Porter Jensen was founded in the University District in 1924 by William Lindenberg and was purchased by Anchor Jensen and Fred Neilson in 1944. Anchor Jensen is known for his artistry in hand carving. His piece de resistance was a silver chess set, which is now owned by the Museum of History and Industry. Each piece was hand carved in wax and cast in silver in the shapes of Vikings and Gaults.

In 1958, Warren Porter purchased the store renaming it Porter Jensen and in 1962 moved the store to its location on University Way . Josef Waldmann was recruited to work for Mr. Porter in 1997; Joe loved the store and purchased it in 1999. Seeing his hard work flourish, Joe opened his current location in the University Village to focus on custom design and unique pieces of jewelry. Joe comes from a jewelry background: his father was a jeweler before him. He went on to attend the Gemological Institute of America , and graduated at the age of 18. Joe and his wife, Nancy, run the store and continues to innovate.

Porter Jensen now focuses on producing high quality jewelry. We specialize in working with clients to design custom jewelry for their tastes and lifestyle. Each piece is hand crafted by skilled artisans in gold, platinum or titanium. Aside from our passion for diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies, we work hard to bring unique and colorful stones to our clients as well. We carry natural jadeite jade, Australian opals, unique pearl selections, multicolor sapphires and tourmaline, among many others. We would gladly go the extra mile to bring any stone here, to you.