Developer Robert Rummer built houses that are inextinguishable. And, not surprisingly, the midcentury modern dwellings with cool, interior atriums and transparent walls continue to gain attention and grow in value.
After profiling Bob Rummer, who is 91, we heard from many people who regretted not buying one of his houses when they were new and priced at $25,000 to $32,000.
We also heard from many happy, longtime Rummer owners.
We're putting together a photo gallery of people inside their Robert Rummer-built homes. Email your photo, along with your name, city and the year your home was built to
-- Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
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Boone Brothers Media/Modern Homes Portland-Living Room Realty
Traditionalists turned up their noses and scratched their heads when they first saw Robert Rummer's wide-open, glass-walled modern homes in the 1960s. The tract developer had an uphill battle with banks, building inspectors and home buyers who couldn't see the allure of dwellings designed to encourage then-revolutionary indoor-outdoor living.
Today, a Rummer-built house can sell fast. An offer was received in five days after one (seen here), built on a half-acre lot on Park Forest Ave. in Lake Oswego, was listed in November 2018 at $699,900. It sold in January 2019 for $712,000.
Boone Brothers Media/Modern Homes Portland-Living Room Realty
Another 1969 Rummer, on a quarter-acre lot on Southwest Heather Court in Beaverton, sold for $785,000 in August 2018 with an offer accepted after two days.
Modern Homes Portland-Living Room Realty
The owners of a 1964 Rummer home on Southwest 105th Ave. in Beaverton, which sold for $564,900 in April 2018, received an offer after 11 days on the market.
Boone Brothers Media/Modern Homes Portland-Living Room Realty
But many owners stay put. As children grow up and leave home, parents live out retirement on an easy-to-maneuver single level.
It's not unusual for the second generation to move into a Rummer. As they say, it's hard to live in a house without floor-to-ceiling windows that makes them feel close to nature.
Portlanders who appreciated Frank Lloyd Wright's later work and developer Joseph Eichler's atrium-centered homes in California instantly understood the appeal of soaring living rooms with see-through sliding doors that opened to patios.
Architecture and housing experts credit Bob Rummer (seen here inside one of his homes) with creating modern homes for middle-class families. He built many of them on spec, without having a down payment from buyers, believing they would sell. He survived good and bad economies; at times, he says he practically gave away a house.
Historians can't quit nail down how many modern homes Rummer built in the Portland metro area; some estimate a few hundred, while others say he was responsible for 700 to 750 housing units in Portland, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Clackamas, Gresham and other places, counting his traditional-style houses.
Bob Rummer will tell you he built 1,000 homes.
Boone Brothers Media/Modern Homes Portland-Living Room Realty
Rooms were organized by tasks. The noise-making kitchen, laundry room and workshop for the water heater and furnace are on one side of the house.
Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive
On another end of the house are the quiet-seeking bedrooms -- three, four or five of them -- and bathrooms.
Boone Brothers Media/Modern Homes Portland-Living Room Realty
In the center is the seemingly never-ending living room, defined by glass walls -- sometimes 18 feet tall -- installed to achieve the modern ideal: To erase boundaries between inside and out.
Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive
More than 600 people attended preservation organization Restore Oregon's Rummer home tour in 2016 in Beaverton's Oak Hills Historic District, which included this Rummer house.
Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Bob Rummer's wife of 70 years, Phyllis, who is 89, says he can still recall "every tracing of every [Rummer] house ever drawn."
Wayne Miya
Show Us Your Rummer: Wayne Miya poses inside his 1967 Rummer house in Beaverton's Oak Hills. "I upgraded my home several years ago and enjoy it immensely," said Miya, who has lived there for 29 years. "I am a big fan of the midcentury modern style and have tried to complement the style with any improvements I've made."
Linh Pham, proud owner of a Rummer home in Beaverton in 1964. "We love the layout & the natural lightings," says Pham.
