Samuel Brown House - Gervais, Oregon - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

"At 42.9 m. facing the highway (L) is the SAMUEL BROWN HOUSE, built in the early 1850's by a man who had made a small fortune mining gold in California. For many years it was a station on the Oregon-California stage line. This house, constructed as a long, low story-and-a-half salt-box, and still exhibiting the New England characteristics, has been remodeled by the addition of a second floor over the central third with a gabled roof that has been extended forward to form the pediment of a two-story porch. The second floor has a latticed balustrade. It is now occupied by Sam H. Brown, grandson of the builder." -Oregon: End of the Trail, 1940

Located on the French Prairie, just east of the Gervais city limits, this pioneer house was built in 1857. It is believed to have been the first house to be built in Oregon that was designed by an architect. It was built for Samuel and Elizabeth Brown, served as stage coach stop, and remained in the Brown family for three generations. The house is also nicknamed "The Willows" and at the time of it's nomination for the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the owner was listed as Mrs. Sam Brown II.

A prominent feature of the house is the Greek temple-style front-facing center section, with a portico supported by two untapered columns. The Brown family reportedly had the house built to the specifications of Mrs. Elizabeth Brown, who desired a home that reminded her of a Southern house. A barn just south of the house displays the words "The Willows, 1921, Sam H. Brown."

Samuel Brown was born in Pennsylvania in 1821, later moving to Indiana, where he worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker. At age 21 he moved to Missouri, where he married his wife, Elizabeth. In 1846, the Browns, with the young son, came by wagon train to the west coast, joining Jesse Applegate on the southerly route from Idaho toward Oregon, but instead diverting into California, where he built a mill on the Feather River. Ultimately he turned to gold prospecting and was successful, gaining a fortune of $20,000 and then moving to Oregon where they filed a donation land claim. They built this house and Brown became a state senator from 1866 to 1872. Their son Samuel Brown II also served in the Oregon legislature and was a Republican candidate for Governor of Oregon in 1934.

Today the house is in need of some restoration work, or at least some exterior paint. It appears some work may be in progress on the inside.

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