28-40 Mellen Street, Portland, 1924
Item 63223 info
City of Portland - Planning & Development
St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Asylum
28-40 Mellen Street
This is the original tax record including a copy of the reverse showing the information collected about this property.
Listed on the 1924 Tax Role as “St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Asylum” this elegant structure was known as Holy Innocents Home.
Architect John Calvin Stevens designed it as a private home for the wealthy banker George S. Payson in 1898. The church bought it about 1919, signaling a social and demographic change in the peninsula’s West End.
Some feared the loss of well-kept homes would turn the neighborhood into a slum or less desirable area. Many well-to-do residents did move to more fashionable addresses.
Most of the Payson building’s history has been that of an institutional residence. It is currently home to Community Alcoholism Orientation House Inc.
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