Introducing
Edgar Lazarus
Architect of Vista House
Atelier Elvira, Munich, 1898, August Endell
“Art Nouveau artists … tended to avoid  the heavy, neo-medieval look of the Arts and Crafts, preferring sinuous  organic shapes and plantlike motifs.” 
 Thank you for the opportunity to talk about Edgar Lazarus.   My interest in Lazarus started several months ago when I was cataloging an image of one of his works and needed to verify some facts.  I quickly found an interesting discrepancy:  Emma Lazarus, the poet, was identified in one source as his cousin, and in another as his sister.  I eventually determined that she was not even remotely related to him.  This revelation inspired me to study this mysterious person even further.  I was struck by how often he was referred to as the most prominent Oregon architect about whom the least is known.  The increasing availability of digitized historical information has made learning about Lazarus less difficult than it was in the past.  Today I’m going to share some of  what I’ve learned about this enigmatic architect.
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The story of Edgar Lazarus begins in Charleston, S. C., where his family originated.  Pictured is the home of his mother, Minnie Mordecai. Minnie was the daughter of Moses Mordecai, a prominent merchant whose ships traded goods throughout the Caribbean.  In 1859, her future husband, Edgar Lazarus Sr., was headed back to Charleston after studying at the University of Heidelberg.  His return might have been prompted by the increasing political turmoil of the time.  In 1860 South Carolina seceded from the union and the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter commenced the Civil War.  Edgar Lazarus served as a Confederate soldier and his father in law employed his ships as blockade runners.  In 1864, Edgar and Minnie were married.  With the surrender of Lee in 1865, the war came to a close.  The Reconstructionist government made life uncomfortable for wealthy former Confederates..  
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The Lazarus and Mordecai families sold what they could and moved to Baltimore, with what valuables they could take.  In Baltimore, the families found a well established Jewish community and an environment hospitable to ex-Confederates.    Lazarus became achieved success as a commission merchant.  On June 6, 1868, Edgar Marks Lazarus (Jr.) was born.. After attending public schools  the young Lazarus enrolled in the architecture program of the Maryland Institute of Art and Design.  He graduated from that school in 1888, the year his father died, and immediately got a job with the US government in Washington as a draftsman for the Army Quartermaster Corps .  In that capacity, he designed utilitarian buildings for the military.
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In 1891, Lazarus resigned from his job and moved Portland, apparently to work in real estate.  However, he soon teamed up with William Ellicott to create the firm, Ellicott & Lazarus.  If Lazarus did not already know Ellicott, he certainly knew who he was.   Born in Philadelphia, Ellicott came from a distinguished, wealthy Maryland family – the town Ellicott City is named for them – and Ellicott’s grandfather and uncles were employed as Baltimore commission merchants just like Edgar’s father.  Ellicott’s architectural education included a year’s study in Paris at a prestigious atelier.   Only six works of this firm are known.  They include the first Multnomah Athletic Club building (10th & Yamhill) and the the first building for the Oregon Institute for the Blind, Salem.
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Ellicott & Lazarus also designed fine residences.  Among them is the 1894 George F. Heusner House, 33 NW 20th Ave.  Built in the Queen Anne Shingle Style this large home became a boarding house in the 1920s and today is comprised of four  condominium units.  The varied window treatments, curved shapes, andunusual chimney treatments stand out in this work. Ellicott returned to Baltimore in 1895 and prospered in the firm Ellicott & Emmart.
 
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Lazarus  apparently did well in  Portland as he was often mentioned in the city’s Society column.  He was active early on in many associations and basically became their resident architect.  An illustration for an 1895 bowling alley designed for the Oregon Road Club is a rare example of the kind of work he performed.  The road club was a social group that promoted good roads and had over 400 members. 
 
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Lazarus was also active in Portland’s sports community and was a founder of the Portland Hunt Club, an organization that staged rides and races in the city at various venues.
 
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In 1896, Lazarus was again a US government employee as Superintendent of Construction of Public Works.  This assignment made him the onsite manager of federal construction projects, such as post offices, courthouses, quarantine stations, throughout the region  That position helped him secure a larger project,  service as supervising architect for the new US Custom House.  The building was  designed by the office of the Supervising Architect of the US headed by James Knox Taylor.  The plans were ready before Lazarus was hired for his supervisory role. The custom house is a fine example of Italian Renaissance design with exuberant decoration.
 
