Gresham Home Listed in National Register of Historic Places

The house sitting on the corner of SE Lusted Road and SE 282nd Avenue has been looking over the intersection for almost 130 years.

The two-story home is filled with features that stand-out, make it different than others in the neighborhood, the least of which are the ten-foot high ceilings.

If the house comes across as kind of special - it is and now that is something that has some official recognition to go with it.

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The home has been listed in The National Register of Historic Places.

Known as the Hamlin-Johnson House after tw early owners, the Oregon Parks and Recreation and Department says it "represents an increasingly rare, residential property from this era of development in Gresham."

It is the ninth Gresham property to be listed in the register, which is maintained by the National Park Service.

The home was built just about four years after the area, which had been known as Powell's Valley, was renamed Gresham after U.S. Postmaster General Walter Gresham, a Civil War Hero.

The home is named for two families: Charles Hamlin, who built the home with his wife, Olive, and Reverend Jonas Johnson, and his wife Selma.

Hamlin had spent much of his life working for the railroad. He gained fame in 1873 when he was the engineer on the first steamboat to go above Willamette Falls, creating the first shipping route to Portland for goods from the Willamette Valley.

He bought the house where he built the property after retiring from the railroad in his 50s and starting life as a farmer.

At one point he owned 80 acres.

The second family - the Johnsons - were part of a Swedish wave of immigration that arrived in the area in the 1870s.

Johnson arrived to become the second minister of the Powell Valley Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, also known as Powell Valley Church.

He lived in the home until 1930 when he died from a heart attack. His widow lived in the house another 34 years.