In 2003, Jim Brown and Michelle Gringeri-Brown, both veterans of the publishing industry, noticed something missing from newsstands: a magazine for people who loved midcentury houses. Not only that, the couple wanted to see not highbrow case study or so-called “starchitect” homes, but the everyday ranches and split-levels that people live in and love. They launched Atomic Ranch, an independent magazine that could act as something of a club and resource for midcentury style devotees.

The magazine is still going strong 21 years later, though the founders have since sold the publication and retired. Now, their longtime home bought a few years after the magazine’s founding—a pitch-perfect ranch, naturally—is for sale in Eastmoreland, a neighborhood more known for its early-twentieth-century English cottages, Tudors, and American Colonial Revival homes. By the late 1940s, there were fewer empty sites to build on, and when they weren’t being filled in with odes to the aforementioned architectural styles, developers were putting in ranches like this one, built in 1952.

Located on a curving corner lot at the junction of SE Rex Street and 32^nd Avenue, the brick, hip-roofed house is nicely set back from the street. The surrounding yard, complete with lush landscaping and custom garden beds, seating nooks, a water feature, and custom metal fence, acts as a generous leafy buffer between the home and sidewalk.

Inside, the main living spaces are lined with large picture windows—we count 12 total. These mostly look into the trees and offer peekaboo glimpses of the neighborhood, making for excellent prospect.

As would be expected given the owners, much of the original character remains, despite a flipper owning the house before them. Tweaks were made at that point, namely replacing cabinet doors and drawer fronts in the kitchen and bathroom, but much of the home’s 1952 charm is intact, including the oak floors, brick fireplace, and glass block accent walls beside the front door and set into the kitchen backsplash.

The kitchen and upstairs bath both have their original tile counters. In the former, newer red Marmoleum flooring and reproduction cabinet knobs with a red line detail complete the scene. (And that refrigerator!)

Down the hall, there are three sizable bedrooms, all with wood floors and lots of windows. The primary has accent wallpaper and an original flying-saucer pendant light, while another is decked out in knotty pine paneling. Downstairs, there’s a large family room with a second brick fireplace, full bathroom, and bar area with more knotty wood and cheeky linoleum.

Listing Fast Facts 

• Address: 3125 SE Rex St, Portland, OR 97202
  
• Size: 2,548 square feet/3 bedroom/2 bath 
• List Date: 6/12/2024 
• List Price: $849,000 
• Listing Agent: Petra Anderson and Tom Cotter, Think Real Estate