History of the Falcon Apartment Building

William P. Sinnot was 37 years old in 1909 when his mother, Bridget Sinnot, purchased the land on which the Falcon now stands. William was born and raised in Portland by Irish immigrant parents who owned the Columbia Hotel on Front Street. William went to St. Mary’s College in Oakland, California, and attended law school at the University of Oregon. Graduating in 1895, he was admitted to the bar not long afterward. Gold fever hit, and in 1897 William ventured to Alaska where he resided in Dawson for two years and in Nome for another six. William struck gold and returned to Portland in 1905 a wealthy man.

Portland was in a development boom at the time. William established a real estate and development firm with his brother John Frank Sinnot. Over the next few years, William and John’s company, Sinnot & Sinnot, would build and sell numerous residences, including the Conradine Hotel.

In 1910, Bridget Sinnot transferred the title of the land of the future site of the Falcon Apartment building to William, and not long afterward Sinnot & Sinnot applied for a building permit for the construction of a $50,000, three-story concrete building. The drawings for the building were drafted by John O. Wrenn.

As a young man, Wrenn attended the Agricultural College in Corvallis, then traveled back East to study architecture. In 1891 he returned to Portland, where he was a building contractor for several years until he was drawn to Alaska in 1897 by the gold rush. It is likely that Wrenn met William Sinnot in Alaska and that they collaborated on other projects.

Besides his business ventures into real estate development, William Sinnot was an active and adventurous man. He was a member of the Multnomah Athletic Club and involved in track, football, and baseball. He belonged to the Alaska Society, the Sons & Daughters of Oregon Pioneers, and the Auld Lang Syne Society. During 1925 and 1926, William, his wife Mary, and only son, William Jr., sojourned on an extensive trip throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, the West Indies, and South America.

The Falcon Apartment Building remained in William’s possession until his death in 1953 at the age of 81. Mary died shortly afterward, and possession of the building was passed to William’s sister, Mrs. Edna Smith. In 1955 the US National Bank was listed as the trustee of the property, and continued to be the trustee until the mid-1960s, by which time the nearly vacant building had fallen into serious disrepair. Walter and Mary Gerber purchased the building in 1968, and according to directories, the vacancy problems only worsened. Emery and Yvonne Huschka purchased the building in 1988. On April 15th, 1999 they sold the Falcon Apartment building to Brian Wannamaker.

Wannamaker cleaned up the building, renovated and rented every apartment, and then developed the basement into artist studios. He sought out high-caliber musicians, painters, writers, actors and sculptors to create a community where artists at the peak of their careers could have meaningful dialog and emerging artists could find the support they need to launch careers. To honor the community and history within the Falcon, Wannamaker commissioned painter Alexander Rokoff to make portraits of some of the long-term residents of the building. These paintings and brief stories about the subjects hang in the Falcon’s entry hall by the mailboxes on the first floor.

The Falcon building is rich with historical lore. If you’d like to know more (we can’t promise that the stories are true but they certainly are entertaining!) we encourage you to check out: www.realhaunts.com/united-states/the-falcon-apartments.