History always comes with a little mystery. So it is with this little red house that’s long sat on the corner of SW Shattuck Road and Hamilton Street in the Bridlemile neighborhood. It’s certainly had stories told about it, from being called a pony express way station (that’s been disputed) to once purportedly housing 18 family members in the original two rooms (unconfirmed).

Then there’s the matter of whether it’s the oldest home in Portland, which many historians believe to be true. The home is currently included in a 2.86-acre, $2.7 million listing “poised for development,” so its future, and whether it will be torn down or preserved, is just as much in question as its past.

But let’s start with what everyone agrees on. Called the Tigard/Rogers House, the home was built by Andrew Tigard, the brother of the guy who founded the town of Tigard. In the early 1870s, Esther and Edward Rogers bought the house and 180 acres of farmland; with 12 Rogers children, that’s the family that apparently had to squeeze into the two original rooms. In the ensuing years, parcels of the farmland were sold off, and the original house added on. Then in the early 1980s, machinist Roger Hancock, Esther and Edward’s great-grandson, returned the home to the family by buying it. Hancock owned it until his passing in 2022.

In 1989, the Tigard/Rogers house was listed as a local Historic Landmark, with the Oregon Historic Sites Database stating a construction date of 1855. That puts the house at seven years older than the James B. Stephens House (1862) in Southeast Portland, and would therefore make it the oldest in Portland. Except: there’s a little discrepancy causing confusion. Portland Maps, which collates information from the Multnomah County assessor, has the home listed as built in 1885. 

Now, the Oregonian tackled this in 2014, raising the question of which date should be counted, and the writer received an email from the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability stating they were aware of the difference. However, no changes to the Portland Maps site have since been made.

But perhaps more important than the paperwork is the home’s construction. According to the city’s Historic Resource Inventory documentation, the home “was constructed in the vernacular style common to modest frontier-era homes,” with a predominant gabled roof, double-hung windows, and a shed roof extended over the front porch. The primary living areas would have been on the main floor, with a sleeping loft above. But it’s what’s underneath the red aluminum siding added in the 1970s that is key: “hand-hewn, notched log underpinnings.” That log construction would be a clue, says Norm Gholston, preservation programs manager with the Architectural Heritage Center, as to which origin date is correct.

“If it's wood log construction underneath the siding, that wouldn’t have been done for decades before 1885, because everything was framed construction after the 1840s,” says Gholston. That’s because private lumber mills were popping up in the region in the early 1840s, and thus hewn log construction lasted until around 1865. In 1855, accessibility to sawn materials and economic status of the owner would have dictated a home’s construction method, whether entirely hand-hewn, or a mix of framing methods. For Andrew Tigard, “The lumber would've had to come a long ways without a road and it would’ve been more expensive,” says Gholston. “So, it was much cheaper and easier to use the wood on site and just cut logs to fit.”

Confirmation can come only from further analysis of what lies beneath, but it was enough for the Historic Resource Inventory to determine the home’s significance: “Although there have been a number of alterations over the years, it is believed to be the oldest extant building on its original site in Portland.”

In the meantime, the home is currently included in a listing aimed at future development: four tax lots spread over 2.86 acres for $2,693,670. (The current owners declined to be interviewed.) Of course, there is a precedent for saving such old buildings as this one. After all, houses can be picked up and moved—see the Morris Marks House as a recent example—and, in the case of the Molalla Log House (which is thought to date back to the 1790s and by the early aughts had a caving roof), can be dismantled, rehabilitated, and relocated for public viewing to the Hopkins Demonstration Forest in Oregon City. “There isn’t a period structure in Portland that’s of pioneer construction [like this],” says Gholston. “If we can't save the oldest house, what can we save?”

Listing Fast Facts 

• Address: 4504 SW Shattuck Rd, Portland, OR
• Size: 2.86 acres 
• List Date: 2/13/2024 
• List Price: $2,693,670 
• Listing Agent: Marilyn Brown, Where, Inc

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].