One of my favorite Portland Neighborhoods, Alameda has it all!
I have always enjoyed spending time in Portland. Its reputation of being quirky, cool, weird and green all at the same time, makes life very interesting. Its architecture follows the same model. And while there is a myriad of unique neighborhoods in Portland, I isolated around a dozen favorites and focused on those for my series of historic Portland house portraits.
I am proud to include homes in the Alameda neighborhood as part of my 100 Historic Homes of Portland Collection. Alameda has a feast of architectural styles and well preserved and maintained historic homes and like many of my best-loved areas, it has beautiful tree-lined streets and colorful gardens.
Alameda sits right next to the stunning Wilshire Park and some of the houses were built as early as 1909, when the neighborhood was annexed to Portland. While walking down the streets, I saw many styles of homes including Craftsman Four-squares and bungalows, Colonials, Tudors, Edwardian and Cape Cods.
How Alameda procured its name is interesting as well as other fun historic facts which I cover below.
Many people ask me how I go about selecting homes to be part of my various house painting collections. When I depict the architecture in an area, my goal is to create an eclectic mix of interesting house portraits that present both the history of the area as well as an array of architectural styles that artistically reflect that particular neighborhood or city.
Please enjoy my historic Alameda House Portrait Series! The architectural style of each home and the street it is situated on is noted under each of these original paintings.
And now a little bit more about Alameda.
Not unlike the interesting array of architectural styles that make up this neighborhood, today Alameda’s 5,000 residents include a colorful mix of ethnicities and the area embraces many cultural backgrounds. However, it wasn’t always that way. Back in the early days, the new Alameda development advertised an extremely broad exclusion in its printed brochure, declaring that “no people of undesirable colors and kinds” would be welcome in the area!
Alameda’s name comes from the Spanish word “alamo,” meaning a poplar or cottonwood tree. “Alameda” means, precisely, a public walk or promenade lined with poplar trees, and, by extension, a street lined with trees, like the English word “parkway.”
My Portland series includes paintings of homes in a total of 17 favorite neighborhoods and in 15 architectural styles, however I focused on the following 10 historic neighborhoods: Alameda, Beaumont-Wilshire, Concordia, Grant Park, Irvington, Laurelhurst, Sabin, Sellwood-Mooreland and Eastmoreland.
Furthermore, I am proud to say that nearly all of the original paintings displayed above can be found hanging on the walls of each of these homes. Once I am close to completing a portrait, I usually send a note to the respective homeowner giving them first option to view and purchase the original painting if they so desire. After all, they are the ones that made the home art inspiring ! From there, word spreads and before long I am receiving requests from other homeowners asking me to paint a portrait of their home or the home of a loved one. Being that I have now completed homes in all 50 states, I am blessed to receive commission requests weekly from around the country. I am always honored to create these portraits, thereby preserving the special memories and personality of each individual home.
I hope you found this little jaunt to Alameda informative and have enjoyed viewing just a few of the beautiful homes that can be found nestled in this peaceful enclave of Portland, Oregon.
Cheers, Leisa