Despite preservationists’ efforts, the 1870s Wilkes House, which was one of Washington County’s rare surviving Oregon Trail homes, was torn down Friday to make way for the city of Banks’ water treatment plant to serve the proposed 30-acre Sunset View at West Banks residential and commercial development.
“It’s heartbreaking how quickly 150 years of Oregon trail pioneer heritage can be torn down for no immediate need,” said Jennifer Allen Newton, a volunteer with the Banks Historical Society. She and other people who hoped to save the one-acre homestead watched as an excavator operator razed the two-story structure at 42580 N.W. Cedar Canyon Road.
Property owners Lone Oak Land and Investment Company and Wolverine Financial had offered to give the farmhouse to the Banks Historical Society to relocate it. The historical society and the Friends of the Wilkes House asked that the water treatment plant be constructed on another site to preserve the historic house and its heritage trees.
The preservation group is not opposed to the city’s westside development project, other than changes to the Wilkes House property, Newton told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Last year, the Banks Historical Society paid $900 for an inspection to ensure the Wilkes House was structurally sound. In June, the grassroots Friends of the Wilkes House announced the Save the Wilkes House campaign on GoFundMe, hoping to raise money to preserve the historic site as a city park, cultural community center and museum.
Property owners have contracted to sell land to residential developer David Weekley Homes for the Sunset View at West Banks development and deed the Wilkes House property to the city. Representatives of the property owners did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
On Tuesday, July 9, the Banks City Council was expected to discuss the privately owned Wilkes House during a work session, city manager Jolynn Becker told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday.
“The city does not own the property or the Wilkes House and will not own the property until the westside developer satisfies certain conditions in its Development Agreement and conveys the property to the city,” Mayor Stephanie Jones said in a statement issued Wednesday. “As we understand it, the property owner offered to give the structure to the local historical society for free so long as they move the building to another location. To our knowledge that has not happened.”
Newton and other volunteers with the Banks Historical Society are also concerned about the Wilkes House property’s importance as an archeological site. Portland-based Lower Columbia Research & Archeology services has identified a prehistoric archeological site and artifacts in the area.
Time is needed to investigate the archeological importance of the land along Dairy Creek that was used by the Atfalati band of the Kalapuya people as their summer encampment, said Newton. The Atfalati, or Tualatin, were forced onto the Grand Ronde Reservation near McMinnville in 1856.
In 1845, the Wilkes family walked west on the Oregon Trail. Peyton and Anna Wilkes are considered the first permanent European American settlers in the Banks area, according to Newton, who wrote the history book, “Banks: A Town on the Move.”
“The Wilkes family lived harmoniously alongside the Atfalati people,” said Newton, based on oral histories and Native American objects found in the archeological survey.
Jabez Wilkes, the son of Peyton and Anna, lived in the family’s log cabin until in the early 1870s, he built his house with a gabled roof.
Nicole Possert, executive director of Restore Oregon, a statewide preservation organization, said Friday, “What a tragic day of loss for all of Oregon and our collective heritage.
“This property represents so many layers of history and heritage, from the Atfalati band of the Kalapuya people to the Pioneer-era settlers that founded the community of Banks. Demolition over the long (Fourth of July) holiday weekend was unnecessary when next Tuesday, the City Council had (planned) a work session to potentially work together on a long-term solution.”
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman