Building a Living Legacy
For more than a century, the Lindquist and Keys families have been making Oregon a better place to live by building homes and creating community.
1892
The Bernard Goldsmith House is built in NW Portland. Goldsmith serves as Portland Mayor from 1869 to 1871. In 2016, Sean and Gretchen Keys help save the landmark from demolition
1902
Brothers Erik, Joseph and Carl Lindquist arrive from Sweden at Ellis Island. Anna joins her husband Erik in 1905.
1904
Erik and Anna along with Joseph and Carl, journey from New York to Clackamas County Oregon. The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition is held in Portland, attracting 1.6 million visitors with exhibits from 21 countries.
Lindquist Homes is founded by brothers Erik, Joseph and Carl, beginning a 100 year tradition of homebuilding in the Portland-area.
1908
1907 - 1921
Erik and Anna have four sons – Fred, Hugo, Harold and Norman. Each son will learn a unique trade – carpentry, plumbing, bricklaying and painting – to carry on the family building tradition.
1920-1940
Lindquist Homes thrives and weathers the Great Depression – financing, designing and building distinctive homes and apartments in Portland’s finest neighborhoods – Laurelhurst, Irvington, Ainsworth, Eastmoreland and the Northwest District.
Hugo Lindquist marries Zoe Cate in Portland. Hugo and Zoe have four children, including Stuart and Nora.
1932
Thirty-nine years after arriving in America, Erik begins construction on a large NE Portland home for Anna and his family. On December 7th, while America is under attack at Pearl Harbor, Erik dies of a heart attack at age 62. Anna makes the new home the hub of family life for the next 31 years before dying in 1972 at age 92.
1941
1942
Nora, Sean’s mother, is born to Hugo and Zoe Lindquist in Portland three years after her brother Stuart. This brother and sister team will extend the family building and real estate tradition well past the turn of the 20th century.
1943
William “Bill” Keys, Sean’s father, is born in Victoria, B.C. then moves with his nine siblings to the United States in the early 1950s. Bill graduates from Gonzaga University and Willamette University School of Law before working as an assistant District Attorney in Multnomah County.
1950s
Portland, along with the rest of the nation, experiences a post-war housing boom with rising homeownership fueled by the GI bill and suburban migration. Oregon’s timber industry benefits from the growth.
1951
The beginning of the 1950s also marked the end of the historic Hotel Portland, which was torn down and replaced with a parking lot to serve the nearby Meier & Frank Department Store. In 1984, the parking lot was replaced with Portland’s “Living Room”, Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Stuart Lindquist becomes the third generation to enter the family tradition, building starter homes in the fast-growing west side Portland suburbs. To help sell the homes to young families, Stuart turns to his younger sister, Nora, for help.
1960s
Nora Lindquist marries William Joseph Keys in NE Portland at St. Mary Magdalene Parish (The Madeleine). Nora and Bill are married for 37 years and have three children – Brent, Sean, and Ryanne.
1968
While raising three children Nora starts areal estate and property management business, initially selling homes built by her brother Stuart. Investing in properties along the way, Nora eventually owns more than 25 rental homes.
Sean Keys, the great-grandson of Eric and Anna Lindquist, is born. Along with his older brother Brent and younger sister Ryanne, Sean was raised in a home built by their grandfather, Hugo Lindquist, in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood of SW Portland.
1970
1973
Under Governor Tom McCall's leadership, Oregon adopts SB 100 establishing a pioneering land use system to manage growth, combat urban sprawl, and protect farm and forest land.
1980
Mt. St. Helens erupts Sean Keys, along with his brother and sister, watch the historical event from the roof of their family home.
1983
William "Bill" Keys is appointed as a district court judge in Multnomah County, where he serves until retiring in 2001. Highly respected, Judge Keys helped create the Police Activities League of Portland and presided over numerous high-profile cases, including the Naito family litigation and the civil lawsuit over defective Louisiana-Pacific siding. He died in 2005 at age 61.
Late 1980s to Early 1990
Growing up in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood, Sean works odd jobs at his Uncle Stuart’s homebuilding sites while learning about real estate from his mother, Nora. He graduates from Jesuit High School and Santa Clara University with degrees in Civil Engineering and Accounting.
Sean receives his CPA and starts working at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sean rehabilitates his first home.
1992
1994
Sean founds Keys Homes Inc. with his brother Brent, continuing the 100-year family homebuilding legacy. Sean didn’t inherit a homebuilding business but was given something more valuable from his parents and generations of family members – the example of entrepreneurship and the expectation to leave your community better than you found it.
1998
Ryanne ElAzma, Sean's sister, bringing her Bachelors of Science in Accounting experience from PricewaterHouseCooper as an auditor, is hired as Vice President of Operations for Fortify Holdings, a company founded by Sean. The role entails day to day involvement to ensure the management company meets all the goals and parameters that owners of the particular properties have designated.
2003
Sean founds Metropolitan Land Group (MLG) after a decade of leading successful homebuilding and real estate businesses. MLG envisions and creates high-quality single and multi-family residential communities that embrace Oregon’s pioneering land use system established in 1973, carefully planning for growth to create livable, sustainable communities for people of all income levels.
Sean marries Gretchen Campbell in Portland. After graduating from Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Texas with a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, Gretchen moved to Portland to begin practicing. She and Sean met in 1999 through mutual friends and have been together since. After retiring from dentistry, Gretchen has spent her time volunteering for various non-profits, including Classic Wines Auction and American Cancer Society. She and her daughters are also members of National Charity League.
2004
2006
Sean and Gretchen’s first daughter, Campbell Grace Keys, is born.
2008
The Great Recession hits the Northwest economy hard. Like earlier generations of his family, Sean reinvents his business to weather the downturn. A milestone event was the 2013 opening of 45 Central, a new mixed-use housing community across from Nike World Headquarters.
Sean and Gretchen welcome their second daughter, Scarlett Ava Keys.
Sean and Gretchen begin a neighborhood Thanksgiving tradition of packing food boxes for ten families in need. Thanks to a partnership with St. Vincent de Paul, today more than 150 families receive food boxes each Thanksgiving.
2015
The Keys family moves into the historic Bernard Goldsmith House they restored in NW Portland after Sean and Gretchen helped save it from demolition. The home, built in 1892, was designed by prominent Portland architect Edgar Lazarus known for designing numerous Arts & Crafts houses in the Portland area, and Oregon landmarks including the Vista House in the Columbia River Gorge, the Dome Building in Salem, and the Clatsop County Courthouse in Astoria.
2018
2020
Sean and Gretchen found Fortify Families, a non-profit organization created to build stronger communities and empower people to thrive. Fortify Families is designed to strengthen and equip families who are financially challenged and potentially at risk of having their children involved with the child welfare system.
A group of families were placed in apartment units in 2015 through 2019; they lived in Gresham, Hillsboro and Sherwood, including single mother of four, Corrine.
