This 1906 Craftsman home is so charming that it sent one owner down a whole new career path. Peggy Moretti told Preservation Magazine in 2019 that she knew nothing about historic preservation when she and her husband purchased and began renovating this grand Southwest Hills home in 2002. By 2009, Moretti had become executive director of the historic preservation nonprofit Restore Oregon.

It’s no wonder the house hooked the Morettis; its local design heritage runs deep. Renowned horticulturist Louis Pfunder planned this home for himself in collaboration with pioneering Portland architect Emil Schacht. (Pfunder also designed the landscape for the South Park Blocks, which received a designation by the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.) With botanical-themed stained glass windows by Povey Brothers Studio throughout, this home was the work of a veritable dream team of the early Craftsman era. 

The home needed some love by the time the Morettis moved in, and it got a little press back in 2008 when the couple restored the front porch using a vintage postcard as a guide, hiring local craftspeople to build the curving railing with techniques similar to the ones used to create it originally. The railing winds off from a very stately hipped portico framing the front entrance, a Dutch door with a pattern of circular green glass in the window and statement metal hardware in an elongated fleur-de-lis shape.

A short foyer leads into the living area, where historic detail is on full display. Light shines through Povey glass in an Art Nouveau style in one corner, complemented by glass built-in cabinets. Coffered ceilings form an atypical grid above. On one side, an open staircase leads to the second floor; on the other, pocket doors open to a small music room. The music room puts more glass on display, with larger built-in glass cabinets and stained-glass tulips in every window; the tulip motif continues into the formal dining room.

The Pittock Mansion shared several craftspeople with the Pfunder home, including the Poveys and Dombrowski (only the last name was provided in the landmark nomination paperwork), who laid the Siberian oak floors throughout, complete with walnut parquet borders. One of these borders carves out a cozy area of the living room around a commanding brick fireplace with an arched hearth.

A half bath takes up the under-stairs nook, which may have originally been purpose-built for flower-tending, since it wasn’t originally a bathroom but always had water running to it. This closet-sized space wasn’t an afterthought; the stained glass here has a water lily pattern unique to the room.

A staircase to the second floor starts both in the living room and the kitchen; the two flights meet at a landing just below their destination. This level has four bedrooms, technically, although one adjoins to another, creating a small office or, if you’re feeling extra fancy, a dressing room. The windows are less colorful up here, but all the bedrooms feature leaded glass in a diamond grid pattern. The bedrooms and the hallway are all wrapped in period millwork, including picture rails.

Yet another staircase leads to the attic, which, at one point in time, may have been a maid’s quarters. In the early ’90s most of it was converted into a family room with a more polished contemporary look, but handsome vintage built-ins still line the top of the stairwell. There’s plenty of storage space in the unfinished portions of the attic and in a large, unfinished basement.

In the last couple of decades, this place went from just a cool old house to an architectural artifact. Who will steward it next?

Listing Fast Facts 

• Address: 2211 SW Vista Ave, Portland, OR 97201
• Size: 4,904 square feet, 4 bedrooms/3 bath
• List Date: 9/9/2024
• List Price: $1,325,000
• Listing Agent: Dan Volkmer and Kishra Ott, Windermere Realty Trust

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].