Miller-Brewer House

About this property

The Miller–Brewer House was a historic Greek Revival-style home located near Rochester, Washington, United States. It was built in 1860 and prior to 2017, was one of Washington state's few surviving box frame style houses from the territorial era. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It was destroyed by fire on Aug. 22, 2017. The Miller–Brewer House, on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in or around 1860 in the area of Rochester, Washington State. The house was historically significant for its box frame (vertical plank) construction, a construction method in use only during the very early settlement period, from 1855 to about 1875. It was one of Washington's very few remaining examples of this construction method, and one of the most intact and best-constructed examples up until its destruction. It was also noteworthy for still being on its original site. Many similarly historic houses have been relocated from their original sites. The house was a combination of local Indian and Anglo-American construction techniques. Construction elements discussed are all of primary historical significance. Split cedar (Thuja plicata, Western red-cedar) logs on fieldstone and undressed Tenino quarry stone supported hewn-log cedar girders and split-log cedar floor joists. The girders were 11"x11" hand-hewn, with adze marks on all sides. The tops were notched for the floor joists. The floor joist logs were charred prior to splitting, a local Indian wood-preserving construction technique. Second-story floor joists were rough-sawn 2"x8" cedar. The frame was made from milled cedar lumber using square nails. The walls were formed from vertical rough-sawn 1"x12" cedar planks planed smooth on the edges to allow a tight seam. Two layers allowed the seams between planks in one layer to be covered by the planks in the other layer. Two-ply walls also allowed sufficient structural strength for two stories and gave much better weather insulation than one-ply box frame construction. Upper and lower girders held the vertical planks in position. Exterior siding was high quality, quarter-sawn, 1/2"x6" horizontal cedar lap siding with tight-edge grain and a 5 3/4" exposure attached with square iron nails. Rough-sawn corner boards were used on all building corners. Windows were all of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Larger windows were double-pane, but the box frame construction did not allow for wall pockets for sash weights. Windows had to be propped open with a stick. Upper story windows were fixed sash. Interior and exterior window surrounds were all rough-sawn cedar. Window sills were cedar. Attic rafters were rough-sawn 2"x6" cedar. Roof shakes were 3 ft-long straight-split cedar. Remnant shakes remained in the attic space, but the roof was replaced with metal in 1993 by Stan Craig Enterprises. Interior and exterior door surrounds were all 1"x5" rough-sawn cedar. Hinges and most interior locksets were original.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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