Emil Schacht


Emil Schacht was a prominent architect in Portland, Oregon. Schacht's work was prolific from the 1890s until World War I and he produced commercial buildings including factories and warehouses as well as residential projects, hotels and theatres. He is known for his craftsman architecture stlyle homes and was a founding member of the 1902 Portland Association of architects.

In Portland

Schacht's firms included Emil Schacht & Son, and designed the Wheeldon Apartments in Portland: a 5-story brick Tudor Revival apartment building in Downtown Portland. The building became known as the Admiral Apartments in the 1970s and has also been known as the Admiral Hotel Apartments. It was built in 1909 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The building's apartments had between two and five multiple bedrooms and included hardwood floors and electric dumbwaiter service. By 1913 the services of at least three "sporting girls" were offered in the building. The building was renovated and in 1990 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In Astoria

Schacht's firm designed what is now the Clatsop County Heritage Museum, at 1618 Exchange Street, a neo-classical building constructed in 1904 as Astoria's City Hall. It was used for that purpose until 1939 and "used as a Public Library, a USO Club during WWII, and the first home of the Columbia River Maritime Museum", before eventually becoming the Heritage Museum, in the mid-1980s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 7, 1984.
Schacht also designed the original building that was "rebuilt" into Uppertown Fire Station No. 2. Constructed in 1896 at 2968 Marine Drive it was part of the North Pacific Brewery. It was shut down in 1915 due to prohibition, and "in 1928, the City of Astoria rebuilt it as the fire station, and it continued to be used in that role until 1960. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places on September 7, 1984 and in 1989 "it was donated to the Clatsop County Historical Society to become the Uppertown Firefighters Museum... the second floor also houses the Astoria Children's Museum."

Legacy

Some of Schacht's plans and drawings are held in the Cachot Therkelsen Collection with the University of Oregon Libraries.

Projects