Historic Preservation Month - House of the Week - May 12, 2025
316 North Point Road - The Mulder Lake House
For a Complete Presentation, see the video on You Tube at the following link: https://youtu.be/WHO55LY9ulU
The Mulder-Lake House was built in 1927 for Joseph and Emma Mulder. Joseph was an insurance agent for the Mutual Life Insurance Company. By 1931, Joseph and Emma had moved to Seattle.
During the Great Depression the home was either rented or it sat empty until the Mulders sold it to Willet and Marguerite Lake in 1939. Willet operated the Mail-Well Envelope Company. The Lake family lived in the home for 30 years. The house was renamed the Mulder-Lake House to more accurately reflect both of the original families that shaped the house into its landmark form.
Architectural highlights include original shingle siding, doors, multi-paned wood casement windows, and exterior uncoursed basalt stonework on the chimneys and the walls. It also features a large inviting court yard with Flagstone Pavers that were added by the property owner at a later time.
A massive un-coursed rubble basalt chimney rises on the southeast side of the house, facing North Point Road, and a second chimney is located at the northeast end of the house’s main body.
The home has a high degree of material integrity and has undergone only one significant remodel and that was done by the Lakes during the historic period. Sue Lake Howell, the daughter of Willet and Marguerite, reported that her parents had rehired Wade Pipes in the 1930s to add onto the house. At that time Pipes turned the original attached garage into a family room and added two bedrooms above.
The current detached double garage with a stone arch attaching it to the house was added at that time.
The primary façade of the home faces the lake, as was customary at the time.
In 1989, when the house was inventoried for the Lake Oswego Landmark List, it was wrongly attributed to Richard Sundeleaf, due to a bathroom remodel he did on the house in the 1950s. The home is now correctly identified as the design of architect Wade Hampton Pipes, an eccentric and prolific architect of English Cottage style homes in the Portland area. The house was designed in the Arts and Crafts English Cottage style.
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