Built 1857
237 SW Front/Naito Parkway

Architect: Absalom B. Hallock
Cast-Iron Manufacturer: Phoenix Iron Works (San Francisco)

Although it is perhaps surprising, this is Portland’s oldest surviving brick commercial building. The Front Street iron façade was removed in the 1940s (see photo of building from 1940 at left), but the Oak Street façade is still intact. Hallock, a Quaker from New York State, was Portland’s first architect and set up his practice in 1851 representing Phoenix Iron Works from San Francisco. He designed 18 buildings in the district, many with Phoenix Iron Work façades.  

Photographs by Kevin Costello