One of Oregon's most famous houses, the 1918 Frank J Cobbs House in Portland has returned to the market, this time listed at $5.9 million.

The English-style mansion, at 2424 Southwest Montgomery Dr., was designed by renowned Portland architect A.E. Doyle, who shaped the city's early skyline with the Meier & Frank Building (now The Nines hotel), Lipman's store (now Hotel Monaco) and the Multnomah County Central Library.

Doyle is also credited for another city icon: the bronze Benson Bubbler public drinking fountains.

At 14,335 square feet, the Cobbs Estate is the largest residence Doyle designed. There are four levels of stone-dressed brick and half-timbering topped with a handcrafted slate roof.

Frank J. Cobbs was a lumber baron in Michigan who owned timberland in the Siletz River Basin near the Oregon coast.

The Cobbs & Mitchell Lumber Co.'s holding in Oregon were so extensive that the 40-mile-long Valley & Siletz Railroad was dedicated to serving the sawmill and the workers living in the company town named Valsetz (a combination of Valley & Siletz). The logging town existed from 1920 to 1984, making it one of the last company towns in the country, according to historians.

While the workers were paid in tokens to spend at the company store, Cobbs commissioned his mansion to be built on a prominent Southwest Hills parcel five years after moving to Oregon from Cadillac, Michigan. He and his wife, Maude Louise Belcher Cobbs, splurged on filling their status residence with antiques collected while traveling Europe and Asia. The cost back then just for the furnishings and art: $145,000.

At the center of the mansion's semi-circular drive is a Tudor-arched entrance porch with an oriel leaded-glass window trimmed in stone. Open the doors to a grand foyer that leads to formal rooms with oak beamed ceilings and paneling and marble floors. Up the stairs, lined with oak railing and carved balusters, are seven bedroom suites.

Classic Jacobethan Revival features outside include a two-story turret with a conical roof, five fluted chimneys and contrasting stone quoins accenting corners.

The house is also noteworthy for its modern rooms: Banks of glass seemed to erase the boundary between the inside and out. Don't miss the home theater, swanky bar area and indoor skateboard ramp.

Large windows, a loggia with three arched openings defined by stone columns and a dramatic terrace overlook expansive lawns, formal gardens and a lily pond that complements a Japanese-style tea house. The original landscape features were also designed by Doyle.

The 2-acre property was once larger, with stables below Southwest Montgomery Drive. Today, there's a swimming pool, sports court and green house.

The Cobbs Estate (often misspelled as Cobb) was built between 1917 and 1919, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Annual taxes are $77,632.

But that's the price for living in one of the 10 best examples of Portland architecture, as deemed in 1919 by visiting members of the American Institute of Architects.

"As any local knows, the Cobbs Estate is a Portland landmark," says listing agent Suzann Baricevic Murphy of (w)here, Inc. real estate. "The home and gardens are gracefully exquisite."

She says potential buyers could be a philanthropist looking for the perfect house to host benefits, grandparents wanting a home to bring their family together, a historian desiring to own a piece of Portland's history, or a young family longing to lay down their own roots and create their history here.

"This home could wear many hats for many people," Murphy adds. "The next owner will start a new chapter in the life of this magnificent estate and continue the history."

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



