Bungalow house aims for historical status
Story and Photo
By NICK GALLO
Of the Emerald
The surrounding land was once
filbert and walnut orchards — the
busy road lined with traffic signals
once a dirt driveway. But now the
house that Elmer Harlow built in
1922 at the corner of Harlow
Road and Ascot Street elbows for
space among the ubiquitous
ranch-style houses in Eugene.
Harlow was the grandson of
Milton J. Harlow, Eugene-area
pioneer.
“It’s a house which shows
some continuity, some history,"
says Dana Davis, an architect
who is working to restore portions
of it. It's also the kind of house
that little kids pass by on their
way home from school and won
der at who lives behind the
leaded windows, hanging eaves
and porch veranda.
And it’s the kind of house which
raises the question of who should
decide the historic status of uni
que buildings.
Philip Grant, a biology profes
sor at the University and his wife
Rose, a schoolteacher in the 4-J
School district, own the "Harlow
house” now. They have been liv
ing there 10 years. About six
months ago they tried to get the
city to change the zoning of the
house from residential to historic
(H), under section 9.489 of the
city code.
"It’s the only bungalow-style
house in Eugene north of the river
(Willamette),’’ says Rose Grant,
of the house which features some
high-quality mortar work and
polychrome brick, a rarity in
Oregon.
“It’s the high development of
the bungalow style that was
started in India,” adds Davis, not
ing the carved work on the top
and the porch veranda and the
open air feeling. “It’s hard to im
agine how this style of architecture
got here,” he says.
The Grants say the best way to
preserve the house and insure its
protection is through historic
status. Also, if the house were
designated historic it would be
eligible for a small amount of pub
lic funds available through room
tax monies. Rose Grant points
out.
The Historic Review Board
unanimously agreed on Oct. 28,
1976, the Harlow house deserved
historic status for two reasons:
“Its extraordinary or unusual ar
chitectural merit by reason of its
design, detail, use of materials or
craftsmanship,” and “its rep
resentative character of a period
or style of architecture of method
of construction.”
But because any change in the
status of a house includes a zon
ing change, the Grants had to go
through the Eugene Planning
Commission before the city
council would hear it.
The commission reviewed the
Harlow house on Dec. 21, 1976.
Since the house was next to last
on the agenda the Grants waited
an hour after the meeting had
started to attend. However, the
commission had moved the item
up to second place and voted on
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This "bungalow-style" house on the comer of Harlow Road and Ascot Street faces a grim future if it fails to
receive historic status by the Eugene Planning Commission. The bungalow architecture is rare in Eugene
and originated in India.
it before the Grants arrived. The
commission overruled the His
toric Review Board s recommen
dation and denied the house his
toric status.
The house was not of sufficient
antiquity, according to Allen
Maxwell, commission chairer. In
addition, the commission felt the
bungalow-style was not a recog
nizable architectural style. How
ever, the Grants say they never
petitioned for historic status on
the basis of antiquity. Further
more, the bungalow style is in
deed a style, they say, pointing,
to architectural books of that
period as proof of their point.
“The thing that rankled me,”
explains Rose Grant,” was that
the Historic Review Board has
expertise in these matters and
they unanimously approved the
house. Then the commission
went and overruled them by citing
all the wrong reasons.”
March 1, the Eugene City
Council voted 5-2 to uphold the
decision of the planning commis
sion.
But the decision on the Harlow
house raised a larger question:
whose jurisdiction is it to decide
on the merits of houses up for his
torical status?
Under the old city charter, the
planning commission had to ap
prove any changes because it in
volved zoning procedures. But
the new charter which took effect
April 1 may provide for an
amendment to bypass the com
mission in such matters.
“We are looking into the feasi
bility of designating a house his
toric without it having to go
through the zoning change pro
cedure," says Gary Chenkin, as
sistant planning director. If it is
found that houses can be desig
nated H without conflicting with
land use goals such as the 1990
General Plan or the 1974 Com
munity Goals, then possibly an
amendment would provide for the
matter to be handled solely bet
ween the Histone Review Board
and the city council, he says
This would give credit to the
expertise of the Histone Review
Board as well as cut down on red
tape involved, says Judy Rees, a
staff person for the board
But Allen Maxwell, cha.rer of
the planning commission, sounds
a warning note "The way it is
now, certain (monetary) benefits
can accrue to historic houses,”
he says. "If it was simply a matter
of putting them on a histone regis
ter, I d be more agreeable to de
signating houses histoncal
For now. the Elmer Harlow
house is slowly being restored at
the owner s expense. The plan
ning commission hopes to issue
some recommendations about
the procedure for designating his
toncal status within a few months,
says Chenkin. And the Grants
say that if the code is amended
they may try to re-appeal the
status of their six-bedroom
bunaalow-stvle home
In search of a University image
If nothing else, a campus
newspaper should have some
idea of where the campus is at
these days. At least, that's a
plausible reason the Emerald re
ceived a curious request recently
from the publishers of an item cal
led The INSIDERS’ Guide to the
Colleges. They want a review of
the University, an update for their
seventh edition. Here is how they
described us in their 1974 edition:
“Few schools can make the
transition from playboy school
to radical Mecca But the party
oriented University of Oregon,
long one of Californians’ few
reasons for venturing north of
their own state border, is now
emerging as a liberal bulwark of
the state and the entire Pacific
Northwest ... Just as at other
campuses, however, things have
quieted down
“The changing political mood
never endangered good social
and academic environments.
Frats and independents continue
to thrive side by side, with low
key, high-quality fun being the
general rule. Sports remains a
popular extra-curricular actitivity
of the Pacific Eight School which
is challenging California and
Kansas as the track capital of the
world..
“Intellectual awareness has
coincided with increased social
concern. Journalism, business
and speech retain popular ap
peal, but UO has prestigious de
partments in art history, architec
ture and allied arts. Strength also
lies in the standard State U col
lection of liberal arts, technology
and preprofessional fields with
the best faculties operating in the
education and economics de
partments...
“All that glitters is not gold,
however, and UO still has some
academic shortcomings along
tan
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side its improvements The
school s high faculty turnover is
not necessarily bad, for it may
provide for a steady influx of new
ideas, but it usually signals the
departure of the better profs to
greener monetary pastures. UO
still falls short in many areas, in
cluding such standard fields as
anthropology and sociology
"A definite cosmopolitan touch
has been developing at less
than-cosmopolitan Eugene De
spite rising tuition, the university
continues to attract increasing
numbers of out-of-staters, a good
sign at any state university. Minor
ity groups are represented
Moreover, UO can boast one of
the highest percentages of.
foreign students of any school in
the nation... ”
That was the "UO" of its 1974
publication. What is it like today?
Before the Emerald sends off its
opinion, it would like to hear from
people associated with the cam
pus. Send your thoughts to Cam
pus Profile, c/o the Emerald, P.O.
Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403.
Any correspondence we receive
will not be for publication, but for
informational purposes only.
Vote for
DAVE
WHITE
Junior Class President