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Five vintage pastel bathrooms in this lovely 1942 capsule house — Portland, Oregon — 13 photos

pam kueber - Updated: August 12, 2017

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

Portland-time-capsule-with-five-pastel-bathsTour-a-Time-CapsuleWow. Not one. Not two. Not three. Not four. Yes: Five beautiful time capsule bathrooms in this 1942 house — just listed for sale — in Portland, Oregon. I received a call from real estate agent Susan Cassidy this evening, and on hearing the story, we rushed these photos on to the blog. It seems very unusual, to me, to see so many bathrooms in a house from 1942 — deep in the midst of the war years. And they are like a veritable catalog of the colors in vogue. Which color bathroom would you choose? Let’s look at more of the photos from this house — and you can take our quiz to see if we have a favorite. Oh, yes, and there’s more to this house than the bathrooms, of course: A beautiful, charming exterior… lovely moldings… and a knotty pine basement with built-in bar. 13 photos in all — and a large-size slide show at the end –>

We are rushing this story to press (so to speak) tonight … and it’s late … so we’ll keep the commentary short (for now) and let the (fabulous) photos tell the story… Let’s start with the charming exterior, I guess I’d call this a Tudor (?)… I want to say Dutch Colonial, but the roof line is wrong… anyway, kind of Tudor, kind of Colonial:

1943-brick-colonial-house-exterior1940s-brick-colonial-house-ext brick-doorway-entrance-1940s-cape-codAbove: Yikes, the brickwork around the entry way is phenomenal. Here’s the listing information:

This home was designed by Richard Sundeleaf and is full or rich detail. Spacious and inviting. The original features include gorgeous 1940’s baths, large master suite with sitting area, 2nd master on the main, classic “mad men” style rec room, hardwoods throughout, built ins, and lots of light. Storage everywhere, 2 car attached garage and sun room.

  • Price: $859,000
  • Year built: 1942
  • Traditional 2 story, Lap siding, wood, attached garage, full basement – partially finished, corner lot.
  • Sq. Ft.: 6,458
  • Bedrooms: 5
  • Full Bathrooms: 5
  • Interior Features: Dumbwaiter, Garage Door Opener, Hardwood Floors, Laundry, Wood Floors, Solar TubeExterior Features:Fenced, Garden, Patio, Storm Window
  • Kitchen Appliances:Down Draft, Built-in Dishwasher, Disposal, Pantry, Free-Standing Range
  • Fireplace Description:Wood
  • Number of Fireplaces: 3

1940s-pink-ceramic-tile-bathroom-and-dressing-area 1940s-pink-ceramic-tile-bathroomdental sinkBathroom #1 is pink and pink… Update: Listing agent tells me that, not visible in the photo above, there is a “dental sink” — see my story about dental sinks here. 
pink-and-black-vintage-bathroom-1940s-ceramic-tileBathroom #2 is pink and black…

vintage-black-and-white-ceramic-tile-bath-1940sBathroom #3 is white and black…

vintage-pink-and-blue-bathroom-ceramic-tile

Bathroom #4, pink and blue…Hey, remember Nora’s pink and blue bathroom — original owner in her original bathroom!?

yellow-and-black-ceramic-tile-vintage-bathroomBathroom #5 is yellow and black….

Which vintage bathroom is your favorite?

 

 

 

Oh… and we’re not done yet. Keep going:

Knotty-pine-den-with-fireplace knotty-pine-office-with-parquet-floors knotty-pine-paneling-in-rec-room-basement knotty-pine-rec-room-with-sputnik-light-and-fireplace

Many thanks to real estate agent Susan Cassidy for calling with this spectacular listing — and for giving us permission to feature these gorgeous photos for our forever-archive. Let’s find this house a buyer!

Links:

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Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:


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180 comments

Comments

  1. RetroSandie says

    This home is a true gem. Move-in ready and super gorgeous all the way around! Is the totally pink bathroom off the master bedroom? Thank you for letting me drool …

  3. Gerry says

    There will be a lecture about the work of Richard Sundeleaf, the architect of this remarkable home, on March 7, 2013. Link is attached.
    http://www.visitahc.org/content/oregon-architects-series-richard-sundeleaf. Rejuvenation helps sponsor the lecture series.

