Oregon

In the 1840s and 1850s, Oregon pioneers built structures similar to those they remembered “back east.” One remarkable surviving example is the Horace L. Dibble House in Molalla. Dibble’s family had relocated generation after generation across the United States, beginning with Thomas Deble [s

While a number of log houses survive in arid eastern Oregon, where the dense juniper logs and low moisture levels have contributed to their preservation, these all date from the late-nineteenth-century homesteading era. Few comparable structures can be found in the damp climate west of the Cascades, with the exception of the David N. Birdseye House along the Rogue River, about 16 miles northwest of Medford. Built in 1855, its survival may be attributed to its sturdy construction and to the fact that it has been continuously inhabited by six generations of the same family.

The Harry F. Wentz Studio at Neahkahnie Beach in Nehalem is considered the starting point in the development of a distinct Pacific Northwest regional modernism. Portland architect Albert E. Doyle worked with artist Harry F. Wentz, for whom the cottage was built, to situate the house in its natural setting by incorporating native Northwest plant materials into the landscaping and using wood as both the principal structural and finish material.

George Franklin Barber of Knoxville, Tennessee, was an architect and producer of 15 popular and widely distributed house plan books from 1887 through 1907. Unlike other authors, Barber offered full sets of building plans and was willing to personalize designs for those who wrote to him requesting desired changes. His influence in nineteenth-century residential design was vast, and there are at least 14 houses in Oregon based on Barber’s designs. One of the most significant of these is the Jeremiah Nunan House in Jacksonville, built in 1891–1892.

Reverend Jason Lee (1803–1845) was the first Methodist missionary in the Oregon Territory, establishing a mission in 1834 in the Willamette River Valley, about nine miles north of present-day Salem. The area was prone to flooding, however, and Lee relocated the mission to the northerly edge of what would become Salem. The mission established a nearby sawmill to produce lumber for the houses needed for arriving settlers. Lee and his wife, Lucy Thompson, together with three other families, occupied this two-story, wood-frame house with clapboard siding built in 1841.

The imposing John C. Ainsworth House, located at the western edge of Oregon City, is unique for being Oregon’s only nineteenth-century Greek Revival house built with a colossal, two-story columnar portico.

Perhaps the best preserved house by local builder Peter John (Pehr Johan) Lindberg of Port Orford, the Hughes House is a significant survivor of a once large and prosperous ranch and dairy business operated by Patrick Hughes and his descendants. The largely unaltered house remains one of the most significant late-nineteenth-century residences in Curry County.

Built at the heart of Astoria, one block north of the imposing Captain George Flavel House, the Clatsop County Courthouse replaced a far smaller courthouse built in 1854. The Classical Revival building is a large, rectangular, two-story block, measuring 120 feet wide and 94 feet deep, with the centered entrance facing north on Commercial Street, toward the Columbia River a few blocks away.

The Judge C.H. Page House is one of the high-end residences built when Astoria was at its most prosperous. Captain Hiram Brown commissioned the house in 1879 as a wedding gift for his daughter, Annie, when she married his one of his business partners, Charles H. Page, who was also a member of the city council, proprietor of a general store, and had recently become a lawyer.

Baker County Courthouse, one of several Oregon courthouses designed by Delos D. Neer, is one of the largest and most imposing public buildings in Baker City. Settlement of the area began in 1861, with the discovery of gold along the Powder River, and the region enjoyed modest prosperity until around 1910, when the deposits began to be exhausted, and settlement shifted further south along the river.