John Phillips House

John Phillips House
Location: 6565 Spring Valley Rd. NW
Salem, Oregon
Nearest city: Salem, Oregon
Built: 1853
Architectural style: Classical Revival[2]/Greek Revival
Governing body: Private
NRHP Reference#: 76001588[1]
Added to NRHP: March 15, 1976

John Phillips House is a historic 1853 vernacular Greek Revival[3] house in the Spring Valley area of Polk County, Oregon, United States. It was built for pioneer John Phillips,[3] who came to Oregon via the Oregon Trail in 1845.[4] He finished his journey to Oregon on the Meek Cutoff as part of Stephen Meek's "lost wagon train".[4][5]

John Phillips, born in 1814, was a native of Wiltshire England who came to the U.S. in 1834 and settled in Florida.[5][6] After living in New Orleans—where he met and married Elizabeth Hibbard in 1839—and St. Louis, he came to Oregon and bought the Turner donation land claim in Polk County for $100.[5][6] The locale was once known as Spring Valley Ranch.[5] John Phillips hired carpenter Samuel Coad to build a house for him there.[7]

Samuel Coad served during the Cayuse War in 1855, and helped construct buildings at Fort Hoskins, including one commissioned by then-Lieutenant Philip Sheridan, which still stands near the community of Pedee.[7][8][9] Also known as the Condron House, the Philip Sheridan House is the focus of an effort to return it to the Fort Hoskins site and restore it.[8] Samuel Coad married the daughter of General Cornelius Gilliam, Henrietta, in 1853.[7] Coad also constructed the woolen mill at Ellendale.[7]

As of 1980, the John Phillips House was the oldest residence in Polk County and was still in the Phillips family.[5] The 1 1⁄2-story house has horizontal wood siding.[10]

The house has a Salem mailing address, but the closest settlement is the unincorporated community of Zena about a mile to the southwest.[5] John Phillips is buried in the Zena Cemetery at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Oregon National Register List". Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. January 5, 2009. http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/NATREG/docs/oregon_nr_list.pdf. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  2. ^ "National Register of Historic Places: Oregon—Polk County". nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com (mirror site of official NRHP NRIS database: www.nr.nps.gov). http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/OR/Polk/state.html. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  3. ^ a b "ArchitectDB structure record: Phillips, John, House, Salem, OR". University of Washington Digital Library. http://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/9750/. Retrieved April 1, 2009. 
  4. ^ a b "Emigrants to Oregon In 1845". oregonpioneers.com. http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1845.htm. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Wirfs, Charlotte L. (1980). "Tour No. 1: Early Settlements of N.E. Polk County". Historically Speaking (Polk County Historical Society) IV: 2. 
  6. ^ a b "John Phillips". The History of the Willamette Valley, Being A Description of the Valley and its Resources, with an account of its Discovery and Settlement by White Men, and its Subsequent History; Together with Personal Reminiscences of its Early Pioneers. Chapman Publishing Company. 1903. p. 644. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/jphillips.txt. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  7. ^ a b c d "Samuel Coad". The History of the Willamette Valley, Being A Description of the Valley and its Resources, with an account of its Discovery and Settlement by White Men, and its Subsequent History; Together with Personal Reminiscences of its Early Pioneers. Chapman Publishing Company. 1903. p. 520. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/scoad2.txt. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  8. ^ a b Maxwell, Ben (May 1, 1959). "Group Seeks Hoskins House". Capital Journal. forthoskins.com. http://www.forthoskins.com/Phil_Sheridan_House.htm. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  9. ^ Hines, H. K. (1893). An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 677. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/scoad.txt. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 
  10. ^ "John Phillips House listing in the Oregon Historic Sites Database". Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=v.dsp_siteSummary&resultDisplay=47273. Retrieved April 2, 2009. 

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