This 1909 single family home off of NW23rd on the edge between Nob Hill & Slabtown is 2,472 square feet and rented for $65/month in the 1970s. Image on left appeared on the cover of a marketing newspaper in my St. Johns mailbox. I remain curious why of all the houses the real estate agent could have picked from in Portland that his team selected this particular house, and an unflattering image of the home to boot. Large homes like this with one or two bathrooms often rented to a dozen individuals 50 years ago. The rent figure was shared with me by Mike Ryerson rented this home house for many years starting at $65/month.
Mike Ryerson co-designed the tour route and often included buildings he had lived in to enrich tour content. Back in the 1970s hippies lived in many of the large homes many still struggled to pay the rent. The rent for 2247 Kearney was $65/month for the entire house; Mike sublet rooms in the home to nurses for $50/month which covered his share of the rent. Mike thought it a tragedy when his wife put an end to that income steam. $65 in 1970 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $496.40 today. Zillow estimates that if this house were for rent the cost would be $4,663/month. Because families had all migrated to the suburbs.