Hillsboro Historic Home Moved In 2000 Brings Memories Back

Very few people know the history of the Stream Farm, which was a grand place at the corner of Evergreen and Shute Roads.  The Constable Family first settled it as their Donation Land Claim in the pioneer era. Over time the Constables, whose daughter “Lizzie” married John Shute (famous banker and land broker), broke their 640 Acres up.  Out of that parcel, about 130 acres were bought by the Stream family of Iowa.

From Find-A-Grave: Perry C. Stream Jr. was born in 1878 in Greene County, Iowa.  His death was on 16 Feb 1958.  He was the son of Perry C Stream and Angenora G Langdon. He married Domima (Mima) Sinclair on 12 May 1908 in Hillsboro OR. The had by our records the following children: Clara Mae Stream, Helen Irene Stream and Hazel Ilene Stream; the last two were twins

A few people around Hillsboro still remember the grand farmhouse which sat on the NE corner of Shute Road and Evergreen Road.  And today, although it no longer graces the former edge of our town, it lives on.  In 2000 the home was moved to a new lot off of NW Connell Road.  Through our discussions at the group, We Remember Hillsboro on Facebook, the history of the home and the people who gave it life have come back into the collective consciousness of some of our long-time residents.

After quizzing the group with this photo of this home that sits on Connell Road today, and with the question as to who owned it and where it came from, the answers began to come in.

Several people knew immediately that this was the same house that used to sit on the NE corner of NW Shute Road and NW Evergreen.  That was a consensus choice.  But who lived in it before it was moved?  The answer came fast and with great accuracy.

Sandra Moore Graterri knows the home best.  It was the home of her Grandparents.

“This house was my grandparents Perry and Domima Sinclair Stream. They purchased it sometime in the 1920s and I believe my mother Hazel and her twin Helen were born while living there. Mom will be 99 Saturday, so I would guess early 20s. My brother Kris thougt it was purchased from a judge, not sure of that.  Shute Road was the address.  It was moved in the early to its present location. Yes, it was free, with a young couple paying for moving costs. My cousins and I had grew up around that house, especially my Sister and I who resided in a 10×30 foot “shack” with no running water for 7 years on the property while Mom and Dad were getting their feet on the ground. As one can imagine,  Grandmas house was a mansion, with many rooms to play and hide in. Wood stove for heating, and one for cooking in in the kitchen, and man, could Grandma cook on that thing. Best of times growing up!” said Graterri.

Kris Moore remembers the home and his Grandparents as follows:

My grandfather Perry C Stream Jr came to Oregon from Iowa in about 1900 and bought 106 acres for $100 per acre to farm. This included a four-square farmhouse near an oak tree on the Constable Land Claim, just south of Waible Creek, between Shute Road and Meierjurgen Road. He married my grandmother Domima Sinclair in 1908 and they soon purchased the house from Judge Hare. It was built by Tom Goodin, who lived just to the east on Evergreen Road.  My sister Sandra Moore Gratteri knew the place in question. My grandparents lived there, along with my aunt Clara (teacher at Shute School, late in various Beaverton schools), and my mom and her twin. My mother’s elementary school teachers were Laura Harader, neighbor to the South, for grades 1-4, then her older sister Clara for grades 5-8. My mom did well academically but may have had some attitude. She would get reprimanded at school by her sister, the teacher, and then at home when her sister would tell their parents what she had done.

Perry Stream farmed, and soon after he died in 1958 my grandmother set up sharecropping arrangements with their neighbors to the north, Ken and Ruth Berger. My grandmother sold the house, and when the charity shop came to pick up the contents, they also took her many oil paintings. Gran moved into Hillsboro with Clara into a house near Shute Park.

My grandparents offered land to their daughters to build houses. My aunt Helen built a house directly west of their house, and my parents built a brick house farther north. It burned to the ground early in 1963, and my parents rebuilt on the same site, this time a stone house because “stone doesn’t burn.”

Here is the 1909 Map of Hillsboro which shows the Stream Farm.  We have marked current landmarks to help you fully understand the location.

Here is a picture of the land the home sat on back in the 1990s before it was moved.

Lanie Moore Braukman is a Sister to Sandy and to Kris Moore, and sent us photos of the move and of the old story in the Hillsboro Argus, which ran in 2000.  The other images her family shot as the home was lifted off of the foundation, loaded up and moved down Evergreen Road, West to NW Connell, where it sits today.

Here are some other memories of the Stream-Moore House from the Facebook group.

 

A memory of Thomas Tee Dee

“That is the house that I grew up in from 1964 to about 1971. My folks moved us out to Hillsboro and bought the house on 9/10 of an acre for $11,000. I have our Family Photo Archive and I will try to find a picture of it from 1964-65. We went to Mooberry, then East Jr High (now Raymond Brown Jr High), then the Mid-High onto the Hillsboro Senior High. I graduated in 1975. Ronler Acres was all fields and trees that lined the creek. Our neighbors were the Sweet Family. The the Haraders, west of us, the Moores were South and The Goodins were east of us on Evergreen. The Bergers farmed most of the surrounding land.”

Another memory was shared with the Group by Cindy Straughn-

It would have been Shute Rd and Evergreen Rd. I lived on Meek and Shute Rd. The Moore’s lived on Shute Rd, and this house was on the corner of Shute and Evergreen. Shute Rd became Brookwood when all the urban sprawl started… I spent a lot of time roaming around that area on my horse, and it was mostly farmland, a lot of it owned by the Bergers… My house and barn and horse pastures were where the Kingdom Hall is now… Shute Road ran into Cornell, I can’t remember if it went as far as Baseline. We stayed in the confines of all of that farmland. This time of year, when the fields had been cut, we could ride North,into Hillsboro, as far East as 185th; one time we rode our horses up to the new Sommerset West on our horses and toured the model homes. We could ride as far NE to West Union and Bethany, and North to Helvetia, and Logie Trail, and then as far West as North Plains. We had a huge area to range around in. Jeannie Cattron, Judy Brown, Carrie Fredricks and I were all over the place… It was an amazing childhood, and we had landmarks everywhere, that are almost all gone now. Five Oaks is a sad replication of the original, for instance…

Not much is written about the Stream family, who are also a part of the well-known Sinclair family.  Members of the Waibel family shared this black and white photo of Perry, Domima, and Mattie Stream, seen here with Bill Waibel in the early 1900s. We will share more about them as we learn.

Today the House sits all the way at the west end of NW Connell Road in a nice parcel of land; the house and garage are nicely remodeled and presented on the property.  It recently sold for close to $800,000 and proudly lives on. So do members of the Moore Family.   Many remember the big one level stone-faced Moore house and land that sat directly across from Top Golf.  The Stream-Moore family would be wealthy beyond measure had they held on until the last decade.  Now their land holdings include Tosoh Quartz, Genentech, Amazon, QTS Data Centers, and more.

Today the lot where the home sat is owned by the City of Hillsboro and, at one time, was slated to be a park.  That has not happened.  The view of these maps and the comments above starkly contrasts the verdant fields of the East Tualatin Plains and the present-day Industrial parks with cement walls, soaring chemical pipes, and roasting parking lots.

Thanks to all who commented and remembered this home, and the people that lived there.  It is stories like these that keep us tied to our very much agricultural and pioneer past.  Even though that past is disappearing at a rapid rate, it is to be remembered and honored with stories like these.