Amy Porter Rapp

Rapp was born in Halsey, OR.[1] Her parents were Catherine Maude Hopkins and Frank Hailey Porter.[1] Frank Hailey Porter represented Linn County in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1913 to 1917.[1]

The Rapp family moved to Portland, Oregon in 1919.[1] Rapp graduated from Grant High School in 1927.[1] She attended the University of Oregon and graduated with a degree in architecture in 1931.[1] A highlight of this period was Rapp's introduction to Frank Lloyd Wright. A friend of department head W.R.B. Willcox, Wright gave critiques of current student projects and participated in informal gatherings with students.[2] At the University of Oregon, Rapp belonged to the Alpha Omicrom Pi sorority.[1] Architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith was one of her sorority sisters.[2]

Rapp married Andrew Lee Rapp (d. 1996) in 1931.[1]

Rapp graduated with the onset of the Great Depression and had trouble finding work as an architect. According to her, "In 1931, with the Depression, no jobs were available for a geologist and certainly no job for a fledgling architect – in fact – no jobs at all. We were lucky - we managed my dad's apartment building."[2]

In 1941 the Rapps bought a 50' x 150' lot and Amy designed the family's home herself.[2]

It was not until 15 years after graduation that Rapp started designing homes in reaction to a lack of government funds for new veteran homes. She did this with no prior office experience, two children and a third on the way. Rapp comments on this with a memory of her youngest child who tip-toed through the house, she "heard, 'Shush, Mama is architecting.' I thought – that's it. I burned the midnight oil after that until he was in school."[2]

As a volunteer, she chaired the Building Committee of the First Congregational Church in Portland, and represented the church on the jury for the Portland Center for the Performing Arts.[2] She drew plans for church additions, and strove to keep the existing exposed stonework and brick. She further reviewed expansion plans and grew her professional skills of client relationships.[2]

Rapp completed her last commissioned home in 1955 and turned to help her husband with the Green Furniture Hospital, which was a repairing and refinishing shop of furniture that later added antiquities.[2]

B.A., University of Oregon, 1931.

• Single Family Homes; Oregon
• First Congregational Church Remodel; Great Falls, Montana
• First Congregational Church Basement Remodel; Portland, OR