Woman selling house on Hawthorne Blvd for ‘right buyer’

By Amal Elhelw

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — A homeowner in Portland is looking to sell her property on SE Hawthorne Blvd and 44th Avenue. Over the years she’s gotten many offers but none of which follow her one condition; to keep the front yard something meant for the community to enjoy.

Marianne Braun lived at the home for several decades, remembering the area as a “crazy place” when she first moved in during the early 1990s.

“There were people on these tall bikes and there was this one guy who must have been in some kind of circus or something. He was practicing his juggling and even fire juggling. It was like I would sit on my front porch, and I never had to go anywhere,” Braun said. “I just had to sit there and see the world in this crazy way. But then after they built those condos, it was like it just killed it off.”

Around eight years ago, an apartment complex was built right across the street from Braun’s home. It was a change she said lessened the eclectic and quirky nature of Hawthorne Boulevard.

“I’m really resenting the change that’s happening now with these big apartments. I don’t like them and I’m trying to do my part to just save this one little piece,” Braun said.

As she looks to move on to life’s next chapter, Braun wants to sell her property but doesn’t want it to fall into the hands of a developer who she believes may bring in more condominiums. She said she wants a buyer who will maintain the culture she’s created by leasing her front yard to various food carts over the years.

“This little man who had a business next door used to come and sit on the front lawn and have his lunch under the big trees and I thought ‘That’s interesting, maybe the neighborhood needs a place to have people come and sit under the trees and why can’t I give them that place?’ So I did,” Braun remembered.

Her front yard is where she said Zack’s Shack started, Whole Bowl expanded and Kure Juice Bar was born.

“My emphasis has been what it’s given to the neighborhood because people can walk there in the evening and have their juice or whatever it is and enjoy the company because it feels to me like people have lost contact with each other, things have gotten too far apart. And I feel strongly that we need to be closer than we are,” Braun said.

That’s why she worked to extend the Hawthorne community to her front yard. Braun said she wants to sell her property to someone who will keep it alive.

“I want to get it into the hands of somebody who believes that it needs to complement the neighborhood, not just shove it out,” Braun said.

The last business to operate on Braun’s front yard was Kure Juice Bar which officially moved out mid-February.

Kure’s owner, Nate Higgins said in a statement, “Marianne has always had a vision for her lot, and I have always admired her aloofness to the purchase offers that have poured into her mailbox since long before we opened Kure there in 2011. I’m rooting for her to get creative and get what she’s after. If there’s a will there’s a way, and Marianne is as willful as they come.”

Braun has received several offers for her home but nobody who would agree to her one condition.

“As long as there’s something that’s inviting the neighborhood in,” Braun said.

Braun can be contacted by calling the number she’s posted on her home.

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