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Inventory Document
NR Nomination

LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address:14601-14615 Watergap Rd historic name:Lippincott, William J & Sarah Wagner, House
Williams vcty, Josephine County current/other names:Pacifica: A Garden in the Siskiyous, The Pond House at Pacifica
assoc addresses:14605 Watergap Road
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:Building height (stories):1.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:1
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:c.1951 second date: date indiv listed:05/18/2015
primary orig use: Single Dwelling orig use comments:
second orig use: Meeting Hall
primary style: Contemporary prim style comments:
secondary style: Northwest Regional sec style comments:
primary siding: Horizontal Board siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:Wellington, Winfield Scott
builder:
comments/notes:
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Not associated with any surveys or groupings.
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 05/18/2015
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date: 03/28/2014
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 William J. and Sarah Wagner Lippincott House is a large, 4600 square foot single-story, wood-frame building with a partial daylight basement. Attributed to Winifred Scott “Duke” Wellington, a faculty member at University of California, Berkeley, and completed in 1951 by the original owner/occupants, the Lippincott House is located near the unincorporated community of Williams, on the eastern boundary of Josephine County, Oregon. The house overlooks a man-made reservoir within a large rural parcel now owned and operated by the Pacifica Foundation as an environmental and educational reserve. Considered one of the finest examples of post-World War II Contemporary architectural design in southern Oregon, the Lippincott House retains high integrity in design, use of materials, feeling, and location so as to effectively relate its original interior and exterior character and the associations that make it significant. The Lippincott House is counted as a contributing building, while the Little House, though built during the Lippincott period of ownership, has been altered and is counted as non-contributing.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The William J. and Sarah Wagner Lippincott House, attributed to architect Winfield Scott “Duke” Wellington, was built by the original owners between 1948 and 1951. One of the most significant examples of the Contemporary residential style identified in southern Oregon, and a rare example in Josephine County, the house is located in a spectacular setting overlooking a man-made reservoir, and retains substantial integrity to its original interior and exterior design. The William J. and Sarah Wagner Lippincott House, with a period of significance ending with its completion in 1951, is locally significant under Criterion C for its architectural design, as an excellent and intact example of the Contemporary style in Josephine County, Oregon.
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: Other Respository:Josephine County Courthouse
Bibliography:
Arizona Archives Online. Wide Ruins Trading Post-Historical Note. (www.azarchiveonline.org, visited 15-March-2014). Belluschi, Pietro. “Houses,” The Northwest Architecture of Pietro Belluschi, ed. Jo Stubblebine. New York: F. W. Dodge Corporation, 1953. Bowman, David L. Cultural Negotiations: The Role of Women in the Founding of Americanist Archaeology. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1981. Clark Keeney, Rosalind. Oregon Style: Architecture from 1840 to the 1950s. Portland, OR: Professional Book Center, Inc., 1983. Cousins, Bill and Jean Cousins. Tales from Wide Ruins. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech Univ. Press, 1997. Dietsch, Deborah K. Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern at Home. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Fricke, David. “Four Years After He Dropped Out to Go Fishing, Steve Miller Plunges into Rock’s Mainstream.” People Magazine, v. 171, No 2, January 25, 1982. Gene Whittier Realtor. 729 Acre Livestock Ranch Brochure,” (Lippert Family Collection). Giedion, Siegfried. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. (Cambridge, MA: The Harvard University Press, 1982 (Fifth Edition). Greenberg, Cara. Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1984. Hannum, Alberta. Spin a Silver Dollar: The Story of a Desert Trading Post. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1945. Paint the Wind. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1958. Harris, Cyril M., American Architecture An Illustrated Encyclopedia. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998). Hess, Alan and Noah Sheldon, The Ranch House. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005. Jackson, Lesley. Contemporary: Architecture and Interiors of the 1950s. London, England: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1994. James, H. L. Posts and Rugs, The Story of Navajo Rugs and Their Homes. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publications Ltd, Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1976. Josephine County Deed Records (JCD), as cited by Volume:Page in text. Kelley, Klara and Harris Francis. Navajoland Trading Posts. (http://www.navajotradingposts.info/, visited 21-July-2014) Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1985. McAlester, Virginia Savage. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Pacifica: A Garden in the Siskiyous, http://pacificagarden.org/, accessed July 2014. Painter, Diana. “Regional Modernism on the West Coast,” in Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 31. Auckland, New Zealand, 2014. Stubblebine, Jo, editor,” The Northwest Architecture of Pietro Belluschi. New York: F. W. Dodge Corporation, 1953. Wagner, Sallie. Wide Ruins; Memories from a Navajo Trading Post. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.