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From 1898-1901 Lazarus was also involved with designs for academia; he designed early buildings for  Eastern Oregon State Normal School (Weston), Oregon Agricultural College, and the University of Oregon.  Pictured at the top are images of the Mechanical Arts building for the University of Oregon:  left, as the building appears today, as part of Lawrence Hall, and right, as it originally appeared.  On the bottom are pictures of Oregon State University’s Apperson Hall, originally the Mechanical Arts building.
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The architect’s sporting associations made him a natural choice for the design the new Multnomah Athletic Club building which opened in July 1900. The building burned in 1909 and was replaced in 1910 by a new clubhouse designed by Whitehouse & Fouilhoux.
 
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In 1901 Morrow County wanted an architect for a new courthouse, and Lazarus won the competition. 
For Lazarus the courthouse project helped him secure future large institutional commissions.  The building opened in 1903.  The eclectic design demonstrates the skill of local craftsmen and materials.  The craftsmanship is reminiscent of the later Vista House.
 
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In 1903 and 1904, Lazarus was engaged in the design and construction of another federal project, the extension of the 1875 post office and courthouse known today as Pioneer Courthouse.  I have confirmed that Lazarus designed the extension.  His design, with two wings, was preferred over the first attempt with one large wing designed by the office of James Knox Taylor.  As superintendent of construction, Lazarus had to remove some of the work already executed by Taylor in order to built the new design.  In 1904 he resigned from civil service after being requested to transfer to St. Joseph, Missouri.
 
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His next courthouse commission was for Clatsop County.  Lazarrus preliminary drawings for the Astoria building appeared in the March 1, 1904 Oregonian. Although the cornerstone was laid with elaborate ceremony in 1904, financial problems halted construction until 1907.   The courthouse was completed on January 30, 1908, and the construction delays substantially increased its final cost $175,000. 
Picture:  Clatsop County Courthouse, drawing by Lazarus.  This building is located at 749 Commercial St., Astoria. (National Register, Listed 1984)
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The dome was removed in 1951.
Pictured:  Marion Dean Ross photo, 1973.
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The architect’s racing endeavors frequently made the sports news. Here is an article from the Morning Oregonian, April 1904.
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The idea for a grand exposition organized around the centennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition began percolating in 1900.  In 1903, John Olmsted of the famous Olmsted firm designed the layout of the fair to be located at the drainage area called Guild’s Lake. The buildings were to be designed to capture the popular imagination.  Portland’s leading architects drew lots for the major structures Designs were completed by December 1903.   The building by Lazarus, the Palace of Agriculture, wasat 90000 sf the largest building at the fair and perhaps the most spectacular with its massive gold dome. On June 1, 1905, The Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair opened. 
The fair ushered in a period of growth for the city; the value of building permits jumped 450% from 1905 to 1911.    
Picture: cover of a catalog of the Lewis & Clark exposition.
 
