Hillsboro Historical Society

Shute House I
2140 E. Main Street

This house is thought to have been built during the 1890s by John Wright Shute on land purchased from J. J. Morgan known as the Fairview Addition. Shute was born in New York in 1840 and came to Oregon via the Panama Route (overland, as the canal was not yet completed). He farmed until 1888 when he incorporated the First National Bank in Hillsboro. Shute was reputed to have been quite wealthy and owned 640 acres of farmland just outside the city. This house remained in the Shute family until 1908, when it was sold by Lewis Edward Shute (eldest of the four children from John's first marriage).

Architecturally, the home is in the Second Empire style with characteristic dormer windows and mansard roof. The building is massed in a “T” plan and a separate structure in the rear is thought to have been an ice house. Originally, the interior walls were layers of wallpaper on top of cheesecloth-covered planks. Over the years, though, the interior has been through several alterations.

Despite the modifications, this house has been placed on the Hillsboro Cultural Resource Inventory because of its unique architecture and its association with prominent early citizen John Wright Shute.