Stephan Smith
Stephan Smith is seen, with his dachshund Willy, inside his 1966 Rummer in Southwest Portland's Bohmann Park neighborhood. What does he appreciate most about his home? "The massive glass windows around the glass covered atrium and the outside walls bring the light in from three sides," he says.
He also likes the ceiling height and large white walls he uses to showcase his art collection.
"The other thing I love is that I live in a neighborhood of Rummers," he says. "So we share our knowledge and commiserate on their issues. They are not without their issues, but they are like living in a piece of art."
Paul Wolff
Reviving a midcentury modern Rummer house then offering it for sale (before, after photos): Paul Wolff bought his 1967 Robert Rummer-built home in Beaverton from a man who owned it for 30 years. Most of the house was original except vinyl siding had misguidedly been nailed over cedar-clad exterior walls and the in-floor heat had been dismantled and replaced with a HVAC unit installed on the extended roof.
During Wolff’s first five years of living here, he made other repairs and improvements. He installed a new roof, siding and garage doors outside, and new, insulated walls inside. He remodeled the kitchen and two bathrooms, and refinished the concrete floors.
And now he's ready to sell. Wolff has put his property at 13910 S.W. Lisa Lane in the Menlo Park subdivision on the market for $550,000. The house has three bedrooms and 1,380 square feet of living space. Read more
Colleen Miller
Reviving a Rummer: Midcentury modern house stripped of leaky roof, rotting walls, smelly shag carpeting (photos): Two years ago, Colleen Miller and Rick Landers, both designers, found a forlorn 1967 Rummer house in Beaverton for sale. The original owner was leaving behind a leaky roof, rotting walls and "smelly" shag carpet.
The house was in such "truly terrible condition" that a bank would not appraise it with a conventional loan, says Miller, an interaction designer with R/GA.
Still, they bought the property.
"The promise of a relaxed lifestyle, and a clean, open setting has always appealed to us, plus it's a chance to maintain and revive a bit of history," says Landers, an independent graphic designer.
Tim and Laurel Sharp
Rent a Rummer on Airbnb: Tim and Laurel Sharp figured out another way to make their 1971 Rummer-built home work for them. They divided their 2,452-square-foot house in half, and live in one part and rent out the rest.
Their living area includes a family room, kitchen, three bedrooms, bathroom and laundry room. Their section of the backyard has a patio.
On the other side of a few locked doors is the space they rent out. AirBnB guests use the living, dining and kitchenette areas, the master bedroom, master bathroom with a Roman-style sunken shower and the media room with a sleeper sofa. Outside is a deck.
Kjrsten Madsen
Glass-walled Robert Rummer house open during Restore Oregon's midcentury modern home tour (photos): When Haley Lewis first saw a mishmash midcentury modern home with French doors and an overgrown yard, she ran back to her car and told her husband, Steve, to take off. He didn't.
He could imagine beyond the lattice wood that obscured the once transparent walls of the interior atrium. He could see past the “Jungle Cruise” scene in the ivy-and-blackberry blanketed backyard.
He could see the bones of the single-story house, built by Robert Rummer and based on plans by architect Claude Oakland that had been reproduced hundreds of times by celebrated California tract developer Joseph Eichler.
Nina Johnson
Kamissa Mort and Elizabeth Edwards moved into a 1966 Robert Rummer-designed house in the Vista Brook/Bohmann Park neighborhood, which has the largest collect of the builder’s midcentury modern homes modeled after California developer Joseph Eichler.
Mort and Edwards’ single-level home has classic Eichler elements: A center vaulted ceiling and flat-roofed wings around an indoor-outdoor atrium. Rising from radiant-heated floors are windows that reach original tongue-and-groove ceilings. Rummer sited each of his hundreds of homes to maximize the views and easy indoor-outdoor living. On this corner lot, there are three distinct yards, each accessed through different rooms.
Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Tell us what you think of Rummer-built homes. And, if you're a Rummer owner, please email a photo of yourself in front of or inside your house to jeastman@oregonian.com.
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