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Wednesday June 19th
Oregon City Planning Department
The Planning Division is responsible for all long range and current planning as well as the implementation of the Oregon City Comprehensive Plan and associated Municipal Ordinances.
915 Madison Street - Joseph Cook House

This house is a unique 1-1/2 story bungalow. Notable landscape features include a substantial brick retaining wall which maintains the even grade of the lot as the street drops off below it in the front of the building, and a large monkey puzzle tree in the front yard. A large hip roof with multiple hip roof dormers has wide overhanging eaves. The dormers all are detailed with exposed rafter tails. Round edge drop siding covers the building which also exhibits 9/1 wood double-hung windows which appear to be original. The most unique feature is the front entry porch on the southeast corner of the building. While this appears to be original, its cross gambrel roof form is very unique. The porch sits two steps up and is made of poured and painted concrete. An associated compatible garage lies to the southwest of the building.

Statement of Significance: In 1910, this property was purchased by Joseph C. Cook, who owned and operated the Oregon City Screen Plate Works. It was the only business of its kind on the Pacific Coast in the early teens. He repaired and re-cut the bronze screens used in paper mills, which were used to cut wood pulp into thicknesses of less than one-thousandth of an inch. Cook's shop did almost all this work for paper mills on the Pacific Coast. He was also active in civic affairs and was manager of the local YMCA. Cook and his wife Lillian sold the property to relatives, Thomas and Ida Cook, in 1918. The property stayed in the Cook family until 1940, when it was sold to J. S. and Lillian Anderson. In 1949, Mrs. Anderson sold the property to Mabel and Richard Kinley Jr. Richard was a manager at Pabco Point Co and Mabel worked as a clerk there. His sister, Constance, lived with them and was a student at OSC. They had two children, Constance and Richard Jr. Deed records show that Kinley sold the property to Connie Niloud (probably his sister) in 1968. However, city directories indicate that Mabel continued to live there throughout the 1960s when she became a widow.