The Pittock Mansion is a
French RenaissanceFrench Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
châteauA château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
in the
West HillsThe Tualatin Mountains are a range of hills on the western border of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States...
of
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
originally built as a private home for
The OregonianThe Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
publisher
Henry PittockHenry Lewis Pittock was an Oregon pioneer, newspaper editor, publisher, and wood and paper magnate. He was active in Republican politics and Portland, Oregon civic affairs, a Freemason and an avid outdoorsman and adventurer...
and his wife, Georgiana. It is a 22 room estate built of
TeninoTenino is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,447 at the 2000 census.-History:Tenino was officially incorporated on July 24, 1906, though it existed as a rural community since the mid-1800s...
SandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow,...
situated on that is now owned by the city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation and open for touring. In addition, the grounds provide panoramic views of
Downtown PortlandDowntown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
.
The home was at the center of a political scandal in 1911 when Portland City Council member,
Will H. DalyWill H. Daly was a Portland, Oregon labor leader, progressive politician and businessman. He was the first person to head both the Oregon State Federation of Labor and the Central Labor Council of Portland...
, brought public attention to Pittock having arranged for a water line to the construction project entirely at city expense, despite it being located a half mile outside of the city limits at the time.
The Pittock Mansion is a
French RenaissanceFrench Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...
châteauA château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
in the
West HillsThe Tualatin Mountains are a range of hills on the western border of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States...
of
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
originally built as a private home for
The OregonianThe Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
publisher
Henry PittockHenry Lewis Pittock was an Oregon pioneer, newspaper editor, publisher, and wood and paper magnate. He was active in Republican politics and Portland, Oregon civic affairs, a Freemason and an avid outdoorsman and adventurer...
and his wife, Georgiana. It is a 22 room estate built of
TeninoTenino is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,447 at the 2000 census.-History:Tenino was officially incorporated on July 24, 1906, though it existed as a rural community since the mid-1800s...
SandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow,...
situated on that is now owned by the city's Bureau of Parks and Recreation and open for touring. In addition, the grounds provide panoramic views of
Downtown PortlandDowntown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
.
The home was at the center of a political scandal in 1911 when Portland City Council member,
Will H. DalyWill H. Daly was a Portland, Oregon labor leader, progressive politician and businessman. He was the first person to head both the Oregon State Federation of Labor and the Central Labor Council of Portland...
, brought public attention to Pittock having arranged for a water line to the construction project entirely at city expense, despite it being located a half mile outside of the city limits at the time. The incident resulted in a longstanding feud between Pittock's paper and Daly which ultimately led to the end of the councilman's political career.
Georgiana, one of the founders of the
Portland Rose FestivalThe Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Association with the purpose of promoting the Portland region....
, died in 1918 at the age of 72, and Henry in 1919 at 84. The Pittock family remained in residence at the mansion until 1958, when Peter Gantenbein, a Pittock grandson who had been born in the house, put the estate on the market and was unsuccessful in selling it. Extensive damage caused by the Columbus Day Storm in 1962 caused the owners to consider demolishing the building. The community raised $75,000 in three months in order to help the city purchase the property. Seeing this popular support, and agreeing that the house had tremendous value as a unique historic resource, the
City of PortlandPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
purchased the estate in 1964 for $225,000.
Fifteen months were spent restoring it. The mansion opened to the public in 1965, and has been a community landmark ever since. Roughly 80,000 people visit the Pittock Mansion each year.
Due to the location of the site above sea level, the mansion is one of the best places for birdwatching in Portland.
The building was added to the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1974.
The City of Portland estimates that $6-8 million worth of restorations are needed.
In Popular Media
This location was used in the 1989 movie,
The Haunting of Sarah Hardy starring
Sela WardSela Ann Ward is an American movie and television actress, perhaps best known for her television roles as the free-spirited "Teddy Reed" on the American TV series Sisters and the single mother Lily Manning on Once and Again .-Early life:Ward was born in Meridian, Mississippi, the oldest of four...
and
Morgan FairchildMorgan Fairchild is an American actress. She achieved prominence during the late 1970s and early 1980s with continuing roles in several television series, in which she usually conveyed a glamorous image. Fairchild has also performed in live theater and played guest roles in television comedies...
.
This location was also used prominently in the 1993 film
Body of EvidenceBody of Evidence is an erotic thriller directed by Uli Edel and starring Madonna and Willem Defoe.The first theatrical release was censored for the purpose of obtaining an R rating, reducing the film's running time from 101 to 99 minutes...
starring
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
and
Willem DafoeWilliam "Willem" Dafoe is an American film and stage actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
.
This location was used as the finish line for the
13th seasonThe Amazing Race 13 was the 13th installment of the reality television competition series The Amazing Race. It featured 11 teams of two, each with a preexisting relationship, in a race around the world....
of the 6-time Emmy-winning reality game show,
The Amazing RaceThe Amazing Race is an American reality game show in which teams of two or four race around the world against other teams, with the first-place team winning $1,000,000. As the original version of the Amazing Race franchise, the CBS program has been running since 2001 and has completed fifteen...
.
External links