McCully/McMahan House Salem, Oregon
National Register of Historic Places Data
McCully/McMahan House has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places with the following information, which has been imported from the National Register database and/or the Nomination Form . Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- National Register ID
- 78002300
- Date Listed
- February 14, 1978
- Name
- McCully, David, House
- Other Names
- McCully/McMahan House
- Address
- 1365 John St., S.
- City/Town
- Salem
- County
- Marion
- State
- Oregon
- Category
- building
- Level of Sig.
- local
- Years of Sig.
- 1865; 1907; 1963
- Areas of Sig.
- COMMERCE; TRANSPORTATION; POLITICS/GOVERNMENT; ARCHITECTURE
Description
Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.
Present Appearance:
A Carpenter Gothic cottage with gabled ends, the house is of wood stud construction resited on a concrete block foundation. The central gable is pierced by double-leaf doors, under a pointed arched frame opening, onto a porch deck. The central entry, below, has pane and side lights under a semi-elliptical arch. The front porch with deck is carried by pierced posts in which wooden horseshoe patterns have been inserted.
The windows of the original house are intact, and are regularly distributed, two to a side on the front, two upstairs and two down on the ends, and two on the right back.
Two small windows which do not match have been inserted under the eaves in back. Downstairs windows on the front, north end and back are nine lights over one, and on the south, six over one. The upstairs end windows are four over four. Those on the downstairs south side were switched by the present owner with those on the right back to achieve interior consistency.
The interior central hall is virtually untouched. It includes a straight stair case, wall paper of an old pattern, three lights over each interior door, and a small half round separating the wallpaper from the ceiling. When the walls had to be replastered after the move, the shadow of a former rosette was found at the foot of the stairs. The present owner has used a matching rosette from the home of his grandmother, Abigail Scott Duniway, built in 1872 in Portland at Fifth and Clay.
The walls which divided the living room and the upstairs north bedroom were removed by the second owner about 1910, as was part of the wall in the study. When the move took place, the 1880 fireplace could not be salvaged because it was on a stone foundation, and so the rest of the wall was eliminated. Building inspectors required the insertion of supporting beams in both the living room and study to insure stability of the structure.
The fireplace in the living room had been added as a contemporary design by the second owner about 1912. After the move, it was re-designed after one in the 1865 Edward Young house at Oakland, Oregon.
To replace the lost stem, a pavillion was designed by Charles Hawkes, architect, in 1963. It is reached across a bridge, past a bath and broad stairs leading to the basement garage and storage. The room reflects Japanese taste, with shoji or fusuma screens which can be used to control light, divide the room, and can serve for hanging of art. A kitchen peak, storage walls, and six-foot square parquet flooring matching double tatami mats complete the room. In proportion, the 24-foot addition matches the front of the house. It received an award from the local Salem AIA chapter as an outstanding contribution to the city in 1967.
To overcome a major annual invasion of flies who hibernate, all cracks under the original clapboard siding and between the chimney and house were calked. The house was then painted a non-reflective Williamsburg color--Cape Hatteras blue with white trim.
Original Appearance:
The front of the house has been preserved, intact, although it does include the 1910 chimney and fireplace added on the north end. It is similar to plans of Andrew Jackson Downing for cottages. The interior has been changed from eight to five rooms. There were two large rooms downstairs in front and two smaller behind, the walls matching the back beams. Upstairs there were likewise four bedrooms. One has been turned into a bath and permanent closets have been added. The two on the north side were made into one by the second owner, and the present closets replace makeshift closets and storage added at that time. The house was originally heated by stoves, and the chimneys must have been placed differently.
The stem, which was destroyed as a result of the Columbus Day storm, consisted of a dining room matching the bridge and stairs; a porch which had been converted by the second owner into a bath, matched by the new bathroom; and a kitchen with pantries which extended sixteen feet into the area, now the pavillion. It was as wide as the dining room and side porch. The basement under the step was reached through a trap door in the kitchen floor, and lead to storage and a furnace room. The house had outside shutters, for which the fittings are still intact. The house backed up on the Willamette River, and its new site above a slough, a former channel of the river, is similar in outlook and orientation.
Relocation:
Relocation resulted from the Columbus Day storm of October 12, 1962, when a great tree demolished the kitchen of the original house and made it uninhabitable. Shortly thereafter, the property was sold in estate settlement and the present owner had but 24 hours in which to find a site or suffer demolition of the building. The move required that the porch be removed temporarily, and the stem was left behind as unsalvageable.
To pass under bridges, lights and wires, the roof was taken off, stored, and the ends lowered to the level of the front and back eaves. Interior walls, doors and the end chimney were likewise removed and stored. The second floor, roof and chimney were re-erected within six months. The new site, 2.5 miles distant, is reminiscent of the original site, looking out at the back over water and farm lands.
Statement of Significance
Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.
The David McCully House is a significant example of a class of housing associated with a particular segment of Oregon's pioneer community, the early entrepreneur. These individuals were attracted by and capitalized upon the abundant business opportunities existing in Oregon's early years. While some businessmen were in evidence among the earliest settlers, commerce did not truly burgeon until a firm agricultural base had been created in the Willamette Valley.
