Ladd's Addition is an inner southeast historic district of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is Portland's oldest planned residential development, and one of the oldest in the western United States. The district is known in Portland for a diagonal street pattern, which is at odds with the rectilinear grid of the surrounding area. Roughly eight blocks (east-west) by ten blocks (north-south) in size (by reference to the surrounding grid), Ladd's is bordered by SE

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

, Division, 12th, and 20th streets. It is part of the

Hosford-Abernethy Hosford-Abernethy is a neighborhood in the inner Southeast section of Portland, Oregon. It borders Buckman and Sunnyside on the north, Richmond on the east, Brooklyn and Creston-Kenilworth on the south, and (across the Willamette River) Downto ...

neighborhood association.

History

Ladd's Addition is named after

William S. Ladd William Sargent Ladd (October 10, 1826 – January 6, 1893) was an American politician and businessman in Oregon. He twice served as Portland, Oregon's mayor in the 1850s. A native of Vermont, he was a prominent figure in the early developme ...

, a merchant and mid-19th-century Portland mayor who owned a farm on the land. In 1891 (when the city of East Portland was merged into Portland) Ladd subdivided the land for residential use. Rather than follow the standard orthogonal grid of the surrounding area, Ladd created a diagonal "wagon wheel" arrangement, including four small diamond-shaped rose gardens and a central traffic circle surrounding a park. It is also one of fewer than 20 areas in Portland that have alleyways, with street elevations mostly uninterrupted by curb cuts. While it is said that Ladd's design was inspired by L'Enfant's Washington layout, it bears no actual resemblance to the Washington street plan. LA - Clark Residence - Portland Oregon

The homes in the district, mostly developed between 1905 and 1930 (after Ladd's death), have been called a "architecturally rich mix of compatible early 20th century styles," notable for their "continuity of scale, setback, orientation, and materials." Architectural styles represented include

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

, craftsman,

American Foursquare The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...

, Mission, Tudor, and Colonial Revival. Development started at the north end, closest to the streetcar transportation, with the largest homes built between 1905 and 1915. Though the earliest deeds excluded Japanese and Chinese residents, except as servants, after those covenants expired, Ladd's Addition was one of the few areas by 1939 informally designated as open to 'oriental' families. Ladd's Addition Center Circle

Ecology

The narrow streets of Ladd's Addition are lined with American Elm trees. The Save Our Elms organization inoculates the elm trees yearly against Dutch elm disease. Each of the four smaller, diamond-shaped "circles" to the east, west, north, and south contains one of Portland's rose test gardens. Friends of Ladd's Addition Gardens regularly solicits money and volunteers to maintain the rose gardens. Ladd named most of the streets after trees, but he named SE Ladd Avenue and SE Elliott Avenue for himself and his wife, who was born Caroline Elliott.

Historic preservation

The area was designated a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

by the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Notes

References

;General references: * '' Portland Monthly'', April 2007, 20 Best Neighborhoods, pages 78–79. ;Citations:

External links