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Dundee council will review candidates for city
administrator
Gay awareness group will visit university
Potholes becoming a growing problem in Newberg
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Parrett House will be saved |
The historic house is moved to ensure its survival;
developers looking for owners who will restore the house |
By Schellene
Clendenin, Newberg Graphic
reporter
E-mail Schellene at
dsale@eaglenewspapers.com
|
When the owners of Coyote Homes heard that the Sam Parrett house in
Newberg had historical significance, they decided to move it to keep
it from being demolished.
But unlike the Luke McKern home, which will be moved more than a
mile to save it from destruction, the Parrett home at 2300 E. Third
St. didn’t go far. “About 20 feet,” said Marc Willcuts, president of
Coyote Homes.
Parrett, said Willcuts, was a significant founding father of
Newberg. The oldest son of two Oregon pioneers and a founding
member — and in 1912 , president — of the U.S. National Bank of
Newberg, Parrett built the house in the bungalow style, white with
green trim and tapered posts. It sports lead pipe flanges under the
bathroom floor and beveled glass on either side of the front door.
Pocket sliding doors lead to a formal dining room and split cedar
shingles cover most of the home.
Parrett
remained in the home until 1957, when at the age of 90, he died.
Willcuts said when he and his brother Mike Willcuts realized the
historical significance of the house they did not want to demolish
it. “We decided to see if we could save it and the person we bought
the property from wanted us to save it,” he said.
The home was moved, he said, to keep it from encroaching on the
street.
But the Willcuts have no plans to sell the home to just any one.
They hope to find someone interested in local history who will
restore the home to its former glory. If that’s not possible,
Willcuts said his company would do the restoration itself.
And they want it to be restored, not modernized.
Should the Willcuts decide to do the work themselves, “once the
renovation is done we will sell it to an end user,” he said.
“Someone who will keep the historic heritage alive. We hate to rent
a property like that. That one, we think, needs to be owned by
someone who appreciates it.”
Willcuts said they got the idea for saving the home after the
community rallied to save the McKern house and barn. “It got us to
thinking that there is a lot of history in Newberg,” he said. “It
would be so easy to wipe it out. If we can help preserve something
for the future that’s great. We want to preserve as much as we can.”
And now the Newberg developers are looking to see if there are
additional historic buildings on the properties they own. That way,
if they find one, they can look into saving it.
At present the Parrett House remains elevated on blocks, where it
will remain until a concrete foundation can be poured. Marc Willcuts
said the company plans to add a crawl space beneath the house to
make it easier to finance once a purchaser is found. |
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From
Feb. 28, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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