The Giesy-Failing house is animated by a complex roofline of intersecting gables. The architects added some of the dormers (and made other changes) in 1922, 11 years after they designed the original home.
2Entry Canopy
A wrought iron and glass canopy shelters the front entrance; its style and materials are reminiscent of Parisian Metro entry structures.
3Wrought Iron Door Detail
Hand crafted, as are many of the intricate, decorative elements in the house.
4Entry Canopy
A wrought iron and glass canopy shelters the front entrance; its style and materials are reminiscent of Parisian Metro entry structures.
5Main Entry Stairwell Landing
Leaded glass windows lend the atmosphere of a medieval library to the landing of the grand stairway.
6Wrought Iron Door Detail
Hand crafted, as are many of the intricate, decorative elements in the house.
7Carved Woodwork of Stair Rail
Original woodwork is preserved throughout the house; here, the stair rail leading to the second floor.
8Main Entry Stairwell Landing
Leaded glass windows lend the atmosphere of a medieval library to the landing of the grand stairway.
9Formal Dining Room – Hearth
Dark woods throughout the house create a very somber interior and sheltered feeling.
10Carved Woodwork of Stair Rail
Original woodwork is preserved throughout the house; here, the stair rail leading to the second floor.
11Front Windows in Main Living Room
Facing east, the living room includes floor to ceiling windows letting in light to an otherwise relatively dark house.
12Formal Dining Room – Hearth
Dark woods throughout the house create a very somber interior and sheltered feeling.
13Leaded Glass in Main Living Room
Built-in shelves in the living room are topped by recessed windows with a stylized Asian pattern of leaded glass.
14Front Windows in Main Living Room
Facing east, the living room includes floor to ceiling windows letting in light to an otherwise relatively dark house.
15Sunroom
The westward-facing, enclosed sunroom was added adjacent to the main living room. That and other additions were designed by the original architects for the home’s second owners, two sisters, Henrietta and Mary Failing, who acquired the house in 1922.
16Leaded Glass in Main Living Room
Built-in shelves in the living room are topped by recessed windows with a stylized Asian pattern of leaded glass.
17Back Terrace
The brick terrace (built off the sunroom to the west) was another of the 1922 additions. It and a series of French doors connected the house to its surroundings more than the more purely sheltering (and typically Arts & Crafts) original design had done.
18Sunroom
The westward-facing, enclosed sunroom was added adjacent to the main living room. That and other additions were designed by the original architects for the home’s second owners, two sisters, Henrietta and Mary Failing, who acquired the house in 1922.
19Giesy-Failing House, 1911
The Giesy-Failing house is animated by a complex roofline of intersecting gables. The architects added some of the dormers (and made other changes) in 1922, 11 years after they designed the original home.
20Back Terrace
The brick terrace (built off the sunroom to the west) was another of the 1922 additions. It and a series of French doors connected the house to its surroundings more than the more purely sheltering (and typically Arts & Crafts) original design had done.
The Architectural Heritage Center’s annual Heritage Homes Tour is always a fun chance to step inside some of the fine old houses that most of us usually only admire from the exterior. The tour tends to focus not on vernacular or mundane old houses but on the sorts of large, stately, impeccably well-preserved homes one could call mansions, if one were being less than modest. Real mansions, the sorts of homes “McMansions” can only dream of being.
The Giesy-Failing House, open for the recent 2013 Heritage Homes Tour, is one of these fine homes. Dr. Andrew and Ida Giesy hired the prominent local architectural firm Jacobberger and Smith to design the house, an English Country Manor version of the popular Arts & Crafts movement in America. Located on a hilly site on Southwest Montgomery Place, the house originally commanded a sweeping view of the city and mountains. Now, surrounded by mature trees and imposing landscaped hedges, it feels tucked away and private.
Take the slide show tour to see what lies behind the hedges and beyond the beautiful threshold of this 1911 Arts & Crafts house. Many of the details are unusual for this style of residential design, and they certainly contrast with what was built in Portland in later years. And thank you to the Architectural Heritage Center for organizing the tour, and to the home’s current owners to letting us inside.
