WILLIAM HOLMES HOUSE AKA "ROSE FARM" c.1848 -- Statement of Significance: The Rose Farm is one of the oldest extant structures in Oregon and was the site for the inaugural ceremonies for the first Oregon Territory governor, General Joseph Lane. William Livingston Holmes, a native of Tennessee and his South Carolina-born wife, Mary, arrived in Oregon in 1843. They settled on the Donation Land Claim of 640 acres and built a log cabin in 1844.
The current structure is said to have been patterned on Holmes' house in Tennessee and became known to locals as "Rose Farm" because of the roses planted around it. Holmes was sheriff of Clackamas County under the Oregon provisional government and was Doorkeeper of the first Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1849. The house apparently was the center of many social events in early Oregon history; it remained in the Holmes family until 1919. The structure is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the state and is significant for its and age its association with the first territorial government, as well as for its place in the local social history of Oregon City.
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