Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet: I

Ida H. and Frank L. Chambers House (my photo)

This is the next in my Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet series of blog posts, the focus of each being a landmark building here in Eugene. Many of these will be familiar to most who live here but there are likely to be a few buildings that are less so. My selection criteria for each will be threefold: 

1. The building must be of architectural interest, local importance, or historically significant.
2. The building must be extant so you or I can visit it in person.
3. Each building’s name will begin with a particular letter of the alphabet, and I must select one (and only one) for each of the twenty-six letters. This is easier said than done for some letters, whereas for other characters there is a surfeit of worthy candidates (so I’ll be discriminating and explain my choice in those instances).

This selection is supposed to begin with the letter “I;” however, given a dearth of appropriately named properties, I must resort to an admittedly liberal interpretation of my criteria. So, this entry’s guileful choice is the Ida H. (and Frank L.) Chambers House, AKA the Frank L. and Ida H. Chambers House.(1)

Presently located at the southwest corner of the intersection of West 10^th Avenue and Taylor Street, the Ida Chambers House is a rare and remarkably intact local example of the Eastlake movement(2) within the broader Queen Anne style of architecture, most popular in the United States during the period spanning roughly 1880 to 1910. The house features many of the hallmarks of the style, including lathe-shaped and jigsaw-cut wooden forms, steeply pitched hip roofs intersected with cross gables and a turret, roof cresting, pendants, finials, spindles along the porch frieze, scroll brackets, and wall surface decoration. The spindlework is particularly noteworthy, being locally produced by the Midgley Planing Mill, as opposed to being ordered from a catalog, which was a widespread practice at the time.

Ida Hendricks married Frank Chambers on July 29, 1891. They moved into their new home that same day. The house was originally sited at the northwest corner of the intersection of 9th Avenue and Lincoln Street, the lot a wedding gift from Ida’s father. Reportedly, the builder was William Alexander, who constructed the house for $2,300; Alexander later became the City of Eugene Building Inspector. At the time of its building, the house was situated at the western edge of the city.

The original exterior paint colors were an off-white for the body of the house and dark green for the trim. Today, the colors are light gray for the siding, with darker grays and blue for most of the trim, and flourishes of taupe. The current color scheme, in concert with the building’s elaborate roof profile, reads well against Eugene’s often dreary sky. Additionally, the rich detailing and textures are visually inviting, rewarding one’s eyes as they scan the well-proportioned, asymmetrically composed assemblage.

Inside, the house initially had six rooms, full bath facilities, electric lights, and the first telephone in Eugene (it had a private connection with the Chambers Hardware store). The second floor remained an unfinished attic during the time the Chambers lived in the house.

Ida developed tuberculosis and passed away on April 9, 1901, at only 31 years of age. Frank Chambers subsequently sold their home in 1903 for $5,000 to Dr. O.E. Smith. It was Smith who in 1921 moved the house to its present location at 1006 Taylor Street, converting it to use as a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis, liver, kidney, and bladder troubles in partnership with Dr. V.L. Ruiter. According to Neal A. Vogel—who in 1987 successfully nominated the Chambers House for the National Register of Historic Places and to whom I must give credit for much of the information in this post—several theories exist as to why Dr. Smith relocated the house. One researcher surmises he did this to place it in a “healthier” setting, away from the rapidly encroaching downtown. Importantly, the house’s orientation is the same as it was on its original site, and consequently the manipulation of light—so important to the Victorians—is essentially the same.

Today, the listed owner of the property is the Barbara H. Beck Living Trust. Outwardly, the current caretakers have fully restored the house and maintained it in excellent condition. The property’s landscaping is likewise outstanding (see my photo above).

Interestingly, many of the Eastlake style’s best examples are in California and Oregon. I suspect this in part attributable to the ready availability of wood and skilled woodworkers in the region at the time of their construction. Moreover, improved transportation and mass production of decorative elements contributed to the style’s proliferation during the late 19th century. Its proponents considered wood a truly suitable building medium as opposed to being a poor substitute for stone or brick.

The extensive ornamentation and picturesque profiles of the Eastlake style eventually fell out of fashion, making way for newer styles reflecting evolving patterns of living and taste, and regionally responsive forms (such as the California bungalow), but also a revival of a variety of historicizing period styles (i.e., Colonial, English Cottage, and Georgian). Nevertheless, thanks to designs eminently suited to local conditions and tastes at the time of their construction, Queen Anne/Eastlake style homes like the Ida H. and Frank L. Chambers House remain appealing today, more than a century after their heyday.

(1)    As I state about my third selection criterion, selecting a noteworthy building in Eugene to represent each letter of the alphabet will not always be easy. Such was the case for the letter “I.” I expect other letters (I’m looking at you “X”) to likewise be challenging.

(2)  According to Wikipedia, the style is named after British architect and furniture designer Charles Locke Eastlake, who was a principal exponent of the revived Early English or Modern Gothic style during the 19^th century. His book Hintson Household Taste was a best seller on this side of the pond, greatly influencing American taste. Ironically, he did not find the “Eastlake” style homes in the U.S. to be consistent with his message, instead regretting the association of his name with architecture he regarded as “extravagant and bizarre.”