889, and named it Woodstock after a Sir Walter Scott novel. (That was a thing people did back then.) Havely helped the neighborhood get electricity and water, building his own Queen Anne on the corner of SE Harold and SE 40th in 1893, and facilitated the incoming streetcar, which ran down SE Gladstone to SE 42^nd, before swinging over to SE 41st and turning on SE Woodstock Boulevard.

Originally built in 1909, this Woodstock bungalow was an early neighborhood occupant, just a few blocks off that original streetcar line and choicely located a half-mile North of Woodstock Boulevard’s commercial district. A recent redesign—the builder/designer lives down the street and the architect is Ivon Street Studio—has tripled the square-footage, and given it a completely new look and layout.

Now with 3,225 square feet and three floors, the home has a streamlined gabled form, with vertical pale-stained cedar siding, a sharp metal roof, and large windows. Entry is via an inset front porch with terrazzo floors—a clue that there’s higher-end finishes to be found all throughout the interior.

The main living spaces take up one side of the lower floor, with the kitchen flanked by the dining room at the front, and the living room nestled at the rear. Vaulted wood clad ceilings cap the living and dining rooms, balanced below by engineered white oak floors and large expanses of glass, like the living room’s big sliding doors that open to the yellow balau deck in the backyard.

With such a minimal material palette—crisp white walls and white oak and CVG fir accents—it’s easy to underestimate the kitchen’s capabilities, but it’s got a 10-foot-long island with quartz counters, seating for four, a lot of storage, and a pretty white and brass Zline range topped with a custom hood.

This main floor also hosts the primary suite, and a second bedroom and bathroom, while upstairs, there’s two more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a family room with a vaulted ceiling. We love how the neutral palette gets shaken up in the bathrooms. Each one is prettier than the last, thanks to colorful tile picks and terrazzo floors, which are heated in the primary.

And while this bungalow makes a case for modern, its prime location in the neighborhood means the owners can enjoy the neighborhood’s spectrum of new and old businesses, from the New Seasons and Double Mountain Taproom that both went in around 2015, to legacy spots like the Lutz Tavern (1947), Otto’s Sausage Kitchen and Meat Market (1922), and Woodstock Hardware (1914).

Listing Fast Facts

• Address: 4427 SE Mitchell St, Portland, OR 97206
• Size: 3,225 square feet; 4 bed/3 bath 
• List Date: 2/9/2023 
• List Price: $1,095,000
• Listing Agents: Wendy Boso, John L. Scott NE Portland

Melissa Dalton is a freelance writer who has focused on Pacific Northwest design and lifestyle since 2008. She is based in Portland, Oregon. Contact Dalton here.