Ezra Meeker Mansion

The Ezra Meeker Mansion is a historic house in Puyallup, Washington, United States. It is the second of two homes in the city which were owned and resided in by Oregon Trail pioneer Ezra Meeker, the first one being a cabin on the homestead claim which Meeker purchased from Jerry Stilly. This was a one-room, 8 by 16 feet (2.4 by 4.9 m) square cabin to which Meeker added a second room, doubling its size. The Meeker family lived there from 1862 until 1886. After the move to the mansion, Meeker donated the cabin site to the city, which turned it into Pioneer Park. The wooden cabin disappeared over time.[2] Several steel and concrete pillars outline the dimensions of the original cabin. The ivy vine covering the pillars grew over the original cabin. A statue of Ezra Meeker was placed in the park and dedicated during his lifetime.[2]

Meeker, Ezra, Mansion
The Ezra Meeker Mansion in 2008
Location312 Spring St, Puyallup, Washington, U.S.
Coordinates47°11′29″N 122°17′23″W
Area1.3 acres (0.53 ha)
Built1887 (1887)
NRHP reference No.71000879[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 26, 1971

The Meeker's began construction on the house in 1887, contracting with Tacoma architects Farrell and Darmer. Construction of the Mansion was finished in December of 1890 and Ezra and Eliza Jane Meeker officially cook their first meal in the house on December 10th, 1890 (as reported in the Tacoma Daily Ledger). Though the plaster was still yet, Mr. and Mrs. Meeker did still use the front porch of the Mansion to celebrate the wedding of their youngest daughter Olive Grace Meeker to Roderick McDonald in October of 1890. Meeker become wealthy through the production of hops, and was known as the "Hop King of the World". During the years in which Meeker lived at the mansion, he worked to trace and mark the Oregon Trail,[2] also spending many hours writing on the subject as well as the history of Puget Sound (he would produce twelve books on these topics).

The mansion was the social and political center of the valley during Meeker's lifetime. Its grounds feature holly trees which he brought over from England, and also a ginkgo tree.[2] It is today home to the Puyallup Historical Society, which operates a museum there.

History

The Meeker mansion was originally constructed between 1887 and around 1890 by Tacoma architects Farrell and Darmer according to Mrs. Eliza Jane Meeker's specifications. Though the mansion was paid for and designed by Eliza Jane there are elements that, if not added by Ezra Meeker, were designed with him in mind. The Mansion was designed with hot and cold running water on all four floors, the first house in the Puyallup Valley to have a bathroom with running water on the second floor. The house was wired for electricity as well as gas before electricity was available in the Valley which resulted in gaslight fixtures that were convertible to electric. Due in part to the hop crisis and the panic of 1893, however, Ezra Meeker would have to put the property up for sale by 1903. It was around the time that Eliza Jane began to show early signs of dementia. Though cared for at the mansion by her companion Mrs. Graham while Ezra was in the Klondike Eliza Jane soon moved to Seattle to live her daughter Caroline (Caddy) Osborne. According to Ezra Meeker's letters during his 1906 journey back through the Oregon Trail, the house was rented out via Mrs. Graham to boarders.

During this time the title of the house becomes rather complicated. Originally it had been held by Eliza Jane, was a one point owned by the Meeker's second daughter and son-in-law Ella and William Templeton, the deed was at one point sold back to the Meeker's, then it was owned by Eben and Caroline Meeker Osborne, with various trades and exchanges of money that can often become confusing. It is known, that at the time of her death the Meeker Mansion was in Eliza Jane Meekers name.

Following the death of Meeker's wife in 1909, he left the mansion in possession of his daughter and son-in-law to “dispose” of. The building was leased in 1912 to serve as a hospital.[3] In 1915 the house was purchased for use as a home for widows and orphans by the Washington and Alaska Chapter of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization for civil war widows.[4] By 1920 the Ladies had outgrown the Mansion and added on annex building along the side of the Mansion which attached to the house through the dining room and library. Another significant overhaul took place in 1948, when the mansion was sold and converted into a critical care nursing home. Ceilings were painted over, dropped ceilings covered the old ones, exterior designs were removed and asbestos siding was installed.

