819 6thStreet

FRED AND ANNA STURGES HOUSE -- Statement of Significance: E. H. Barker purchased the lot on the southeast corner of 6th St. and Madison from Daniel and Rhoda Williams in 1890. The house was built around 1914 and later sold by Hester A. Barker (widowed) to Anna H. Sturges. The Sturges family lived in the house for over 50 years. Fred B. Sturges was a weaver in the Oregon City Manufacturing Company. He and his wife, Anna H., and their son Mark - a clerk in the Jones Drug Store on Main Street - lived together in this house in the teens. Prior to his work in the woolen mills, Fred, who was born in Oregon in 1867, worked as a retail salesman in an Oregon City hardware store. He and Anna had, in addition to Mark, two other sons, Paul and John. Vera Klev purchased the house in 1964 and owned it until 1977.

This large 2-1/2 story house sits under a hip roof with hipped dormers on all four sides. A recessed porch runs the full width of the south façade, where the upper floor is supported by a series of tapered concrete piers with a concrete baluster running between them. The entry, centered in the porch, is flanked by 8/1 fixed sashes. The house also features paired four-over-one and 1/1 double-hung wood sashes, and a sleeping porch on the north side of the house is enclosed with wood sash casement windows. The windows typically feature plain board trim with narrow sills and apron moldings at the first floor level. The first floor is clad with clapboards, and is separated from the second floor by a slightly projecting belt course. The second floor and dormers are clad with wood shingles that are slightly battered above this belt course. Other decorative features include open eaves and a tapered brick chimney on the west side with a corbelled cap. On the north side of the house the chimney has been cut off at the roof line.

This property is a locally designated historic site located within the McLoughlin Conservation District. Contact ocplanning@orcity.org for more information.