Oregon Historic Sites Database

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Inventory Form
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:401 W Main St historic name:Adams, Louise, House
Silverton, Marion County current/other names:Brownhill, Louis & Adams, Rental House
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot: / 09900
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:6S 1W 34 DA
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):1.5 total elig resources:2 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:c.1923 second date: date indiv listed:03/03/2015
primary orig use: Single Dwelling orig use comments:
second orig use:
primary style: Late 19th/20th Period Revivals: Other prim style comments:
secondary style: Craftsman sec style comments:
primary siding: Horizontal Board siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:Unknown
builder:Unknown
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Historic Architecture in Silverton, Oregon and its Environs MPD MPS 03/12/2011 2010
   Silverton - Coolidge Neighborhood Survey & Inventory Project
   Silverton Historic Inventory Survey & Inventory Project 1996
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 03/03/2015
ILS survey date: 08/27/2007
RLS survey date: 11/01/1996
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess 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 ca. 1923 Louise Adams House is located at 401 West Main Street on the west side of the City of Silverton, Marion County, Oregon. The neighborhood is located 0.2 miles northeast of the Silverton Commercial Historic District (listed in 1987 in the National Register), and is characterized by historic houses built between 1880s and 1920s. The immediate landscape includes tall mature, and smaller trees, flowering plants, a multi-material perimeter fence with metal gates, and remnants of the former driveway. The Adams House is a one-and-a-half-story, wood-framed, moderately expressed, side-gabled jerkinhead Craftsman-style residence in the bungalow form, and is situated in the middle of a 0.3 acre L-shaped lot facing northwest at the intersection of West Main and Welch Streets. The house is sided with horizontal wood lap siding with corner boards. The building is characterized by the unusual centered octagonal front porch and the typical Craftsman-style detailing consisting of wide-open eaves with exposed purlins and rafter tails. Most of the windows are tall ribbons of wood casement windows with wood awning windows for the basement and a few double-hung wood-sash windows in the secondary facades. The building exhibits two brick chimneys, one exterior on the west facade and an interior chimney on the rear slope. The interior includes approximately 3,268 square feet of space, of which 1,934 square feet is living space – counting the first floor and finished attic. The first floor includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The house includes a partially finished basement with a storage room and a laundry room. A contributing ca. 1923 detached one-car garage is located to the northeast of the residence. Despite some changes in the 1950s and 1960s, the Adams House retains its character-defining features and continues to convey its significant historical characteristics and associations.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Louise Adams House, located in Silverton, Marion County, Oregon is significant at the local level under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an example of a moderately expressed, jerkinhead side-gabled Craftsman-style house in the bungalow form. Built ca. 1923, this wood-frame one-and-a-half story single- family residence was designed by an unknown architect in an esthetic very popular in Silverton during the early-twentieth century. The Louise Adams House retains good integrity and meets the general and specific registration requirements set forth in the Multiple Property Documentation (MPD) Historic Architecture of Silverton, Oregon and its Environs. As required for listing under the MPD, the building retains its key character-defining features of its style, form, and expression, including retention of original materials, fenestration pattern, workmanship, and design. The Craftsman style and the bungalow form are clearly demonstrated in the Adams House through the building’s original jerkinhead side-gabled roof, octagonal front porch with lattice work, wide eaves with exposed rafters and purlins, exterior brick chimney, and casement windows, among other decorative elements. The period interior retains the characteristics of the bungalow type, including the open floor plan, and decorative window, door, and wall treatments, and built-in features common to buildings of this style. Despite a few minor alterations, all within the acceptable changes outlined by the MPD, the building is among the best representations of a side-gabled Craftsman-style residence in the bungalow form in Silverton, Oregon. Silverton Falls Timber Company bought this property in August 1919 and probably had this house built that year. In 1916 the Silver Falls Timber Company, encouraged by the upward trend in the lumber market and the availability of timber not far from Silverton, announced plans to construct a $500,000 mill in Silverton. The company's 35,000 acres of forest land in Marion and Clackamas counties would be tapped by their 26-mile logging railroad. In March that year, construction began of saw and planning mills, dry kilns, sheds, loading facilities, and a 12-acre log pond, all located on 142 acres northeast of downtown Silverton. When completed, 350 to 400 employees worked in company logging camps and another 350 to 500 men worked in the mill. By the mid-1920s, Silver Falls Timber Company had become one of the largest lumber mills in the state. Silver Falls Timber Company constructed this residence to house its managerial personnel. Harold R. and Gladys B. Irish moved from their temporary residence on Fiske Street into this West Main Street property around 1924 and remained there into the 1940s. Harold Irish worked for Silver Falls Timber Company as a logging superintendent from the early 1920s into the early 1940s. Following his death, Gladys continued to reside in the house. The property was sold to Cascade Operating Company in 1945.
