The Architectural Heritage Center of Portland just hosted a really terrific lecture about the residential work of Joseph Jacobberger. Although he designed numerous public buildings in Portland, including the Nortornia Hotel (currently the Mark Spencer) and St Mary's Cathedral, Jaccoberger designed 261 residences, half of them in Portland, and many still survive. His career in Portland began at Whidden and Lewis in 1890, but before long he started his own company, and designed well into the twenties.

More interestingly, his career spanned the era of Victorian ornamentation with its great outward show of wealth, into an era of regionally inspired architecture. Through him, Portland became part of the international movement towards a modern lifestyle without servants or formal parlors, our very popular Craftsman. With every home- the smallest English cottage or a home for the Doernbechers, he was engaged in all aspects including the details of designing and choosing the colors for his stained glass windows. He made staircases into works of art, creating sculptural effects with rectangular pickets, screens and newel posts. The exterior of his homes display a grace and balance that too often lacks today.