In later years there were plans to use the land to construct a parking lot; however in 1970, following the establishment of the Puyallup Historical Society, the land was bought back. The organization began efforts to restore the property, removing exterior additions and dropped ceilings and also restoring the painted woodwork. Over time, original paintings from the mansion were discovered and copied as part of redecorations.[5] Restoration of the building continues to this day.[6]

Exterior

The house features white clapboard siding and ornate wooden trim around all the windows and below the eaves. There is a large front porch with a balcony on the second floor; a smaller balcony is located on the east side of the house on the second floor. A porte-cochere (carriage entrance) is found on the west side with wooden, circular stairs leading to the sun porch. Porches and balconies are decorated with wooden railings and pillars. The building's foundations are made of Wilkerson Sandstone, and a widow's walk tops the mansion itself.[2]

Shortly after the house was finished the Meeker's contracted again with Farrell and Darmer to build them a conservatory heated by the same boiler as the Mansion. There was also a stable and chicken coop once located on the property. The annex buildings once attached to the Mansion were burned down by an arsonist in the 1980's.

Interior

The mansion has 15 rooms, with ceilings up to 12 feet (3.7 m) high, and four floors. Six fireplaces have hand-carved wooden mantels, ornate tile work, and mirrors. Speaking tubes were installed to aid communication within the mansion; gaslights were also fitted throughout. Every room in the building featured gold-leaf molding, decorated metal doorknobs and hinges, built-in bolt locks on the doors, and inside shutters. The ceilings are decorated with frescos and frieze work created by the painter Frederick Nelson Atwood Jr. The house has interior plumbing with marble fixtures and tin bathtubs. Leaded, stained glass windows are framed with ash and walnut.[2]

The Basement has five rooms for fruit, dairy, washing, a boiler, and storage room.[2]According to letters sent by Ezra to his daughter Caroline Osborne his eldest son, Marion Jasper Meeker, and grandson, Ezra Blane Meeker, may have lived for a short while in one or more of the basement rooms.

The main floor consists of the drawing room, parlor, library, a bathroom, dining room, kitchen, pantry, hallway, and sun room. The drawing room is fitted with teakwood flooring. The parlor has cedar paneling, while the library has redwood. The main entrance to the building was in the hallway, consisting of double doors of walnut with panels of leaded, stained glass. The main stairway had a newel post of hand-carved cherry wood, and the railing and balustrades of the stairway were hand-turned cherry wood. A large stained glass window was on the west side of the hallway and also made up part of the sun room. Double sliding doors open off the hall into the parlor and the drawing room. A third set of double sliding doors connect the parlor and the library.[2]

The servants' stairway starts in the kitchen and ascends to the third floor and down into the basement. The second floor servants' quarters has two small rooms which were designed for servants but with no existing records of the Meeker's servants their use remains a mystery. The master bedroom includes a small adjacent dressing room which had a built-in wardrobe closet. The billiard room has a fireplace mantel, window casings, and baseboards of curly maple. A large bathroom, the Balcony Bedroom, and the Yellow room are on the second floor.[2]

The attic is located on the third floor and includes four rooms under the eaves to the west and south, which were designed for servants. There is no evidence that servants ever lived on this floor but based on stories of the Meeker Family and descents it is known that the Meeker grandchildren used to use this floor to play and would even hold small plays. The wire for the curtain still hangs across archives. In the 1903 listing of the Meeker Mansion the relators list the top floor of the Mansion as being a billiard room. The stairway to the widow's walk was on the third floor.[2]

Historical significance
The Mansion pictured around 1900

The Ezra Meeker Mansion was built in the Italianate Victorian style, of which it displays many elements including high-quality imported fireplaces; leaded stained glass windows, and unusual woods used throughout the interior.[2] The house is one of the markers of the Oregon Trail.[2]

Bibliography
  • McDonald, Lucille, Where the Washingtonians Lived, Seattle: Superior Publishing Company, c. 1969, p. 177
  • Meeker, Ezra, The Busy Life of Eighty-Five Years, Indianapolis: William B. Burford Press, c. 1916
  • Meeker, Ezra, and Howard R. Driggs, Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail, World Book Company, c. 1922
  • Young, Robert W., Ezra Meeker in the Puyallup Valley, Seattle: August 1949

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Nickel, Gale Brian, Ezra Meeker Mansion; United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service; Nomination Form; Washington D.C., August 26, 1971
  3. "Ezra Meeker-Oregon Trail Pioneer". Legends of America. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  4. "Family Mansion-1886". Meeker Mansion. the Puyallup Historical Society. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  5. Kreisman, Lawrence. "Puyallup's Meeker Mansion a lesson in history". The Seattle Times. Pacific NW Magazine. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  6. Hopperstad, John; Lavergne, Tessa. "Ezra Meeker: The influence Puyallup's first mayor still has on the city today". Meeker Mansion. the Puyallup Historical Society. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
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