I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so I figured what the heck. This apartment building is on the eastern boundary of sunset heights and is situated within one of the few clusters of old buildings still standing on Oregon St, just north of downtown. Not a very interesting building aside from the neat bay windows. I like how their dark paint scheme contrasts nicely with the lighter brick color. I've found the building was built in 1910. I'm not sure when this photo was taken, but it probably wasn't too long after that going by the adjoining buildings. There's a little victorian house just to its right, which was replaced 10 - 15 years later by another apartment building. The beautiful mansion just behind it hasn't been built yet either. It's interesting how you'll have neighborhoods redevelop from the single family homes of the late victorian era into multi family homes and apartment buildings (and the occasional mansion) just a decade or two later.
This is what it looks like now. Aside from the stunning absence of the bay windows it doesn't look too much different than it did back then. The wooden portico is still there as is the pressed tin cornice. I'd love to see the bay windows make their way back into the building. It was most definitely its defining feature.
I doctored this photo a bit so you can see the detail in the cornice.
Check the goods. Beautiful isn't it? The painting under the porch was probably the easiest yet since there wasn't too much damage. I know it looks like I missed a spot -- you can see a thin line of beige at the bottom of each sash. This isn't by mistake. Whoever painted these last painted a bit of the concrete where the sill meets the window frame. Since the paint was in such good condition here it wasn't very easy to scrape off. I'm going to have to come back to this eventually and see what I can do. Since I swore against painting masonry I'll have to suck it up and get used to it, at least for now. I still need a little touch up on the two small windows over the fireplace, but out of my impatience I'm calling these done. Next I think I'll tackle the two front facing windows on the upstairs bedrooms -- my multi color paint scheme will be groovy for only so long.
