504 6th Street

RICHARD PETZOLD HOUSE -- Statement of Significance: The Petzold House is significant to the McLoughlin Historic District as well as Clackamas County, as the best preserved example of a Craftsman-styled American Foursquare house. As such, it represents an architectural transition, both in style and in the career of Clackamas County's highly skilled carpenter-builders and inventors, Charles and Henry Vonderahe. The features which originally distinguished the Petzold House are virtually intact. This spacious residence was built in 1911 for Richard Petzold, a well-known Oregon City businessman who operated a meat market and owned considerable property in downtown Oregon City. Petzold, also a charter member of Zion Lutheran Church and a city councilman from 1920 to 1922, lived in the house with his family from 1911 until his death in 1936. His heirs owned the house until 1982, when it was sold to the present owner. During the 1960s the house was occupied by Joseph and Erna Aldrich. The Petzold House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

This large two story house sits under a hip roof with a hipped dormer on the north side. A porch runs across most of the north façade under a hip roof, and the east side features two cantilevered rectangular bays under shallow hip roofs. All of the hips feature deep open eaves with exposed scroll cut rafter tails. The porch hip is supported by a pair of large square columns set on the solid balustrade that encircles the porch. The balustrade is clad with wood shingles, as is the second floor level of the house. The first floor is clad with horizontal lap siding above the fully developed water table. A rectangular bay is cantilevered out from the northwest corner of the house at the second floor level. The windows in the house are primarily 6/1 or 8/1 double-hung wood sash with board surrounds. A string course encircles the house at the level of the second floor window sills. Two large brick chimneys are present on the house, one on the west wall and one near the southeast corner of the house.

This property is a locally designated historic site located within the McLoughlin Conservation District. Contact ocplanning@orcity.org for more information.