Blake McFall Company Building facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Blake McFall Company Building
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Building in 2020
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| Location | 215 SE Ankeny Street Portland, Oregon |
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| Area | 100 by 200 feet (30 by 61 m) |
| Built | 1915 |
| Architect | MacNaughton & Raymond |
| Architectural style | Commercial |
| NRHP reference No. | 90000371 |
| Added to NRHP | March 9, 1990 |
The Blake McFall Company Building, also known as the Emmett Building, is a five-story building in Portland, Oregon. It's a type of building called a commercial warehouse. This means it was used to store goods for businesses.
This historic building is located in southeast Portland. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This list includes places important to American history. The building was designed by MacNaughton & Raymond of Portland. It was built in 1915 and added to the historic register in 1990. The building is about 100 by 200 feet (30 by 60 meters). It is a great example of the large, timber-framed warehouses built in the early 1900s. These buildings were common on the east side of the Willamette River.
A Look Back in Time
In 1888, the Steel Bridge was finished over the Willamette River. This bridge connected downtown Portland with East Portland by train. East Portland already had good train connections to the east and south. Because of this, an industrial area grew along the river's east bank. Businesses used this area to store and ship goods. These goods arrived by train and steamboat.
Many companies built large warehouses here. Some of these companies included John Deere and International Harvester. Blake, Moffitt & Towne also built a multi-story warehouse. The Blake McFall Company Building was at the northern edge of this warehouse district. It was located near the east ramp of the Burnside Bridge.
The Blake McFall Company
The Blake McFall Company was part of Blake, Moffitt & Towne. At that time, Blake, Moffitt & Towne was the biggest paper wholesaler on the Pacific coast. A wholesaler buys large amounts of products and then sells them to other businesses. They bought and shipped many types of paper. This included newsprint, writing papers, wrapping paper, and bags.
The warehouse mainly used trains to receive large shipments. These shipments were then divided in Portland. They were sent to the company's seven different locations in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Later, a warehouse in Seattle took over some of Portland's shipping jobs. By the 1940s, shipping by truck became more common. This made the Portland warehouse less useful. Blake, Moffitt, & Towne left the building in 1957.
New Beginnings
In 1992, Jeff and Lauri Gordon bought the building. They bought it from the FDIC, a government agency. They created the first legal work spaces on Portland's east side. They named the building Towne Storage.
Since 2019, a software company called Autodesk has been using the building.
