Every house has a story but some are better than others: A 1928 mansion in Southwest Portland was built with leftover stone from the Columbia River Highway. Inside, expensive wood and marble from downtown hotel projects mysteriously ended up here, too.

The property was owned by the same family for 70 years, but before the Browns moved in after World War II, the land sheltered a brothel, bootlegging distillery and a hidden pathway to the Willamette River.

Today, a circular area in the middle of the yard, protected by cast-iron pillars linked together with decorative chains, was believed by the previous owner to be the entrance of an underground tunnel. Experts doubt this and it will be hard to prove since the hole has long been covered and rose bushes were planted on top.

When longtime owner Marvis Brown moved out of the house at age 93 last year to be closer to her family, she put the property up for sale. People wondered what would become of the fixer-upper with exterior stone blocks and interior marble floors and walls that Brown compared to a mausoleum?

Neighbors were curious about the fate of the 90-year-old hidden mansion and strangers recalled stumbling upon it, thinking it was an illusion, something out of a fairy tale.

Needed repairs were so extensive that real estate agent Chase Wippert of Windermere Realty Group, who is a relative of Brown's, was upfront that funding could be tricky: "May require cash or a Rehab loan to qualify for financing," he warned in the listing.

The original asking price of $649,900 was too high, but who knew? There were no comparable listings for such a unique offering. And there was an obvious distraction: When Interstate 5 cut through the city, it shortened this lot in the Johns Landing neighborhood and made it just a tree-away from an endless stream of cars.

The asking price was dropped a handful of times and an offer was accepted three months after the aged home was first placed on the market.

In October 2017, the sale was complete and public records show the buyers paid $500,000.

It will cost a lot more than that to renovate the house, even though the Browns had kept it nice over decades and worked hard to preserved it.

"The new owners are going to restore the property," said Wippert. "I drove by a few weeks ago and there were like three contractor vans in the driveway so I know that the new owners are indeed doing some upgrading and restoring of the house."

It wasn't the first time the house needed a boost.

Before the Browns moved here around 1948, the then-isolated property had been used during Prohibition as a bootlegging distillery and the house had been turned into a brothel, according to the owner's research.

A fireproof hut that holds firewood today was probably a whiskey still. There's a mash box underneath the porch where the moonshine aged. The illegal booze was secretly moved to barges on the river.

Above the entire operation was a stone balcony in the back of the house, which was a handy lookout tower. Although the view has been stunted because of newer construction, you can still see slices of the city as well as Mount Hood and the Willamette River from the balcony.

Marvis Brown, who owned Enterprise Antiques stores in Portland, recalled being shocked when she first saw the property. At the time, tree limbs were poking into broken windows and debris included a taxi driver's badge, left behind perhaps in a rush to get away from the illegal activities.

Over seven decades, Marvis and her husband, Walter, made this a home again. They raised their children here. They added a second bathroom and made the best of an odd space by creating a secret room behind a bookshelf in one of the kids' bedrooms upstairs.

There were expanses of grass and steps that lead to the edge of the property at Southwest Macadam Avenue, where a commercial building now sits. A waterfall and a pond graced the garden.

When Michelle Alexander was young, she thought her grandparents' house was a stone castle with endless places to play.

The property was once much larger than its half acre today. It was carved up by development and when the I-5 arrived.

"Grandma was upset when they took her land," says Alexander, who describes Marvis Brown as a member of high society, "quite the diva in her day."

Walt Brown, who seemed to always wear a hat and coat, was an entrepreneur and active in politics. Marvis held on to the gown she wore when they dined with President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy.

Walt died in 1991. Marvis passed away in December 2017 at age 94.

Inside the unexpected stone house, twin stained glass windows are on both sides of the living room fireplace. The mantel is marble.

Pink and black tiles adorn walls in the master bathroom. The master suite includes a sitting room that can be used as a nursery or an office, said Wippert. A separate building on the property, shaped like an octagon, was used by Walt as his office.

The origins of the stone and other materials in the three-level house have a fascinating history. According to Portland city records, the land in the Terwilliger Homestead was owned by Pantaleone "Peter" Esposito, who hired contractor Stark-Davis Co. to build a house.

Esposito was involved in stonework, according to research by JB Fisher, a Portland Community College writing instructor, crime historian and co-author with JD Chandler of "Portland on the Take: Mid-Century Crime Bosses, Civic Corruption & Forgotten."

The stone home's contractors were busy working big projects and extra stone from the Columbia River Highway near Multnomah Falls ended up here. Leftovers from hotel projects were also used for the wooden stair banisters and the marble floor on the main level. Marvis had some of the marble replaced by hardwood flooring.

A plumbing inspection by the city's Bureau of Buildings in 1927 inventoried one water closet, one bath tub, one basin, four rain drains, one sink, one laundry tub and one floor drain connected to the sewer.

At one time, portrait painter Anna Belle Crocker lived nearby and upscale architect Richard Sundeleaf had his office near here, according to Wippert.

"This is a unique property and the historic home has many quirky design features inside and out that you won't find in today's architecture," said Wippert, who is Alexander's cousin.

Alexander thinks the property, zoned for residential, commercial and business, would be perfect for a live/work space.

"It's a hidden treasure," she said.

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



