Imbrie Farm is an

Italian Villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...

style home in

Hillsboro, Oregon Hillsboro ( ) is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, ...

. It was built by Robert Imbrie and was a working

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

for over a century. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1977. Located just south of

U.S. Route 26 U.S. Route 26 (US 26) is an east–west United States highway that runs from Seaside, Oregon to Ogallala, Nebraska. When the U.S. highway system was first defined, it was limited to Nebraska and Wyoming; by the 1950s, it continued into Idaho and ...

Cornelius Pass Road Cornelius Pass Road is an arterial road over Cornelius Pass in the Tualatin Mountains west of Portland, Oregon, United States, also extending several miles to the south. Running north–south, the road stretches between U.S. Route 30 (US 30 ...

, the estate is now home to a

McMenamins McMenamins is a family-owned chain of brewpubs, breweries, music venues, historic hotels, and theater pubs in Oregon and Washington. Many of their locations are in rehabilitated historical properties; at least nine are on the National Register ...

brewpub Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

, the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. Original structures on the farm include the home, a unique eight-sided barn, and a shed.

Currently

The old farmstead is a brewpub operated by

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

based McMenamins. The property contains English chestnut and

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south t ...

trees that have been there for more than 130 years.

History

The Imbrie family arrived in the mid-1840s as part of Oregon's first flood of white settlers. The Imbries came to Oregon from the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

, but the family's patriarch, James Imbrie, Jr., was born and raised in the Kingdom of Fife on the southeast coast of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. James’ sons, James III and Robert, each developed farms in Washington County. James’ area was in North Plains, while brother Robert took over and expanded a neighboring farm ( Lenox Farm), where the current buildings are located. Robert immigrated to Oregon via ship around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

. Robert built a

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

in the mid-1850s, then a decade later built the three-story, Italian Villa-style home that still stands today. It took three years beginning in 1866 to complete construction on the home, which they named the Gables. At this point, the family included 12 children and Robert's mother. During this time the family raised Morgans as draft animals to sell to other farmers. Once Robert's son Frank (d. 1945) took over, he turned the farm into a dairy and added the unique eight sided barn around 1900. Later generations of the family lived in the home, adding electricity and indoor plumbing in the 1930s. James Hay, Frank's son, transitioned the farm into grain and hay production, including barley that was used in

Blitz-Weinhard Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve and Blitz-Weinhard were brands of beer first brewed in 1856 in Portland, Oregon. The brewery was owned by the brewer Henry Weinhard of the Weinhard family, who also made a line of soft drinks which survives to th ...

beer in the mid-1900s. By the 1970s the family had stopped the agrarian activities, and in 1977 Gary (James, Jr.’s great great grandson) opened the Imbrie Farmstead Restaurant at the old home. In 1984 the property was purchased by Donald and Billie Jean Herman who continued to operate the restaurant until they leased the operations to McMenamins. In 1986 current owner McMenamins took over operations (eventually purchasing and restoring the buildings) and turned the property into the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, a brewpub. McMenamins's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse is located at 4045 NW Cornelius Pass Rd in Hillsboro, OR 97124. The property features a brewery, distillery, outdoor meadows and groves, the historic Octagonal Barn, Imbrie Hall, and the 1866 Italianate Roadhouse. The Roadhouse features original artwork and Victorian-era furnishings, and is often used for large special events.

Key dates

*1843: 18-year-old Edward Henry Lenox (from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

) travels over the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...

and stakes a claim to the present farm site. *1850-59: Robert Imbrie acquires the Lenox farm and builds the current granary. *1863-66: Robert has the three-story, gabled farm home built. *1897: Robert dies. *1933: Imbries begin selling barley to Blitz-Weinhard. *1945: Frank Imbrie dies. *1962: James Hay Imbrie shuts down the family's centennial farm. *1968: James Hay dies. *1969: James Hay's son, Frank, moves his family onto the old homestead. His children are the sixth and final generation of Imbries to live there.

References

External links

Oregon History Project: Imbrie Family House
{{Hillsboro Oregon 1869 establishments in Oregon Houses completed in 1869 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon McMenamins National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Oregon Restaurants in Oregon Scottish-American history Houses in Hillsboro, Oregon Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon