If you have two adjacent properties, it is better to sell them together or separate? Maybe test it both ways? That's what happened to side-by-side Southeast Portland homes.

Originally, a well-known Art Deco-influenced house, built in 1992 by the founder of veggie patty brand Gardenburger, was put up for sale along with a historic duplex that shared a corner on Southeast Main Street in the Sunnyside neighborhood.

Both properties, along with furnishings and artwork, were listed together at $1.625 million in March 2017.

No buyer stepped forward, so two new real estate agents were hired, one to represent each unique parcel. A big chunk of the shared backyard, with a theatrical pool house and hot tub, once used by all the occupants, became part of the duplex's property.

The house went first. The distinctive dwelling, named the Deco Dream House, was sold by Emily Hetrick and James Petersen of Keller Williams-PDX Central for $621,000 on Nov. 22, 2017.

The 1896 bungalow-style duplex, at 1229 SE 36th Ave., has a pending sale. Brian Eustis of Living Room Realty, who represents the seller, listed the property at $599,900 on March 2. By March 28, an offer was accepted.

Here's the backstory of each property:

Although the four-level Art Deco house was built eight decades after the style's American heyday, architectural and design features mirror the exuberant post-WWI era, inside and out.

Paul Wenner, who cooked up the Gardenburger brand, installed tall, rectangular windows, glass block room dividers and iconic Art Deco geometric forms, like skyscrapers and pyramids, throughout the 2,796-square-foot house.

The style's color palette, as incorporated in movie theaters, trains and ocean liners of the time, are seen here. Light, neutral shades like sand, gray, beige and peach enhanced with silver and gold undertones serve as backdrops. Exotic pastels are used as accent colors.

Pink and green floral carpet mimics the covered floors and stairs in New York's 1932 Radio City Music Hall, an exemplar of the Art Deco style.

Visitors seeing the wide, carpeted stairs with a simple, oblong railing in the Portland house might feel as if they're inside a mini Queen Mary, the famous 1936 Art Deco luxury ocean liner.

Look up inside the living room here, and see a chandelier made from two royal blue glass sconces salvaged from a Los Angeles theater. The living room also has a wall-sized, fiber-optic art piece, illuminated by a skylight, that displays a stylized city skyline, airplane and fireworks.

The centerpiece of the room: An elevated stage equipped with Dolby Surround Sound. There is also a pull-down cinema screen and projector.

Glass, aluminum and chrome are Art Deco's signature finishes. These are installed in the house, notably in the kitchen. There is a shiny, long counter with seating for a dozen guests.

The fireplace in the kitchen was used in a Hollywood set for a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' movie, according to marketing materials.

The 3,484-square-foot lot has large decks on three floors that extend the living space outdoors. The top deck provides a 360-degree view of the city and Mount Tabor. A wing of the house can be rented through AirBnB.

Around the corner, the duplex for sale has 2,624 square feet of living space, an updated kitchen, hardwood floors, three bedrooms and two baths. Outside, there's the in-ground hot tub and a 253-square-foot pool house with a full bathroom once available to occupants of the Art Deco house as well. The house lost access to its easement on the adjacent property.

A landscaped private courtyard and auto-gate driveway are also part of the 4,791-square-foot duplex lot, according to Eustis.

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



