About The Rise and Fall of the Oregon Home Builders Company
Presented by Doug Decker, local historian
The story of the Oregon Home Builders is one of a big vision that
ended in bankruptcy and likely even unprosecuted fraud. But it’s also a story
of productivity and lasting accomplishment, with works of careful design and craftsmanship
that have survived a century.
Founded in 1912 by a group of established Portland and Willamette
Valley businessmen, OHB’s primary mission appears to have been to make a lot of
money, to use as much of other people’s money as possible to do that, and to
benefit from skyrocketing growth in real estate and in-migration to the
Portland area in the years following the 1905 Lewis and Clark World’s Fair,
which put the city on the map.
Join us to learn about the meteoric rise, successful operation, and
dramatic crash of the company that brought the hope of home ownership to a mass
market, designing and building dozens of durable and beautiful homes on
Portland’s Eastside before falling into bankruptcy in 1917.
About the Speaker:
Doug writes a history column for the Concordia News and Alameda
PDX News, and runs a website devoted to old house and neighborhood history
in Northeast Portland: www.alamedahistory.org.
He also conducts architectural and social history studies of buildings and
places through interviews, document and archive research, photo research and
other explorations to create a rich understanding of a property and its impact,
significance and role over time.
Photo Credit: OHB President Oliver Jeffery in
Who’s Who in Oregon, 1911
