Is the idea of Thanksgiving making you hungry? Then think about this: You can live in a former macaroni factory.

The cooking equipment is long gone, but the building, at 217 NE 8th St. in Portland's transforming Lobu (Lower Burnside) area, is near eateries, from highbrow Le Pigeon to high-sugar Voodoo Doughnuts Too.

What once was the bustling Oregon Macaroni & Manufacturing Co. for 60 years is now 15,000 square feet of high-ceiling living space.

Italian siblings Dominic and Dominique Blandino started the noodle company in the early 1900s when faced with a lack of available fresh pasta in their adopted Portland hometown.

Oregon Macaroni Building from Tim Holmes on Vimeo.

Over decades, workers mixed flour and water, squeezed spaghetti, vermicelli and and macaroni dough through pasta molds, and scooped up the dried pieces into cellophane bags. A video shows how hands-on the operation was.

After the noodle-acquistional Golden Grain Macaroni Co. of Rice-A-Roni fame bought the company in 1966, the Art Moderne-style building was sold to property investor Lee A. Ellmaker, who converted it into inexpensive live-work artist studios.

The monthly rent for 800 square feet in 1982: $320.

In 1987, photographer Tim Holmes, who rented a studio in the building, purchased the former pasta factory. As tenants moved out, he took down studio walls to bring back the open interior spaces.

Today, the 1911 building is for sale at $3.85 million as listed by Tod Breslau of Premiere Property Group.

There have been a lot of changes since the scent of boiling pasta filled the air, but long retired workers will recognize the brick exterior topped by decorative tiles. If they squint, they can see the faint, painted name of the company on one side.

If they step inside, they'll see that a loft-style home and separate loft apartment take up ground floor space where macaroni makers ate in the employee lunchroom, dodged bosses in the nearby offices and watched trucks loaded with packaged noodles roll out to markets. Still the same: Brick walls, 14-foot ceilings, exposed beams and maple floors.

If they ascend the stairs, they will probably not recognize where they used to hang their fresh pasta to dry in front of whirling fans. It's now an open office area with two meeting rooms and a studio.

And the large basement, where giant wheels once cut sheets of dough into appealing shapes, is today storage and a workshop. Maybe the new owner will cook up a business?

Breslau said in a news release that the property will interest history buffs and others wanting an "updated live-work space in close-in Portland with loads of character."



- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman