Woodlark Building
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Woodlark Building
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The Woodlark Building in 2014
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| Location | 813–817 SW Alder Street Portland, Oregon |
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| Coordinates | 45°31′14″N 122°40′50″W / 45.520560°N 122.680493°WCoordinates: 45°31′14″N 122°40′50″W / 45.520560°N 122.680493°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1911–12 |
| Built by | Hurley-Mason Company |
| Architect | Doyle, Patterson & Beach |
| Architectural style | Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements, Commercial |
| NRHP Reference # | 14000482 |
| Added to NRHP | August 8, 2014 |
The Woodlark Building is a historic commercial building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The nine-story building was designed by Doyle, Patterson & Beach, and constructed in 1911–12. It has been described as "one of Portland's earliest commercial skyscrapers". From its completion until 1924, it was the headquarters of two jointly owned and very similarly named pharmaceutical companies based in Portland, the retail Woodard, Clarke & Company, and the wholesale Clarke-Woodward Company. It was converted into an office building in 1924. The retail space on the ground floor, mezzanine and basement has held a variety of businesses, in succession over the building's history, among the longest-lasting ones being a drugstore (1912–1927), a Sherman Clay piano and music store (1930–1974), and an independent shoe store (2000–2016).
In 2015, new owners announced plans to join the building to the adjacent Cornelius Hotel (a former hotel) and convert the two buildings into a hotel, with around 150 rooms. The new hotel is due to open by the end of 2017 and to be named The Woodlark.
The building was constructed as the new headquarters for the Portland-based retail and wholesale pharmaceutical companies owned by Louis G. Clarke (1855–1943) and William W. Woodward (1863–1940), and its name – originally written as "Wood-Lark" Building – was formed by combining parts of the two men's names. (The partners had employed the same practice when naming the 1907 building which previously served as their headquarters, the Cla-Wood Building, or Clawood Building, at Northwest 9th and Hoyt. That building was listed on the National Register in 1989, as the Clarke–Woodward Drug Company Building, but was later demolished and was delisted in 2000.)
The retail operation had been established in 1880 and formally incorporated in 1900 as Woodard, Clarke & Company, from a partnership between Louis Clarke and Charles H. Woodard, who retired form the business in 1904. In 1906, Clarke formed a new partnership with William Woodward, who had already been working for the company since 1882, to establish a wholesale drug business. The close similarity of the last names of Clarke's two successive partners has fostered confusion at times, compounded by the fact that the retail business continued to use the name Woodard, Clarke & Co. long after Charles Woodard's retirement, while the younger wholesale business carried the name Clarke-Woodward Company, using William Woodward's name, and the two jointly owned companies operated concurrently.
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