    I also found a reference to an event in Lake Oswego from 2012 about the homes he built there. Writer said 7 are designated local landmarks and 1 is on the national register.

    Nosy me, I also found that his granddaughter is an architect in Portland.

  4. Katie says

    LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this house. The bathrooms are all amazing, but I have to vote for the B&W bathroom. That arched shower just speaks to me. I totally envy the size, and the good layout.

    The kitchen doesn’t really bother me-its obviously a redo, but those white flat front cabinets are very much in keeping with the period. I think that the main reason why the kitchen sticks out is that the rest of the house is so warm and colorful, and that all-white kitchen is so stark. If the walls were painted a color-maybe a nice yellow, to pick up the blue in that rope trim on the tile, or maybe a light blue, that compliments the cobalt, the brass knobs replaced with something more colorful-cobalt blue, or maybe red, and, as much as I don’t like suggesting replacing something that is in such good shape, the countertops had some ‘pop’ to them-maybe a colored laminate, maybe tile with cobalt blue bullnose, that kitchen would sing.

    And we’d all be debating if that gorgeous yellow and blue, or Red, White and Blue kitchen was original.

    • Patty says

      A person living with so many bright bathrooms may have decided to create a white kitchen that could be changed up color-wise over time (as one’s mood changed) through the use of accessories. This home is obviously staged – so whatever colorful kitchen decor was there has been put away.

      I love all of the bathrooms, but my favorite is the yellow. I’ve seen little showers like the ones with curtains and they look very small and claustiphobic for daily use. the ones I’ve seen are kind of like a small utility closet, and kind of dark. The yellow looks like the most comfortable and therefore overall the most attractive to me as I am not crazy about over-sized (to me) bathrooms.

      I couldn’t find a formal polling link – what I thought might be, is not working for me.

      Beautiful home all around. Love the knotty pine.

      • pam kueber says

        darn. our Poll technology is very fussy. We fixed it. Please vote *officially* if you like! Thanks!

      • pam kueber says

        I’m just thinking, that at some point some owner decided to renovate the kitchen. They went “simple”. It’s okay with me….. And, this kitchen would be “easy” to take back to 1942!

      • JKM says

        My thought is someone building a home of this size at that time probably would have had household help so the kitchen would have been more utilitarian and less adorned than bathrooms used by the family. That may be why it’s so simple in appearance compared to the rest of the house.

      • Sarah says

        The house I grew up in had those kind of showers and they really are bigger on the inside than they seem, the real killers are the old corner unit showers like my house has they’re triangular and half the size of one of those. The secret to not having them seem cave-like is lighting, in the house I grew up in my mom was really smart. When they bought the house they had to completely redo the wiring and since it was all loose up in the crawl space my mom had them put one unobtrusive recessed light above each shower upstairs (the downstairs one was still a cave) and it made such a big difference…

  5. Kathleen McCormack says

    Oh wow, this is an amazing house! By the time I got to the pic of the rec room with the Sputnik chandelier, I actually whimpered out loud. It’s almost enough to make me leave my ’50s house in warm, sunny Austin, TX.

    @TappanTrailerTami: I’ll drive the getaway car but you’ll have to arm wrestle me for the pink bathroom!

  6. JanH says

    You don’t suppose there’s a floor plan anywhere, do you?

    This house is bound to be sold soon – everybody I know on Facebook is talking about it!!

    LOVE>>>>>>>

  8. Todd A says

    I also find it interesting that the home was “built in 1942”. With wartime rationing starting in the spring of 1942, this huge home would have to have been started quite a bit earlier since all non essential buildings were stopped for the war effort. This may explain why some give earlier dates to the plumbing fixtures.

  10. blair kooistra says

    Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. And Wows for the other rooms, too! Absolutely incredible. I wonder, fifty years from now, if Pam’s daughter, running a straight-to-cerebral-cortex version of RetroReno, will be posting holographic images of a “time capsule” home from 2013, complete with granite countertops in the kitchen and bathroom sinks atop a shaker cabinet? Na. Probably not.

    Thanks for sharing thisone!