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:University of Oregon
Historical Society:Silverton County Historical Society Other Respository:
Bibliography:
Evans-Hatch, Gail. "Silverton, Oregon, Cultural Resource Inventory." City of Silverton, 1997. Property ownership book, Thomas Coon DLC. Ticor Title Company, Salem, Oregon. Salem and Marion County Directory. Portland, OR: R.L. Polk and Company, 1924-1945. Sanborn Map Company. "Silverton, Oregon." New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1915, 1922 and 1939. “Aerial Photography Collection.” Knight Library, Aerial Photography Collection: University of Oregon, Willamette Valley Project , 4M Project 1944, LC1 Project 1952, DBQ Project 1960, DBQ Project 1968, C-BPA Project 1979, 1986, O-90-AEC Project 1990, NAPP Project 2000 1936. Allen, Jason M. “National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Multiple Properties Documentation: Historic Architecture in Silverton, Oregon, and Its Environs.” U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, 2010. State Historic Preservation Office, Salem, Oregon. http://www.silverton.or.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/847. ———. “National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Multiple Properties Documentation: Historic Architecture in Silverton, Oregon, and Its Environs.” U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, 2010. State Historic Preservation Office, Salem, Oregon. http://www.silverton.or.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/847. ———. “National Register of Historic Places: Louis J. Adams House.” U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, 2010. State Historic Preservation Office, Salem, Oregon. “Ancestry.com.” Genealogy. Ancestry.com, 2013. http://www.ancestry.com/. Clark, Rosalind L. Oregon Style: Architecture from 1840 to the 1950s. First Edition. Portland, Oregon: Professional Book Center, 1983. “Deed: Coolidge to Adams.” Marion County Assessor’s Office Property Records, September 20, 1888. Book of Deed: 36, Pg. 253. Marion County Records, Salem, Oregon. “Deed: L. J. Adams to Louise Adams.” Marion County Assessor’s Office Property Records, October 7, 1924. Book of Deed: 210, Pg. 312. Marion County Records, Salem, Oregon. “Deed: Price to Coolidge.” Marion County Assessor’s Office Property Records, April 3, 1876. Vol. 18, Pg. 646. Marion County Records, Salem, Oregon. “Deed: W. H. Drake to L. J. Adams.” Marion County Assessor’s Office Property Records, November 24, 1922. Book of Deed: 168, Pg. 601. Marion County Records, Salem, Oregon. Drake, J. D, Mahlon Hoblitt, Hicks-Chatten Engraving Co, and Drake Brothers Studio Drake and Hoblitt (Firm). Silverton, Oregon and Its Environs in Pictures. Silverton, Or.: Drake and Hoblitt, 1924. “Eva Coolidge. Silverton Country Historical Society.” Accessed May 12, 2014. http://www.silvertonmuseum.com/Newsletter_Aug..pdf. “History of Oregon Episcopal School. St. Helens Hall.” Educational. Oregon Episcopal School. Accessed May 9, 2014. http://www.oes.edu/alumni/history-timeline.html. Hochspeier, Sherrill, ed. “Marion County, Oregon, Marriage Records, 1849-1900. Volume VI. (15 Aug 1888 - 9 Sep 1891).” Willamette Valley Genealogical Society, 1990. Salem, Oregon. Ancestry.com. Interview of Louise A. Brownhill. Stories of New York and Silverton. Original Cassette. Digitazed in 2014. Susan Beale Personal Documentation, 1985. Interview with Susan Beale about Louise Adams House in Silverton, Oregon. Interview by Ernestina Fuenmayor. In Person. Unrecorded, March 9, 2014. Kreisman, Lawrence, and Glenn W. Mason. The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc, 2007. McAlester, Virginia, and Arcie Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. 2005th ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1984. Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley, Oregon: Containing Original Sketches of Many Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present. Part 1. Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1903. Salem City and Marion County Directories 1893 to 1949. Portland, Oregon: R. L. Polk & Co., Various dates. The Sanborn Map Company. “Digital Collection Sanborn Maps.” Insurance Map. Fire Insurance Map of Silverton, Oregon. Silverton, Oregon: ProQuest, LLC, 1922. http://0-sanborn.umi.com.janus.uoregon.edu/or/7465/dateid-000003.htm?CCSI=2197n. ———. “Sanborn Insurance Maps.” Fire Insurance Map of Silverton, Oregon. Silverton, Oregon: ProQuest, LLC, 1939. http://0-sanborn.umi.com.janus.uoregon.edu/or/7465/dateid-000003.htm?CCSI=2197n. “Timothy Brownhill - Overview.” Genealogy. Ancestry.com. Accessed May 13, 2014. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/67961498/person/46177128280. Vickie Ovendale. Permit Technician. City of Silverton. Letter to Ernestina Fuenmayor. “Email Communication. Building Permits for National Register,” April 29, 2014. Zachary, Wnek. “Brunot Hall.” Spokane Historical. Accessed May 9, 2014. http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/311#.U20wC1dLqa8.