The Charles and Fae Olson House is a historic house in
Gresham,
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Designed and hand-built by the novice
owner-occupant as his version of the "dream house" that sustained many men and women overseas during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, its
modern styling embodies the breaks with tradition embraced by the generation returning from the war. The main outlines of the plan were developed during
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...
correspondence between Charles Olson and his wife Fae while he was serving in the
Pacific, and many features are patterned on the books and magazines available to him. The Olsons' willingness to devote their own labor to its construction allowed them to avoid the constraints of
commercial and
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
financing, which favored standardized suburban
tract construction during the immediate postwar period, and to flexibly adapt to the material shortages of the time.
[.][.]
The house was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2007.
See also
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Charles and Fae, House
1946 establishments in Oregon
Buildings and structures in Gresham, Oregon
Houses completed in 1957
Houses in Multnomah County, Oregon
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon
Modern Movement architecture in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Gresham, Oregon