6
Brown house w hich you already B i
know. There are other houses of sim
ple, classic design, like the Ainsworth
place at M ount P le a s g M wlth/;1iM
fluted pillars supporting a pedim ent
th a t in its shape is reminiscent of a
jGreek or Roman temple. How easily-1
you m ay find the house is h a rd .’to
say, b u t it is well w orth the pleasure
of th e hunt, for in that
Oregon City,/ are a num ber
gon’s-/-first g r e a t,,- country
w here the w ealthy entertained im
portant and influential visitors.
There are still standing o t h e r
homes older than?that
but m any are n^ ^ 5 i j ij&ely dated gjgH
identified. Our first settlers were
French CariadBm hunter's and tra p
pers, employees of the Hudson s Bay
C o m p S f lw h o retired B f t S S R H
known as French P rairie
1830’s. It was here th at the -first;»
Am erican missi,qh\.i was established,
and near these French .speaking f < |K
settled m any of the pioneers of the
Oregon trail in the 1840’s and 1850 s.
G enerally Speaking, French P rairie
stretch e d o n the east side of theB 9
lam ette riv er from Champogg' to jUj^aS
n orth of Salem, the heart of Marion
County. It included settlem ents such
as St. P aul and St. Louis, and the
Pacific Highw O Wuth of Aurora on
the Pudding ri^ r skirts its edge.
The houses th at these Frenchm en
built, often for I n d t ^ B r ,half-brg£d^
wives, naturally reflect their Cana
dian background. Many of the houses
which they knew in Canada were of
the s o - S B S g s i l t box” design, with
a porch across $£he front, from which
the roof rifeWsteeply to a ridge. The,
walls w ere built solid of K d w tg d
in grooves between posts, while the
floors were of puncheons, or half
split logs, and the^rgojfs and outei^
walls w ere protected w ith shakes. It
is IS fe to s u p p o ft that B m e of the
first houses/ built on F rench Prairiej
were of this style, but nonllfar e » S S
tively identified. Yet if you drive
from Newberg to Salem, th ro u g h ^ ®
Paul, you will see a num ber of houses
th at an B S r the Specifications, easily
spotted w ith the Ssfiee^ddge in front
and the long sloping roofs
covering a num ber of rooms and ad
ditions.
The f ir g l Am&w B hom es i g O r e -
log cabins. It was natural
W j l the pioneers of th e
trail
adopted the style of th e frontier
through w hich they-had come before
ftheir trip a'fcrjBrthe g a in s ': M any of
these cabins have survived, incor-
porated in larger houses, b u t no un-
m o d i fi
’Q b M of the
1840’s and 1850’s are know n to exist
in Oregon. If the cabins w ere but
single rooms, they often becam e the
kitchemjfwhich
be an
inferior addition to a fram e house.
On the other hand, th e cabin may
have been of
design,
two single rooms joined by an
pnrfM Bariiou^ ^ O l C f l ^ M B ^ f l l
or “dog tro t.” O riginal exam ples of
B M B M n n s survived into this cen
tu ry in Missouri, southern Illinois,
and K e n ttB W j S H B Q Q S B I
for two fam ily occupancy, and their
occurrence in Oregon is not surpris
ing when one considers th a t m any of
t h e l p j R H H H ^ a b S toiagggon m i-
^ K l ^ H L urt
The
saddle bag cabin was an answ er to
m ultiple fam ily housing problems
during the first years of settlement.
These cabins produced a style of
architecture w hich is quite distinct,
illustrated by the Jam es W,atson
house a « H o sk i | | s S he JohnyJdhn^on
house at Pedee, and th e T. G. Rich
mond I house n ear Dallas. Tn^g| are
center porches set into the house,
both front and back, and th e ridge of
the steep roof runs the breadth or
lonig W of K ^ ^ hoSH ^ ^ r m ^ l a half
story. The Jacob Conser house, now
the city hall and lib rary at Jefferson,
m ay represent another adaptation of
the saddle bag to the
architecture. I
Less distinct is the simple farm
house which originated from the log
cabin. From the porch across the
front th ere rises a steep unbroken
i M like the
itself is wide the length of the front
porch and only as deep as the width
of the g d d W a b le . A r c g M ^ ^ g
is th e ancestor of the Oregon ranch
h o ^ ^ f c fte n @ y irB d l in m odern arch-
itecture and house m agazines as one
of our most desirable styles. A good
e x a m p l^ o f the l ^ W t i n g
to
be; .seen on i h e pllnWgl Highway just