The Ladd Carriage House – all 350 tons of it – returns to its original site at SW Broadway @ Columbia and its Friends invite you to a ceremony to mark the event.
The Friends of Ladd Carriage House are pleased to announce that on October 25, 2008, the Ladd Carriage House will be moved back down Columbia Street to its original site which it had to vacate in June, 2007 to make way for digging an underground parking garage. During the daylight hours, the 7,000 square foot landmark will make a slow trip from its temporary site at SW 10th and Columbia Street to the plaza at the base of the Ladd Tower Apartments, next door to First Christian Church.
To celebrate this tremendous step in saving this landmark, the Friends of the Ladd Carriage House invite the citizens of Portland to come by on October 25, 2008 to see history in the making. A 40 minute ceremony to mark the event will be held in the South Park Blocks adjacent to Columbia Street at 10am. Speakers will include mayor-elect Sam Adams and representatives of Opus NW, First Christian Church, and other organizations involved with the rescue of the building. The actual move of the Carriage House is expected to start at approximately 7:00 am and be completed by mid-afternoon.
Relocating the Carriage House was part of the first phase of Ladd Tower, a 23-story residential Ladd Apartment project located in the heart of Portland’s Cultural District. To retain the history and character of the neighborhood, Opus Northwest, LLC worked with a number of local partners including the First Christian Church, Friends of Ladd Carriage House, and Ankrom Moisan Architects to design a revitalized mixed-use block that prominently features the Ladd Carriage House. Construction requirements, including an underground parking garage, necessitated the move of the building from its original site to the temporary location. With completion of the underground garage, the Carriage House can now return to its original site for restoration, a process which has already begun at its temporary site.
Costs for the move and the initial restoration are being born by OpusNW and represent a major contribution to the preservation of the city’s important historic buildings. Venerable Properties, Inc. is currently planning the restoration of the building with Carleton-Hart Architects. Upon its return, the building will be sold for commercial space and customized to the needs of a new owner.
Built in 1883 for William S. Ladd, the Ladd Carriage House stabled horses and carriages for one of Portland’s pioneer citizens and its fifth mayor. The building is a rare example of English Stick Style architecture and the only surviving Portland work by the architect Joseph Sherwin. “Ladd’s Carriage House stands as an exuberant little jewel” says architect William Hawkins, author of Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon. “It’s a reminder of an era when even a utility structure would be built as civic adornment.”
The Friends of Ladd Carriage House is a committee of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation/Architectural Heritage Center, a non-profit resource center for historic preservation in the Portland area. It was created in 2005 to advocate for the preservation and restoration of the Ladd Carriage House. The Committee’s membership includes preservationists, historians, architects, civic leaders, college students and concerned citizens working to preserve this critical piece of Portland’s 19th century history. For more information please visit www.laddcarriagehouse.org and www.visitahc.org.