Tucked behind a white picket fence, this simple yellow farmhouse has sat in the Sunnyside neighborhood since before it was a neighborhood. It was built in 1866, so the neighborhood went up around it: its neighbors, many built between 1920 and 1940, paved streets, utilities. According to the historic registry document prepared for the house in 1991, “There are no other houses in the vicinity to compare it with. Any local structures which were similar have been lost.”

The home was built by John P. and Sarah Sheffield, who bought a 10-acre parcel of what was then called Paradise Springs Farm. The bigger farm was set between what is now SE Stark Street and SE Belmont Street and was later platted into smaller lots in 1871. A year later, the Sheffields sold their property for $3,200—quite a profit on their $250 investment.

The original farmhouse structure was simple, or “vernacular,” in architectural lingo, and included two stories in a T-shape with gables in three directions. There were three rooms on the main floor, and three up top. These were primarily living spaces and bedrooms, as it’s estimated that a kitchen and bathroom weren’t added until 1900.

Today, much of the original house is believed to be intact. There are the elongated, double-hung windows, capped with hooded lintels and brackets. The exterior shiplap siding was possibly hung by the Sheffields. If the animal-hair insulation inside the plaster walls doesn’t track to day one, it’s certainly been there for quite a while. In the six main rooms, the wood floors, baseboards, four-panel doors, and staircase all appear to be historical holdouts.

As expected, owners in the 1990s added a few amenities to the main floor, like a garage, laundry, and primary bedroom, enlarging the footprint to 2,319 square feet. That means there’s a lot more storage than you’d ever expect in such an old house. The architect-drawn plans for this addition have stayed with the house, too, all the better to preserve its historical integrity.

While this little yellow house may have originally been built on farmland, it’s now a prime Sunnyside spot off SE 43rd Avenue, on a generous 6,750-square-foot corner lot. These days, it’s within easy walking distance of the east side trifecta of upper Stark, Belmont, and Hawthorne, and, naturally, within a mile of several Portland institutions that it predates, like Portland Nursery (1907); Fred Meyer’s Hawthorne location (1936), an early expansion from the downtown flagship, which opened in 1922; Powell’s on Hawthorne (1992, the OG opened in 1971); and Movie Madness (1991).

Listing Fast Facts 

• Address:  4272 SE Washington St, Portland, OR 97215
• Size: 2,319 square feet/4 bedroom/1.5 bath 
• List Date: 1/11/2026 
• List Price: $560,000 
• Listing Agent: Julie Baldino, Front Door Realty

Melissa Dalton is a freelance writer who has focused on Pacific Northwest design and lifestyle since 2008. 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].