THPRD seeking to fill positions on John Quincy Adams Young House committee

With the John Quincy Adams Young (JQAY) House in Cedar Mill now on the National Register of Historic Places, the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD) is moving forward with initial plans to restore the 146-year-old house.

Applications are being accepted for two-year terms on a newly formed Friends of John Quincy Adams Young House Committee. Members will plan, implement and participate in special fund-raising events; solicit donations from businesses, organizations and individuals in the community; and make public presentations about JQAY House on request.

Individuals interested in serving on the Friends Committee should submit a completed application no later than March 24 to Lynda Myers, THPRD’s Jenkins Estate, 8005 S.W. Grabhorn Road, Beaverton, OR 97007.

Applications and Friends guidelines may be obtained at the THPRD Administration Office (503/645-6433), Jenkins Estate (503/629-6355) or the district’s Web site at www.thprd.org. The ad hoc Friends group also has an application on their website: jqayounghouse.org.

The Park District currently plans to announce appointments to the committee in early April. For more information, please call Lynda Myers at 503/629-6355 or Lisa Novak at 503/645-6433.

The JQA Young House, located at 12050 NW Cornell Road, was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 31. It was nominated by the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation and the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office following a request by THPRD.

John Quincy Adams Young and his family traveled the Oregon Trail in the late 1840s to settle in the Oregon Territory. In 1869, Young and a partner bought the local sawmill next to Cedar Mill Creek. He built his historic “salt box”-style house where he lived with his wife, Elizabeth Constable Young, and children.

The family stayed in the house until 1874, when they built a new house across what is now Cornell Road. Young was appointed postmaster of Cedar Mill that same year. He converted the original house into the community’s first general store and post office, and it stayed that way until the end of 1881.

As years passed, the house changed ownership several times. In 2005, THPRD acquired it and a half-acre of?land on which the house sits in a property exchange agreement with Cedar Mill Bible Church.

THPRD’s Board of Directors subsequently adopted a master plan for renovation and restoration of the house, which is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Washington County and is the last remaining above-ground resource associated with the cedar mill for which the community was named.

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