Historic Stayton: The Brown House Traditional Cache
Historic Stayton: The Brown House
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This historic house is under restoration. It was painted in October 2009. The porches and interiors have received more recent work. Events are now being held here.
Charles Brown (1867-1925) came to Stayton with his family from Indiana in 1883. His father, Leander, purchased the Stayton sawmill, and son Charles, from age 17, took an active role in improving and operating the mill. He was a skilled millwright and builder with inventive talents. In 1894, he obtained a patent for an improved hydraulic motor which was favorably reviewed in The Scientific American . After 1883, Lee Brown and Sons sawmill became the major industry in town, and in 1902, when Charles E. Brown was thirty-six years old, and arguably one of Stayton's most skilled carpenters, he designed and built a grand Queen Anne house for his family on the corner of First and High Street next to the Salem Ditch in Stayton. There, he and his wife, Martha Staiger Brown, raised their three children -- Lee, Giles and Ruth. It was an elegant residence, "one of the finest in the county" according to an article in the December 19, 1903 edition of the Stayton Mail . Charles had built several other houses in Stayton, but none were as elaborate, or unusual, as this one. The house was one of the first in Stayton to have indoor plumbing and electrical wiring designed and built in during construction. Mr. Brown built in a radiant heating system with hot water pipes concealed behind the baseboards on both floor levels. In the cellar a finely crafted "fruit room" was filled each year with sustenance from the garden. Although those unique amenities are defunct today, fine woodwork still adorns most of the rooms; the living room and parlor show exceptional craftsmanship in ornate moldings and architectural detail. He and his family moved into the house in December 1903. The previous year The Brown's sawmill sawed nearly two million board feet and produced mouldings, casings and boxes. The Brown house also served as Stayton's hospital for many years and a number of local residents were born here. The restoration is proceeding at a slow pace, the roof and upper trim having received the first and most important work. The porch has been finished. Work on the interior has begun in earnest. Hint is a spoiler....
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(Decrypt)
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