The Hallock & McMillen Building along Southwest Naito Parkway doesn't really look like much today. It's drab and nothing about it says "historic landmark."

But that bland exterior is hiding a secret. Originally designed by pioneer architect Absalom Hallock and built 1857, it is the oldest surviving commercial brick building in Portland, dating back to territorial days. Oregon didn't become a state until 1859.

It's also the city's oldest example of cast-iron architecture, which was popular in downtown Portland's early days -- even though its cast-iron framing was removed sometime in the 1940s in an effort to "modernize" it.

Now, after several years of trying, a local developer says he's ready to restore the building to its past glories, complete with authentic new iron work.

Developer John Russell says a long-planned effort to restore the structure is about to begin soon, and he's hoping that a new tenant will occupy the structure by February.

Cast-iron buildings

Portland has one of the largest collections of cast-iron architecture left in the United States. At least 18 such buildings still stand in the city. All are located in the Old Town/Chinatown area, which was Portland's original commerce center.

The Architectural Heritage Center maintains

devoted to the buildings.

The two-story building is on the northwest corner of Southwest Oak Street and Naito Parkway. It's one of five on the same block that Russell owns. Others next to it have already been restored. In 2011, Russell first announced plans to restore the Hallock & McMillen building, as well.

But the Great Recession was still lapping over Portland, Russell didn't have a tenant lined up "and rental rates weren't anywhere near where they are now," he said.

Four years later, things have definitely changed. Rental rates are back up and there's a lot of interest in Portland's old downtown buildings from high-tech tenants, he said.

That's given him the green light. He said last week the only thing he's awaiting is the new building permits as the old ones issued a few years back have expired.

Russell is clearly excited about the project.

"It will look absolutely identical" to the way it looked originally, he said. "The cast iron pieces have already been cast, which is quite a process."

He said he could have used reproductions of the old cast-iron framework made of glass fiber or cast cement "but neither is as durable as cast iron."

The cast-iron work was done by Silverton Foundry in Silverton, and he said the process it uses is identical to that used to cast the original ironwork in San Francisco.

"You make wood patterns, put them in sand, take them out and in the space vacated, you pour molten iron and you have the piece," he said.

He said it's interesting that the oldest method to make something would still be the best way to do it, but in this instance, that's the case.

Portland is actually home to the second largest collection of cast-iron style buildings in the United States, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia. Only the Soho District in New York City has more still standing.

Cast-iron buildings were cheaper and faster to build than masonry buildings. They also allowed buildings to have more windows, meaning more natural light inside.

Examples of cast-iron buildings still standing in Portland are the New Market Building at 50 S.W. Second Ave., the Failing Building at 235 S.W. First Ave., the Bickel Block at 25 N.W. Naito Parkway, and the Merchants Hotel at 222 N.W. Davis St. among many others. The Architectural Heritage Center maintains a website devoted to the structures.

The city would likely have many more cast-iron structures but for two reasons: Many were destroyed in the huge Portland fire of 1873, and many more were razed in the 1930s and 1940s.

Restorations such as the one involving the Hallock & McMillen building aren't cheap. Russell said it will cost about $4 million, or $800 a square foot. He said the building is tiny -- about 5,000 square feet.

He said that's because a standard Portland block at the time the building was constructed consisted of eight lots, each 2,500 square feet in size.

There will be at least one major change compared to the original building, he said.

"It will be reconstructed to current seismic code," he said, adding that the renovation costs include the upgrade. That won't just help brace the Hallock & McMillen Building against earthquakes but will also help secure his other buildings on either side.

"So you get three buildings seismically reinforced for one," he said.

That includes the Fechheimer & White Building, also a cast-iron structure. It was built in 1885. That makes it nearly 30 years younger than the Hallock & McMillen structure, but right now, it looks older because it was never "modernized."

Just north of the Fechheimer & White Building is a vacant lot, which used to be home to other pioneer buildings.

Russell said that lot is likely to become home to a new hotel. No word yet on whether it will be a cast-iron building.

-- John Killen

503-221-8538; @johnkillen