Ermatinger, Francis House - Oregon City, Oregon
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 45° 21.315 W 122° 36.315
10T E 530919 N 5022491
Historic early house in Oregon City, Oregon.
Waymark Code: WM64YB
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 04/03/2009
Views: 7
Francis House was built in 1845, and is the old oldest house in Oregon City. Originally the Federal style house was built in the lower part of the town near Willamette Falls but with the encroaching industrial development the house was moved to upper part of town and placed at the corner of 11th and Center Streets in 1910. In 1986 the house was moved again to its current location at 6th and John Adams.
It is said that the name for the city of Portland was decided in this house. The two largest landowners of what was to become Portland (Asa L. Lovejoy and Francis W. Pettygrove) were at a dinner party at this home and they decided to combine their land claims into a single city. Lovejoy was originally from Boston, Massachusetts, and so wanted to name it Boston, while Pettygrove was from Portland, Maine, and wanted to name it Portland. They decided to decide name of the city by a flip of a coin. Pettygrove won the two out of three flips and the city was named Portland.
Francis Ermatinger was an early clerk for the Hudson Bay Company in the western parts of the country. He led a party to Oregon City in 1841. When the Oregon Territory was first organized he served as its treasurer. He remained in that position until he returned to Canada and the Hudson Bay Company in 1846. The house is maintained as a museum.