You Think Your Home Renovations Are Tough…
Try underpinning a castle.
This is the Canterbury Castle. The Canterbury was built in 1931 and is meant to resemble the original Canterbury Castle in England. The castle is located in Portland, Oregon and the latest I hear it’s a privately owned residence. It’s about a 20 minute drive from my house, so I may head up there soon to see if it’s still standing. I’d think so, since it was added to the historic register of historic places in 1987 — folks usually frown on tearing down local historic treasures.
Here’s a picture of the castle back in the day.
I’ve lived in many a Northwest city, as well as on the 101 coast. Tons of people in these areas seem fond of building on hills — although we’re not known in these areas for our lack of mudslides (yes, it rains a lot). So, call me crazy, but hill-building; not the best move ever. And yes there are innovative and safe ways to build on a hillside — but still…
The Canterbury was built on a hill and it’s seen it’s fair share of soil deposits sliding down the hill into the city below. The information I found is a bit vague but it looks like a company called SoilFreeze here in Portland, came in, at some point in the 90s and saved the day.
On SoilFreez’s site they offer this information:
- “Frozen soil was used to underpin a historical structure in
Portland ,Oregon ’s west hills area while the vacant lot between it and a neighboring home was stabilized and a foundation for a new home was built.
- Site soils consisted of silts and clay with three slide planes present in the unstable hillside lot; one ancient slide plane; and two recent planes
- The recent slide planes failed in February 1996 and also in November 1998 depositing hundreds of cubic yards of soil onto a city street below.”
It seems like a hefty job.
Check out this site, for the sweetest little love story about this house.
Anyone seen this home in person?
Tags: Canterbury-Castle, castle, hillside-building, home-renovations, Oregon, Portland, SoilFreezeRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Fairy Tale Homes, Historic Homes
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