Booking classes for 2024!
We'd like to think so! Mertie may never have experienced the year 2023, the iPhone, or the internet, but she did spend six decades in her family home. Her tenure spanned from the first flying machines and lollipops (1908) to just shy of the moon landing (1968)! Although restored back to Progressive Era furnishings, the Stevens house tells the story of 60 years of technological advancement--from the gasoliers and radiators to the intercom system and electrical outlets.
Harley emigrated along the Oregon Trail at the tender age of 15, escaping a rough home life with his mother for a fresh start.
Married and with a family of his own by the time his parents moved to the house, Harley Jr. led a colorful life.
Never married and with no children, Mertie was an accomplished artist who donated her home to CCHS.
A wealthy landowner in her own right, Mary Elizabeth bought the home and was instrumental in its design.
A descendant of Medorem Crawford (a founding father of the Oregon Territory, who escorted wagon trains across the Oregon Trail at the behest of Abraham Lincoln), Mary Elizabeth Crawford Stevens bought and built her family home on 6th Street in 1908. Her husband and son installed the electrical outlets themselves, wiring the home with the latest technological advancements that would take decades to reach other areas of the country.