2+ acres of assorted gardens of roses, iris, rhododendrons, lilies, dahlias, ferns and evergreens with the small grove of black locus trees.
The House was built in 1851 on land that came as a wedding gift from his new father-in-law to Captain John Comminger Ainsworth on the occasion of his marriage to Jane Whyte, daughter of Oregon City's Judge Whyte. The house, in the Greek Revival style, originally came with 18 acres which it kept until 1990, when most of it was sold, and the remaining structure, now almost dilapidated, was threatened with demolition. A local family, at considerable personal expense, saved the House and restored it to it's present magnificence, building also a reception room (now called The Garden Room.) This was extended with the building of The Conservatory in 2005 by the present owners, followed by the Fireside Room in 2012. Also from that time (2005), having been unoccupied for over 2 years, the replanting and restoring of the gardens was begun, transforming them from the "vacant lot" look of brambles, English ivy 30' up some trees and 3 years of leaf drop to the beginnings of what you see today. Virtually all the plants and even many of the trees were not here when the property was last purchased in March 2005. The third property on the grounds is The Cottage, originally built in the 1870's and first located around the falls area of Oregon City, where it sat in a flood plain. It is understood to have been brought up to the estate (as it still was then,) by a Mrs. Powers in the 1960's to preserve it from further damage. It was then used as a caretakers cottage and is now an office. The Ainsworths only lived in the House for a few years, the Captain feeling the need to follow the growth of commerce as it moved up from Milwaukie to "Stumptown," which then became Portland. The House received it's name when it was placed on the National Historic register, celebrating the early Oregon beginnings of a man who went on to be a founding father of the