Rose City Golf Clubhouse

The Rose City Golf Clubhouse is a building located in northeast Portland, Oregon, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was listed October 31, 2012.

The Rose City Golf Clubhouse, located at 2200 NE 71st Avenue in Portland, was designed by Herbert A. Angell and constructed in 1931 and 1932 in the English Cottage style. The one-and-one-half story building is characterized by steeply pitched, complex gable and hip roofs clad in composition shingle encompassing the top half of the clubhouse. Additional character-defining features include multiple dormers, multi-pane wood windows, and a large brick chimney. A combination of red brick veneer at the ground floor and painted, combed cedar shingles with a 16-inch reveal clad the exterior walls. Each façade has several wood multi-pane casement and fixed windows with molded surrounds within segmental-arched openings finished in vertically-laid bricks. The doors are primarily multi-pane wood, with double doors at the main entrance on the northwest façade. Most of the other entrances are also within segmental-arched openings. The main approach to the building is from the south parking lot. The northeast façade facing the golf course and putting green, however, has the largest and most elaborate façade. The exterior of the clubhouse retains excellent integrity of materials, craftsmanship, and design. The location and setting are virtually unchanged, aside from some landscape alterations associated with the golf course’s development over time. The building was designed as a municipal golf course clubhouse and retains its original function for the City of Portland Parks and Recreation department. Architectural drawings and plans indicate that several renovations have occurred on the interior of the building, but the basic floor plan remains. Some historic features, such as the fireplace, have been covered up through renovations but remain in place behind modern drywall. Proposed rehabilitation plans include restoring and highlighting the significant character-defining features amidst a contemporary interior design that will serve the building’s current and future needs.

The Rose City Golf Clubhouse, located at 2200 NE 71st Avenue in Portland, Oregon, is significant under “Criterion A,” Entertainment and Recreation, as the second municipal golf course established in Oregon and the oldest surviving example of a municipal golf clubhouse in Portland. The Clubhouse is significant at the local level as a recreational facility that is integral with the sport of golf’s rise in popularity with the general public during the period in which it was developed. The Clubhouse is the physical and social focal point for this golf course. Constructed in 1931 and 1932, the clubhouse was designed by Portland architect Herbert A. Angell and constructed by general contractor B. T. Allyn. It was built as the main facility for the Rose City Golf Course. The course was designed by landscape architect George H. Otten and constructed between 1922 and 1927. The exterior of the clubhouse is in good condition and maintains a high degree of integrity. It has seen few changes since its opening in 1932. The interior has been heavily remodeled over the years. This has resulted in the loss of historic fabric and materials. Several historic features remain, however, and the basic configuration and orientation of the floor plan is in place. The Rose City Golf Clubhouse is significant under Criterion A for its association with recreation in Portland, specifically as the clubhouse for a municipal golf course. Constructed in 1931-1932, the building expresses the efforts of golfers in Northeast Portland to organize the community and municipality to finance a recreational facility in the early years of the Great Depression. The construction of the Rose City Golf Clubhouse occurred at a time when golf became widely popular among middle class patrons in the United States. No longer a game for the elite, the Rose City Golf Clubhouse served as a surrogate home for Portland’s growing middle class. Herbert A. Angell’s clubhouse design reflected national trends in clubhouse architecture, with many architects adopting specific elements for golf clubhouses. These elements, as reflected in the Rose City Golf Clubhouse, included the adoption of revival architectural styles and designs that mirrored residential structures. The Rose City Golf Clubhouse was the second municipal clubhouse constructed in Portland, following the 1922 construction of a clubhouse for the Eastmoreland Golf Course. The Eastmoreland clubhouse was demolished in the 1980s, making the Rose City Golf Clubhouse the oldest surviving municipal golf clubhouse in the city, and the oldest known example of such a facility in Oregon. See National Register Nomination for Developmental History.

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