Pittock Mansion Tour

Pittock Mansion Tour - Part Five

Summer, Sierra, Kylee, and Autumn (serious pose-ha!)

Pretty pose - Summer-12, Sierra-15, Kylee-16 and Autumn-17

Pittock Mansion, Portland, OR

Georgiana's orphaned teenage nieces, Helen Van Houten and Louise Gallien, lived in this bedroom for several years. Louise recalled that Georgiana was nice to us children. She always gave us ten dollars at Christmas or our birthday and Uncle Henry had tickets to all the concerts that came to Portland. And he was always very generous about giving them to the rest of the family. The room is now filled with furnishings from the Failings, another early Portland family.

Kate (Pittock) and John Hebard's bedroom

Kate and her husband, Lockwood, used this bedroom but it contained different furniture. Daniel Wennerberg, a Portland cabinetmaker, crafted these American Renaissance (1880s) furnishings. Like Henry Pittock, who at age four emigrated with his family from London, Wennerber was a first-generation American, emigrating from Sweden.

Both Native-born Americans and recent immigrants flocked to Portland, making it Oregon's largest city. From 17,577 inhabitants in 1880, Portland's population exploded to 207,214 in 1910.

In 1907, Kate Pittock's first husband, John Hertzman, died of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, or consumption, was an epidemic in the early 20th century. Until the development of antibiotics in the 1940s, most treatment was ineffective.

Medical wisdom called for fresh air and sunshine. Sleeping porches provided air circulation and shelter from rain and dew. Experts recommended that children and adults alike spend their nights on a sleeping porch throughout the year. Note the corner drain for rainwater.

Video of the sleeping porch

Kate used this office to manage household accounts and staff and help her father as his private secretary. Her education focused on music, but included courses from Portland's Holmes Business College.

Kate made telephone calls using one of Portland's two competing telephone companies, Home Telephone Company and Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. To call any phone within the city, the Pittocks needed both systems, requiring two types of phones and two directories.