Sam Brown House - Gervais, Oregon - Photos Then and Now on Waymarking.com

This waymark's default historic photograph of the Sam Brown House dates to 1934 and is provided courtesy of the Library of Congress. The second historic photograph below is said to date to the 1880s and is a Wikimedia copy of a National Geographic Magazine image.

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 historic status 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.

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Sam Brown House (2013)

Sam Brown House (1934)

Sam Brown House (circa 1880)

Year photo was taken: 1934

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