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Picture: from a contemporary catalog of the Lewis & Clark exposition
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In 1905, Lazarus acquired property with a colleague and designed for the site at 14th Ave. and Washington St. a residential hotel that would provide him steady income for the next three decades.  with a colleague and designed  Completed in 1907, the hotel was first leased to Mrs. A. B. Norton, and called the Nortonia Hotel.  It was leased to Dan Moore and until 1909 known as the Danmoore Hotel.  In 1909, Lazarus managed the property and renamed the building  Hotel Ramapo,  probably after a prize-winning horse.  In 1955 the building became the Taft Hotel and today it is a residential facility for people with special needs.   Very little of its outward appearance has changed over the years.
 Unfortunately, the National Register nomination incorrectly assigns the historic name “Franklin Hotel” to this building; it was never named the Franklin Hotel.
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Postcard of the Danmoore Hotel, 1905
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Ramapo Hotel (Taft Hotel), today
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Inspired by the successful showing of Oregon livestock at the Lewis & Clark fair, the Portland Country Club and Livestock Association was formed in 1906 to create a permanent venue for promoting national livestock shows and sales with the corollary aim of improving breeds. Other entities became interested in the concept, and the grand scheme was to incorporate quarters for the Portland Hunt Club, the Automobile Club, the Kennel Club.    By January 1908 Lazarus had completed plans for the project.  The site selected was adjacent to the new community called Rose City Park, easily accessible by streetcar.  By September 1908, the work was largely finished.   The complex included a grandstand accommodating 8000, an elliptical track, a jockey house, clubhouse, entrance building, and up to  20 other structures including a paddock, a pigeon house, barns, stables, and kennels.  The site soon became known as the Rose City Racetrack and featured events such as auto and bike racing events, the first Oregon airmail flight, and locomotives colliding with each other.  The site was sold to the city in 1921,  and today is home to the Rose City Golf Course.  The Jockey Clubhouse remains as a residence at 6134 NE Alameda.
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This large 1906 home, the Bradley-Holman residence, on SW Vista Ave, is an example of the residential work executed by Lazarus during this time. 
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In February 1909, Lazarus joined two other architects to form the firm Lazarus, Whitehouse, and Fouilhoux.  Morris Whitehouse as a native Portlander who studied architecture at MIT and in Paris.  Fouilhoux was an engineer.  Among major works designed by this firm are the Mann Old People’s Home and several fine homes that still exist.  A major project was the design of another building for  Oregon State Hospital.  Known as the Receiving Ward (or Dome building), the three story domed structure opened in early 1910.  The plans called for north and south wings to be added later. 
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Receiving Ward, Oregon State Hospital
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Lazarus withdrew from the partnership in March 1910 and in May he was on the way to Europe where he would stay for most of the year.  His companion for part of the journey was  world famous editorial cartoonist Homer Davenport with whom he shared an interest in race horses.  They went to Wimbledon Downs together.  Davenport was a native of Silverton which honors the hometown star with the annual Davenport Days celebration.
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Upon his return to Portland in January 1911, Lazarus formed a partnership with architect Frank Logan. The major work of Lazarus & Logan was a South Wing for the State Hospital.  Lazarus and Logan were among five individuals who founded  in 1911 the Oregon chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a national organization founded in 1857. In 1913, Lazarus was president of the Oregon AIA chapter.   At the same time, Logan was president of the Portland Architectural League.   
Another architectural group active during this period was the Portland Architectural Club pictured here at a Christmas party in 1911.
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He was also a strong supporter of the Portland Art Museum where he was an occasional instructor and student in the museum school. Lazarus and others occasionally loaned items from their collections for museum exhibitions.  Portraits of his grandparents by a famous French artist are among items that were exhibited. Here he is pictured with art students in 1913 with artist Sidney Bell who would later paint historical panels for Vista House. 
 In 1914, Logan left employment with Lazarus probably because an economic downturn made commissions dwindle.  Logan was working in New York City by 1918.
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An automobile enthusiast,  Lazarus was early on a supporter of the Columbia Scenic Highway engineered by Sam Lancaster and supervised by John Yeon.  In the summer of 1915 he was commissioned to draw plans for Vista House, a memorial to Oregon pioneers that would also serve as a comfort station and observatory.  An illustrated description of an expanded concept that included a hotel appeared in the October 3, 1915, Oregonian  Entrepreneur R. R. Dabney promoted the hotel and Lancaster assured Lazarus that it could be built on the grounds around the existing roadway.  Most of the article is about a huge pipe organ that would be in the hotel. .  The buildings were described to be of Tudor Gothic architecture.  (Lazarus later sued the estate of Dabney, who died in 1918, for failure to pay for the plans.)
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That Vista House was described by Lazarus as Tudor Gothic makes one wonder why the building’s style is now commonly called Jugendstil, a German name for Art Nouveau.  Some sources now assert that Lazarus chose Jugendstil, a great irony since America was fighting the Germans and Austrians when Vista House was built.
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It is probably a reference in Marion Dean Ross’s 1959 pamphlet “100 years of Oregon architecture” that started this line of thinking.  As late as 1940, in the WPA book on Oregon, was Vista House being described as Tudor. 
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The Gothic, especially as it is reflected in octagonal English cathedral chapter houses, has greater affinity to the spirit and context of Vista House than the highly decorative and slick Jugendstil.  Vista House’s sensitivity to workmanship and materials aligns it with the Arts & Crafts movement.
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Not only did Lazarus design Vista House, on May 17, 1916, he was contracted by John Yeon, county roadmaster, to superintend the construction of structure.  On June 7 the Columbia River Highway was dedicated at Multnomah Falls and a groundbreaking and dedication ceremony took place that afternoon at Crown Point for Vista House.  President Wilson touched a button in Washington that somehow enabled the flag to be unfurled.  Construction began in August.  In an article of August 27, 1916, Lancaster (who in April 1915 had resigned his official involvement with the highway)  described his ideas for the interior design, to include glass mosaic panels designed by artist Sidney Bell inspired by a work of Tiffany.    In March 1917, the PAM had an exhibit of sketches by Bell and others for interior panels and sculpture for Vista House.
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Vista House was completed on April 1, 1918.   Its formal dedication with great fanfare was on May 5, 1918.   For Lazarus, the building was a crowning achievement, but it was created during a period of  personal turmoil in his life.
Photo: Teague, 2010
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From June 1917 through 1921 Lazarus was involved in serious disputes with government clients and with his profession that encouraged the end of his career.
In 1917, a state auditor determined that the cost of the State Hospital South Wing was 50% more than was reported in 1912 when Lazarus was paid for his work.  Since his commission was based on the cost of the building, Lazarus filed claims for the additional compensation.  The state would not give in. 
In June 1918, the same situation occurred with Vista House.  Lazarus was to be paid 10% of total cost and the initial cost skyrocketed to approximately $100,000 including walls and site construction. After repeated claims Lazarus eventually filed an unsuccessful suit in 1921.
In 1918, members of the Oregon AIA petitioned him to resign from the chapter.  Much of the conflict centered on claims by Lazarus that some members were unethical in their approach to contracts and he publicly maligned them.  According to one account, Lazarus also struck one of the members at a special Jury meeting.  It was his former partner Morris Whitehouse who led the  petition for his resignation.
In 1918, Lazarus was awarded the contract for the North Wing of the State Hospital after reminding the state that the original contract of 1911 entitled him to that work.  In 1919, he filed a claim for additional compensation for the work, which he obtained, but a near physical altercation during the deliberation was published widely in the press. 
 