Finding well-established communities present upon their arrival in Oregon, individuals like David McCully brought with them enough capital to avail themselves of the materials and labor offered by these communities; the homes they built reflect this.
Consequently, the McCully House is significant not only because its similarity to Andrew Jackson Downing Gothic cottages reflects the evolution in early Oregon architecture from log cabin to Classical Revival to Gothic, but because the very choice of its design is eloquent of the presence in Oregon at the time of skilled labor and availability of intricate mill work as well as conversance with the mainstream of architectural design in the contemporaneous Eastern establishment.
McCully House's value as a document reflective of Oregon's industrial, commercial and social statuses c. 1865 is augmented by its association with two individuals prominent in Oregon history: David McCully, the original owner, farmer, banker and entrepreneur; and Leonard H. McMahan, legislator, jurist and legal reformer.
Indeed, the house continues its association with the famous--the third and current owner is the grandson of Abigail Scott Duniway, regionally famous and nationally significant feminist who was active in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries.
Agriculture:
Both the first and second owners engaged in agriculture on a grand scale. David McCully, in 1872, with his brother Asa, invested the profits from the sale of the People's Transportation Company in 14,000 acres in the vicinity of Cove, Oregon, to which they brought Texas cattle. Leonard H. McMahan held 1,000 acres of rich land in the Mission Bottom area, ten miles north of Salem, dealing primarily in hops.
Architecture:
Built in 1865, the house not only is similar to the design and plans of Andrew Jackson Downing's Gothic cottages, but is one of two lone buildings of this once-popular style that have been rescued from the wreckers in the face of the industrial expansion of North Front Street in Salem. This particular house is noteworthy for the Gothic window above the double door to the second floor, the porch design, and the central hall. Its carpenter aspect is illustrated by the fitted sections of the frames for the Gothic and semi-elliptical arched openings.
The 1963 addition, inspired by the fact that Japanese architecture conforms to the 24-foot module, is not only utilitarian and beautifully designed by Charles Hawkes, AIA, but is complementary in its proportions to the older house. The rear addition is not visible from the street.
Commerce:
David McCully, builder of the 1865 cottage, was a pioneer merchant, who brought his family and stock over the Oregon Trail in 1852. He had been to the California Gold Rush in 1849, from which he had returned with $5,000 in capital. David laid out and was proprietor of the townsite of Harrisburg, Linn County, Oregon, where he had the first store and post office. He moved to Salem in 1858, where he had three stores.
The first, with J.L. Starkey as his partner, was a general merchandise store on the site of the present Ladd § Bush Bank. The second he built in 1859 of brick on the site of the present Pioneer Trust Company. The third was built in 1865, and in 1878 he opened a grocery, the Centennial Store, which he operated in partnership with his brother Asa, and later with his son-in-law A.N. Gilbert. He sold out in 1884. Other business interests were in the field of transportation and agriculture. In 1886 he founded the First Bank of Joseph, Wallowa County, which his sons managed. The latter bank has been nominated to the National Register.
Exploration/Settlement:
The house is representative of the second phase of settlement in Oregon, when the pioneer merchant could first afford a home of style for his large family. It was the first structure on its original site, near what was then the edge of the city, at 791 N. Front, on the north half of Lot 3, Cooke's Addition to Salem. David McCully's first home he built in 1858 at Front and Center nearer to his store. The site for this second home was more closely associated with his interest in river transportation. Leonard H. McMahan, second owner, a native son of Oregon and the grandson of Tabitha Brown, pioneer educator, was a rough product of the intellectual vigor of pioneer settlement.
Law and Politics/Government:
Leonard H. McMahan, second owner of the house, from 1907 to 1957, was associated with the great legal and reform movement to establish the Oregon System. This house is a unique monument to the adoption of the initiative and referendum and the direct election of US Senators. McMahan had been Secretary of the Populist Party in Oregon, obtained legal education at Willamette University, and spent a year traveling in Europe studying the application in Scandinavia and Switzerland of the concepts which were to give birth to the present system. He was US Senator Jonathan Bourne's paid agent in the fight against US Senator John Mitchell, and in the exposure of the land frauds with which the latter was associated. Later a legislator himself, in 1923, and Circuit Judge from 1924-1943, McMahan was the center of various judicial and legal reforms.
Transportation:
David McCully, the first owner, by the time of the construction of the house had become involved in transportation on the Willamette River. He acquired an initial interest in the James Clinton in 1855; in 1862 he joined E.N. Cooke, Thomas McFadden Patton, Stephen Church and others in the incorporation of the People's Transportation Company, of which he became first president. The next year, the company found itself in competition on the Columbia River with the Oregon Steamship and Navigation Company, and an agreement was reached by which the People's Transportation Company withdrew from the Columbia and obtained a monopoly on the Willamette. This business was sold in 1871 to Ben Holladay, who had acquired the Oregon and California Railroad.
Journalism:
Leonard H. McMahan, the second owner, had been initially a newspaper editor. He founded the Woodburn Independent in 1888, selling it in 1892, and McMahan's Wasp in Salem, a Populist newspaper. Both were important in support of his liberal political ideals.
