FHA 75th Anniversary Discovery: Oregon's First Two FHA Multifamily Loans (and a LOT more).

I have posted an updated 75th FHA Anniversary Celebration document (PDF) HERE which now has lots of Oregon specific FHA multifamily information added to the prior Oregon single family and the national multifamily and single family information previously posted.

The most notable addition was my discovery of the first two FHA Multifamily loans in Oregon (both in Portland). Much more is available in the PDF, including newspaper stories; video, photo, and panoramic photo links are found on the last page of the PDF file.

Here's a summary of some key bits about these two properties:

Vista Avenue Apartments was the FIRST FHA multifamily loan in Oregon, in Portland, in June of 1940. A map link to 810 SW Vista is HERE.


Parkview Apartments followed in August of 1940. A map link to 1760 NE Irving is HERE.

Both projects are in BEAUTIFUL condition and continue to operate as rentals. I urge you to take a look at the project websites and my videos and photos in the PDF, but ALSO to visit them yourself. They are both within 10 minutes of downtown.


The architect for Vista Avenue Apartments was Pietro Bellushci, the world renowned architect whose other Portland area designs include the Commonwealth building and the Oregonian building. [Irony--the new Portland Housing Division (PDC+BHCD) will be in the Commonwealth building, with HUD directly across the street].


The developer of Parkview Apartments was Ralph Lloyd, of Lloyd Center fame.

Parkview Apartments is on the National Register of Historic Places.(Nomination materials are in the 75th Anniversary Celebration PDF).


These two projects were built prior to the start of WW II, before there even was a housing authority in Portland, but pre-war expansion was starting to create demand for more rental housing that would culminate a few years later with the building of the massive Vanport public housing project.


GREEN before Green was hip! Vista Avenue has several 140 year old redwood trees on site; during a site visit at Parkview I was told that an arborist has said that some of the trees on that site are 135 years old.


Surrounding the Vista Avenue Apartments are several other previously FHA insured loans on King's Hill; those are shown in a separate worksheet in the Excel FHA MF database.Together the 5 former FHA projects I have located on the Hill add up to close to 1,000 units.


Immediately adjacent to Parkview Apartments is a recent (1990's) FHA /OHCS risk sharing project, Buckman Heights.(Buckman is just South of NE Gleason)