Preservation group wants to return structure to Fort Hoskins

By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter

PEDEE — When Oregon State University archaeologist David Brauner stands in the living room of Chris Vandenberg's Pedee home, he doesn't see the Disney character picture frames or the nutcracker collection lining the crimson mantelpiece. In his mind, he travels back 150 years to when the house served as officers' quarters at Fort Hoskins.

Fort Hoskins was built in the mid-19th century to house soldiers who kept an eye on the American Indian population in Benton County. For a time, it was under the leadership of Lt. Phil Sheridan, who would go on to make history as a general during the Civil War.

The Sheridan House, as it is now known, was one of three officers' homes built in 1856 at the fort. Originally it housed either bachelor officers or the officer, his wife and family, during the nine years that the fort functioned. How long it stood after the fort was abandoned is unknown, but likely not more than a couple of years.

How and when it moved is still a mystery, but local lore has firmly attested that the house was placed miles away near Pedee Creek.

"Neighbors call it the Sheridan House," said current owner Chris Vandenberg, who bought the property in 1997. "In local lore, it was moved here in the 1890s."

Vandenberg loves the house, but although it's had some modern updates since its Civil War origins, he's been planning on building another more modern house in its place. But he and his wife, Jennifer, also recognize that tearing down the house would be a shame.

"We thought we'd get a good use out of it," Vandenberg said, when they decided the best course of action was to donate the house to Benton County and have it returned to Fort Hoskins.

Now, the Fort Hoskins Advisory Board is looking at ways to raise money to move the house, build a foundation at the fort in its original location, and bring the Sheridan House back home. Organizers estimate they'll have to raise around $100,000.

Brauner said there's no doubt that the house in Pedee is the Sheridan House.

"I've known about it for years," he said. He participated in an archaeological dig at Fort Hoskins in the mid-1970s, when it was still privately owned, and heard rumors about the Pedee house at that time. He dreamed of bringing the house back to the fort, but he had no thought of it becoming a reality.

Then in the early 1990s, the advisory board was able to purchase the site and turn it into a park. That's when hope sprung up, but Brauner still wasn't sure about the project.

"As we were developing the park, we heard the Sheridan House had been pretty badly remodeled and wasn't anything like its original self," he said. "I was reluctant to go up and see it again."

Luckily, that rumor was wrong. A historical architect Brauner had worked with on a Fort Yamhill excavation came down to see the Pedee house, and reported it was in remarkably good condition, and not altered irrevocably. Its floorplan matches that of an inspection map drawn up during the Civil War, and it also exactly matches the only other such building existing in the Northwest, a house at Fort Yamhill.

As Brauner walked around the house, he pointed out original doorways and windows, square nails and broad plank siding. He hopes when they begin pulling off plaster and taking up carpets, they'll be able to see even better the house's original fabric.

Because there are about 70 power lines over the road between the house's current location and Fort Hoskins, it could be quite an ordeal to move. The second story may have to be removed and reconstructed on site, and the newer kitchen, built on one side of the house, will be removed permanently. All the work, which may be done by a mostly volunteer crew, will be worth it, if the house can be restored to its home.

"This is incredible. I've worked with Fort Hoskins so long as an archaeological site," Brauner said, that he knows exactly what was where. "We've got a lot of material culture (that) soldiers left behind, but to have an intact structure is almost unheard of."

Joe Sullivan, a member of the Fort Hoskins Advisory Board, is helping with the fund-raising efforts and the plan for moving the structure. Sullivan represents a local group that sometimes uses Fort Hoskins for Civil War re-enactments. The group recreates life for the 116th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, as well as the Fourth California Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company D, a unit that was actually garrisoned at Fort Hoskins, from 1861 to 1866.

"It's in pretty darn good shape," he said of the Sheridan House, and his fellow re-enacters are keenly interested in helping bring the house back to the fort.

Sullivan and Brauner are looking at a tentative two-year time frame to get the house out of Pedee and back to Fort Hoskins. That depends a lot on fund-raising and grants, but Brauner said he's grateful that homeowner Vandenberg is being so patient.

"So often when you get into a situation like this, the house is yours if you can get it out of here within six months," Brauner said. "This one, with Chris giving us the kind of offer he has, allows us the time to put a package together."

Gazette-Times reporter Theresa Hogue can be reached at 758-9526 or theresa.hogue@lee.net.