Portland Walk: Pittock Mansion

Earlier this year we walked up to the Pittock Mansion but didn't take the tour. Shortly thereafter there was a deal on LivingSocial for admission, which I quickly snapped up...but I either seem to use those right away or right before they expire. These tickets were about to expire November 1st. So we got some exercise & hiked up there again and this time we got to see the inside!

 

The main lobby is covered in marble, including frames around the entries to the study, elevator (century old elevator, completed in 1914) and halls off of the lobby. Light fixtures throughout the house were designed by Fred Baker "the foremost lighting designer in Portland" of the time, having also designed fixtures for the Portland Art Museum, the Timberline Lodge, The Ambassador Apartments and many other notable buildings.

 

The kitchen was actually pretty large. We speculated that the butlers pantry (a room between the kitchen and dinning room where the serving staff would set hot dishes down before serving them) was actually larger than our current kitchen. I was impressed by the restored linoleum flooring pattern's interlocking pattern.

 

The wallpaper in the bedrooms, look at it! Especially the green, I keep looking at that picture, it's lovely. Overall the house has been well restored and is just packed with information. While we were we visiting there were boards up about the anniversary of the Columbus Day storm and it's impact on the mansion. Also neat exhibit in the basement about Henry Pittock and his daughters (Lucy and Kate) interested in hiking and mountaineering. He was in one of the first Mt. Hood climbing parties, before they had proper protection for snowblindness.

 

Since we did walk up to the house we had time again to take in some of the houses in the area, and also nature! A flock of migrating cranes flew over us as we were heading up the hill. I heard them a few times before they were right above us, and I had been trying to sort out the odd sound. It was not very geese like, plus they seemed pretty big. Some inspection of our pictures and internet research and apparently Portland is right under the migration path and there have been many recent sightings. As a bonus, we saw two great big banana slugs on a mossy wall at the bottom of the hill. I prefer them greatly to the humongous spiders (almost the size of the fake spider Halloween decorations, I swear) I was trying to avoid.