Perhaps it was this growing alienation with so many that encouraged Lazarus at age 53 to seek a lifelong companion.
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Edgar Lazarus might have known Fanny Hendricks for some time.  She was born in Long Branch, NJ, where his brother lived.  His family probably knew each other for generations; his father mentioned visiting the Hendrickses on a visit to New York.   Fanny’s ancestors pioneered the use of copper especially in shipbuilding and the firm eventually known as the Hendricks Brothers thrived for almost two centuries.  There’s even a book about them.
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On November 17, 1921, Fanny and Edgar were married in New York City.  From then on, the life of the Lazarus couple was routinely reported in the Society pages.  They spent winters in California, traveled to Europe, Japan, Florida, and New York.  Edgar became more involved in art and his prints were accepted in juried exhibitions. In 1928, Fanny’s uncle, a single man, left the remaining Hendricks estate to the Museum of American Indian Art and to his three nieces.  That inheritance, by today’s standards, made the Lazarus couple millionaires.  They spent most of 1928 living in Europe.
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In 1937, the last heir of the Solomon Hirsch family left the Hirsch property to the Portland Art Museum. Solomon Hirsch was an Oregon politician and US ambassador to Turkey.   His wife, for whom Lazarus designed the home in 1907, was a local benefactor and a leader in the women’s suffrage movement. After contemplating converting the house into exhibit space, the museum sold the property to Standard Oil.  Lazarus agreed with decision, saying that it would be too difficult to restore the home.  In late 1938, the house, a major landmark on Burnside, was destroyed. 
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A gas station still occupies the site.
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A year later, Edgar Lazarus died at age 71.     His obituary listed a few of his works, but even at the time of his death, only one of those, Vista House, still existed.  By using resources that are increasingly available full-text online, such as newspapers and government documents, I have been able to increase the number of known works likely designed by him  or his firms from about 12 to almost 50.  
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Many of these works no longer exist.  But some of them have been reshaped and others are shells of what they used to be.
Pictured:  Lowengart Factory & Warehouse, now stores & housing, NW Glisan St., Portland
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More details about his life are also emerging.  I’ve found that the treasured portraits of his grandfather and grandmother that he exhibited at the Portland Art Museum are now in the Gibbs Art Gallery in Charleston, gifts of Mrs. Lazarus, who lived on Park Avenue in New York City in later years and died in 1966.
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Every year I give an orientation to our rare books collection to art history graduate students to show how information was communicated in days gone by.   Some works I show are catalogs of the world expositions that we’ve collected over the years.  I discovered that we had the original catalog of the German Arts & Crafts Exhibitio from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair so I thought I’d show that work since I had read that Frank Lloyd Wright had visited that show.  In browsing the item, I notice handwritten annotations throughout, usually indicating color schemes.  
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I flipped to the inside cover to see if a bookplate could tell me who did all this scribbling.   The bookplate indicated that Mrs. Edgar Lazarus gave the book to UO in 1941.  It was from the library of Edgar M. Lazarus. 
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Undoubtedly more awaits to be discovered about Edgar Lazarus, the architect of Vista House. 
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