Skip to main content
- ADDRESS: 2706 NE 58th Ave.
- YEAR BUILT: 1922
- SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1,624
- MARKET VALUE: $525,240
- OWNER: Estate of Glenna William
- HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: 39 years
- WHY IT’S EMPTY: Inertia and lack of money
Tucked between an Ethiopian coffee shop, a Thai restaurant and the Rose City Park Methodist Church on a flatiron-shaped Rose City Park block sits one of the longest-fallow properties ever featured in this series.
There, a century-old white Craftsman home stands forlorn, its windows and doors long covered with plywood. The foundation displays a deep crack, rain gutters hang precariously, and sumac plants have run amok in the backyard.
A neighbor says the property has been boarded up since about 2005, after squatters became a nuisance. But court records show that issues with the property date to 1985, the same year Bud Clark stormed into Portland City Hall as mayor and Ronald Reagan began his second term in the White House.
On Oct. 4 of that year, Glenna Bell William, who owned the Rose City Park home, died in Baker City at age 76.
William left behind two other properties (both in Baker County) but no will. For reasons that are unclear, her only child, Maley M. William, did not step forward until 2007 to claim his mother’s estate. By that time, the city of Portland had classified the Rose City Park house as a “dangerous property” and levied $57,400 in liens against William’s estate.
In a 2009 settlement with the city, Maley William, now 79, agreed to board up the house and paint the plywood white to match the house’s exterior. But he has never settled his mother’s estate—which retains ownership of the house—or done anything with the property
Annual filings for the estate required by Oregon law include an explanation: The agreement with the city “required a number of remedial actions; however, the combined resources of the estate and the administrator [Maley William] have not been adequate to complete those repairs,” court filings say. Meanwhile, the house is “in such poor condition that sale of the property is not realistic.”
Four years ago, recent filings say, a breakthrough seemed near. Maley William “in 2020 secured financing from a close friend who agreed to finance the cost of repairs to the Multnomah County property but the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the renovation/repair project.”
Neighbors are eager to see the repairs happen; of late, people have taken to parking derelict vehicles adjacent to the house.
William could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Mike Haglund, says he hopes a resolution of the city liens is near.
Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s empty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com .