The story goes that Percy A. Smith originally hired well-known Portland architect A. E. Doyle for the design of his personal home on several acres in the Dunthorpe neighborhood. However, that association didn’t pan out, and Smith actually completed the house on his own, leaning on his experience as a shipbuilder during World War I, as an engineer for Pendleton Woolen Mills, and as president of furniture company WestMade Desk Company. The home was finished in 1922, in a style alternatively called “German hunting Lodge,” “other worldly,” and, in our favorite summation, “As though one of the famed illustrators of children's tales and adventure stories … had been asked to prepare detail drawings for a northern European manor house.”

The sprawling 8,758-square-foot mansion is an ode to Smith’s imagination. The home’s exterior form is somewhat conventional in comparison, and definitely picturesque, thanks to intersecting gabled roofs that evoke an English cottage, leaded glass windows, and finishes like raked stucco, herringbone brick, and half-timbering. Take a closer look, and the fanciful bits are all in the details. This starts over the front door, which has the carved inscription in the architrave: To Childhood’s Happy Dreams.

Thanks to Smith’s connection to craftspeople via his businesses, there’s handicraft at every turn, from the carved wooden beams crisscrossing the ceiling, to the stained-glass windows, and even the chiseled grotesque faces on the corbels in the speakeasy. (We’ll get there.)

Much of this comes together in the main living room. It has a vaulted ceiling with exposed wooden trusses, a towering carved stone fireplace, and rich oak wall paneling topped with a frieze in a swirling motif of vines and leaves. Charmingly, the leaded glass windows, seen here and throughout the house, vary from the traditional diamond repeat with an occasional irregular piece of lead inserted to deviate from the pattern, to give them a more naturalistic feel.

A projecting balcony overhead offers a commanding view into the living room from the staircase landing, which is decorated with a carved oak column capped in twin statues of Atlas, here appearing to hold up the ceiling rather than the world.

Such detail continues in many rooms, from the dining room with its carved inscription over the door reading “In Vino Veritas,” to the library with its leather-tiled floor, and the primary bathroom outfitted in colorful blue and yellow tile.

Behind one of the living room wall panels is a secret door that swings open to reveal a staircase steering down to a mosaic tiled hallway, complete with barrel-vaulted ceiling, and heavy wooden doors and iron gates. Through one of these gates is the aforementioned speakeasy, or Prohibition-era “party room,” with a beamed ceiling, thick stone walls, fireplace, and carved stone faces, each with a different expression, girding the ceiling. Is this the closest Portland gets to Hogwarts?  

There are, of course, many modern updates alongside the whimsical. On the lower level, a soundproof home theater has been installed down the hall from the Harry Potter–esque party room. In 1999, the kitchen was redesigned and enlarged to include furniture-grade cabinets, walnut floors, and an atrium skylight. Beside it, a former carport was converted into a cozy family room, with every care taken to incorporate it seamlessly into the façade.

On the 2.99-acre grounds, there’s an architecturally compatible guest house and two-car garage, as well as extensive gardens given the stamp of approval by the Archives of American Gardens at the Smithsonian. There, find a reflection pool lined with columns, a koi pond, and in keeping with the spirit of Smith’s original design, paths leading to a secret garden.

Listing Fast Facts 

• Address: 1837 S Greenwood Rd, Portland, OR 97219
• Size: 8,758 square feet/5 bedroom/5 bath
• List Date: 10/27/2023 
• List Price: $3,500,000
• Listing Agent: Dan Volkmer, Windermere Realty Trust

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. 

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). Got a home you think would work for this column? Get in touch at [email protected].