620 11th Street

ORANGE W. EASTHAM HOUSE -- Statement of Significance: Orange W. Eastham, born in Oregon in 1875, was the son of pioneer William F. Eastham who settled his donation land claim in 1849 near Oregon City. His brother was Clackamas County lawyer and politician E.L. Eastham. Orange Eastham attended the University of California and passed the California Bar, and later the Oregon Bar, and then went into partnership with G.B. Dimick, a somewhat notorious Oregon City politician and lawyer. Around the time this house was built, Eastham had established, in addition to his law practice, the O.W. Eastham and Company, a real estate firm, with W.M. Smith and R.E. Woodward. He was considered a "large property owner". His wife Daisy was born in Oregon in 1876. They had two daughters: Kathryn, born in 1901 and Miriam, born in 1905. The Easthams lived in the house until the late 1910s, when the ownership of the property is unclear. By 1934, Arthur S. and Jeanette MacDonald owned the house. MacDonald was a dentist with a practice in the Masonic Building in Oregon City and lived in the house through the remainder of the historic period. The house stayed in the MacDonald family until 1979.

This two-story house sits above a high retaining wall that runs along 11th Street. It is an American Foursquare house, sitting under a hip roof with a hipped dormer on the north façade. A full width porch runs across this side as well, with a hip roof supported by three turned columns. A simple balustrade runs between the wood piers that support the columns on the north side of the porch. Above the porch columns, a frieze with a sawtooth pattern is present. The house has been clad with asbestos shingles but retains its enclosed eaves above a blank frieze board. The windows are predominantly 1/1 double-hung wood sash with decorative trim moldings, but a fixed sash is present just west of the main entry and in the hip dormer. A shallow octagonal bay exists to the east of the main entry to the house, with three double-hung windows filling the bay. The center window of the three features a high upper sash, and all three have seen the addition of aluminum storm windows. A garage has been cut into the bluff below the house, with two five-pane-over-two-panel overhead doors. The garage features a flat parapet that rises above the surrounding retaining wall and is constructed of parged concrete.

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