History in the News
Historic house plans moving forward

By Virginia Bruce

The small white saltbox-style house on Cornell, known as the JQA Young House, was built in 1869 by the second owner of the lumber mill that gave our community its name. It was acquired in 2005 by the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (THPRD) and an ad hoc committee of local residents and other interested parties was formed to determine the future use of the property. The committee studied the house and site for a little over a year and arrived at a set of goals:

• Restore the exterior of the house to 1869, the period of its original construction

• Rehabilitate the interior of the house to bring it up to code, including electrical, plumbing, heating, and accessability

• Make the first floor and grounds of the house available for public and private community use and facility rentals, including passive historic interpretation of the interior, and development of opportunities for historic educational activities on the grounds

• Form a volunteer group affiliated with the Tualatin Hills Park Foundation to raise funds for the restoration and ongoing care of the property.

$100,000 was appropriated by the THPRD board to begin the planning for the property. The district put out a Request for Proposals in March for the development of the JQAY House Restoration and Interpretive Master Plan. Several firms responded, and the district has selected MacKay & Sposito’s Wilsonville office with SERA Architects as the project consultant. The project budget is $65,000.

JQAY house first floor plans

Wendy Bell, THPRD Park Planner, says that the product of this contract will be a comprehensive document analyzing the elements of the house and grounds, determining how the property will be used, estimating the overall cost of the project, and gathering citizen input.

“These will not be construction documents,” she says. “We need to have a clear understanding of the scope of the project before we can allocate funds and begin the fundraising process.”

The Plan will include proposed park facilities, including a floor plan of the house with usage of the space, and a site plan demonstrating a connection from the house to the old mill site at the creek (near Cedar Mill Falls) and to the east end of the adjacent parking area which the Cedar Mill Bible Church is granting use of.

An Open House meeting will be conducted with local citizens during the summer, and a final public meeting will be held to allow citizens the opportunity to review the draft Plan prior to presentation to the District board for adoption. The process should be completed sometime this fall.

If you would like to be notified about these meetings, contact Wendy Bell at 503-629-6305 ext. 2932, or at wbell@thprd.com

More information about the history and current condition of the house is available in back issues of the Cedar Mill News—look in the Subject Index at cedarmill.org/index. The Cedar Mill History book, available at the library, also has much of the house’s story.

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Published monthly by Cedar Mill Advertising & Design
Publisher/Editor:Virginia Bruce
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