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Inventory Form
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:1700 Merlin Rd historic name:Reed-Cobb-Bowser House
Merlin, Josephine County current/other names:Country Club Orchard Clubhouse, Cobb, Everett, House
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot: / 1400
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:35S 6W 22
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):2.5 total elig resources:2 total inelig resources:4
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:c.1910 second date: date indiv listed:10/30/2017
primary orig use: Single Dwelling orig use comments:
second orig use: RECR/CULTURE: General
primary style: Late 19th/20th Period Revivals: Other prim style comments:
secondary style: Craftsman sec style comments:
primary siding: Shingle siding comments:
secondary siding: Stone:Other/Undefined
plan type: Bungalow architect:Unknown
builder:Unknown
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Not associated with any surveys or groupings.
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 10/30/2017
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
Special Assessment
Status Term End Yr
Info Requested 1st  2028
106 Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The Reed-Cobb-Bowser House and Barn are located east of the unincorporated community of Merlin, in Josephine County, Oregon. The property occupies a generally flat 3.5-acre parcel between Merlin Road on the southwest and Louse Creek on the northeast. The property is identified as Tax Lot 1400, in the NW ¼ of the SW ¼ of Section 22, Township 35S, Range 6 West. Occupying land at the NW corner of Merlin Road and Orchard Lane, a non-dedicated right-of-way, the two-and one-half story Craftsman-style dwelling, significant under both Criterion A and C, is deeply setback from the roadway. The large gambrel-roof barn with extended wings, built later but considered significant under Criterion C, is located to the east, along Louse Creek. Four small non-historic outbuildings are scattered to the rear and along the SE property line.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Reed-Cobb House was constructed in 1910-1911 as the headquarters, or “Clubhouse” of a major residential-agricultural development, the Country Club Orchard, that was promoted by a group of wealthy out-of-area investors in Merlin, Oregon. The house served as the office and reception center for that project until 1915, when it was transformed into a family home after Grace Reed Cobb and her husband, Everett, took over management of the orchards. The Reed-Cobb House is locally significant under Criterion A, for its association with the Country Club Orchard and the development of the Merlin area, and under Criterion C, as one of the best-identified examples of Craftsman residential architecture in northern Josephine County and a significant example of barn architecture, being the c1936 Gambrel-roofed horse barn built by second owners, Clementine Lewis and H. E. Bowser. The period of significance is established at 1910-1946 under criterion A and C, marking the construction during the original Reed-Cobb ownership and the subsequent ownership responsible for construction of the Gambrel-roofed horse barn.
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society:Oregon Historical Society Other Respository:
Bibliography:
Atwood, Kay. Josephine County Cultural and Historical Survey, Form #229, 1984. Cobb, Everett Eliot, Jr. Memoirs of Everett Eliot Cobb Jr., privately printed manuscript, 1991 Creel, George and John Slavens. Men Who Are Making Kansas City: A Biographical Dictionary, Kansas City, MO: Hudson-Kimberly Comp, 1902. Foster, Gerald. American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 2004. Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York, NY: The Oxford University Press, 1985. Makinson, Randell L. Greene & Greene: Architecture as Fine Art. Salt Lake City, UT & Santa Barbara, CA: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1977. McAlester, Virginia Savage. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. McArthur & McArthur. Oregon Geographic Names, 7th Ed. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2003. Oregonian. Misc. issues as cited by date:page in text (Includes both The Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian). Pruitt, Claudette Morning. Come Take a Historic Journey Along the Galice Trail. Grants Pass, OR: Morning Creek Enterprises, 2004. Rogue River Courier. Misc. issues as cited by date:page in text (included Weekly Courier). Sanders, Barry. Ed. The Craftsman: An Anthology. Salt Lake City, UT & Santa Barbara, CA: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1978. Stickley, Gustav. Ed. Craftsman Bungalows: 59 Homes from The Craftsman. Reprint Ed.. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1988. Walling, A.G. History of Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Coos and Curry Counties, Oregon. Portland, OR: A. G. Walling, 1884. Worley, William S. J.C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City: Innovation in Planned Residential Communities. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1990.