Old Town Historic District

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Old Town Historic District is a historic district in Bend, Deschutes County, roughly bounded by Arizona Avenue, Wall Street, Broadway, Franklin Avenue and Division Street. It was listed as part of the Craftsman Bungalows in Deschutes County multiple property submission, with contributing buildings in styles from Craftsman Bungalow and Workingman's Foursquare to Western Falsefront and Colonial Revival.

Why it's listed

It was listed in the National Register in 2001 under criteria A and C, with local significance in architecture, industry, and community planning and development.

Physical character

Most contributing buildings are sided in clapboard or lap siding of varying width, and stand on foundations of poured concrete, concrete block, brick, or local basalt and lava rock. Gable and hip roofs predominate, many with exposed rafter tails, decorative knee braces, and full width gabled entry porches. Recorded changes include a 1935 storefront addition, a 1997 remodeling, and the 2001 removal of leaded glass windows from a main facade.

Historical context

Bend's lumber industry reached into the district: in 1920 Hans Kultstad, a watchman for the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company, bought a home there. A Portland Hotel boarding house went up around 1917 and the Full Gospel Church was built around 1925. Individual houses changed hands over the decades, sold to Frank and Josephine Olson and to Harold Oppegard by 1925, and later home to the Nystrom family in 1938 and the Newmans in 1946.