A modern farm garden with a nut orchard showcases the family’s 100-year journey from Oregon

Visitors are invited to new farmhouse in the Willamette Valley you can learn the history of the hard-working Chepin family by going up the circular stairs. Each steel step has been laser-cut with a description of a milestone from 1924 to 2024 that shaped fertile, flood-prone farmland and four generations of visionary thinkers determined to succeed.

During the Great Depression, the Chapins raised cattle, milked cows and grew tulip and daffodil bulbs on their original 99 acres. During World War II, they grew flax to make military parachute armor, and in 1950, their improved mechanical corn picker harvested most of the sweet corn from Salem north to St. Paul.

Over time, the farm expanded and developed, it included a cannery, seed and grain factories, and tree nurseries. Since 1969, the Chapins have introduced new varieties of hazelnuts, and their products for cleaning and drying the slightly sweet nuts are used by regional growers.

Step by step, the family now has more than 1,500 acres of land near Keizer and seven separate businesses owned and operated by some of the settlers’ descendants. Luther and Nelly Chapin.

The staircase in the new farmhouse represents the Chapin family’s 100-year journey, “their dreams, their ambitions and the harsh reality of their partnership with the land,” said Joyce Chapin Hirsch, granddaughter of Luther and Nellie.

The physical timeline is just one feature of the three-level building, designed as a private meeting room, museum and residence to showcase the family’s achievements in Oregon and inspire future solutions.

The first level is a meeting place to discuss matters with a view to life-changing inventions. Against the wall is Jack Chapin’s 1943 Rubber Band Cutting Machine, conceived during rubber rationing, which cut old bicycle inner tubes into rubber bands to tie flowers to the market. Behind the glass across the room is a model of the world’s first practical solar cell, invented by a physicist in 1954. Daryl Chapinbrother of Jack Chapin, who also grew up on a farm before becoming a leader Bell Labs“sunny team”.

The second level is a genealogical library and educational center. And upstairs in Oregon live Joyce Chapin and her husband James Rothman, who teach on the faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine in Connecticut and live in New York.

Alongside the engineering breakthroughs are sentimental antiques such as a Savory wood and coal stove, a pedal sewing machine and stylish homespun dresses.

The chest Nellie’s family hauled in a covered wagon to Oregon in 1888 and the farm’s first bounty on display are life lessons of hard work, ingenuity and a can-do spirit that continue to drive the family home. ‘I. Inspirations and decisions from the past “move us forward like life’s instructions,” said Joyce Chapin.

She grew up with three brothers who, together with their families, continue to be engaged in the farming business. Bruce is a cherry and hazelnut farmer as well as the owner of a regional hazelnut drying and packing plant. Ron is also a hazelnut grower, engineer and owner of a nursery and micropropagator, and Jerry, a retired engineer and former director of the U.S. Army research and development center of tank construction and automobile constructionalso returned to the farm to grow hazelnuts.

“My brothers and I wanted to tell the story of our childhood farming in Mission Bottom,” said Joyce Chapin. “We didn’t want it to look like everything was perfect. We spent many nights wondering if we would lose the farm. Farming is a very difficult business.”

A spiral staircase inside the silo-inspired cylindrical tower culminates on the third floor, where large windows frame Mount Hood and the Willamette River, while a glass-walled cantilevered cube overlooks the walnut orchards.

“Symbolically, the living space rises above the fundamental historical roots represented on the lower floors,” Joyce Chapin said, and offers “views of the beautiful farm and natural woods, as well as reminders of the past and our way forward.”

Architects Nathan Hood and Forrest Good from Salem Nathan Good Architects incorporated the family’s agrarian heritage into the design of the water- and energy-efficient building constructed Kaufman Homes. Goods’ contemporary interpretation of regional agricultural structures is seen in the stacked floor levels, steel-framed silo stair tower and simple forms with minimal ornamentation.

According to Nathan Hood, the glass cube at the top of the silo is “otherworldly”. “I feel a sense of peace and wonder as I sit there looking out over the vast landscape. This is a biophilic a safe space like a treehouse to see without being seen.”

The orange-red wood on one side of the building matches the original Sears, Roebuck and Co. farmhouse paint color. 1902 barn across the driveway. And six feet of compacted gravel raised the building’s ground level well above the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) 100-year flood limit.

A 17-foot solid black granite monolith, set between the new farmhouse and orchards, is engraved with the dates and flood levels of the Willamette River, based on Bruce Chapin’s research from 1861, when six feet of water covered the land.

“My dad made sure we all knew how to row boats and we got a lot of experience in those floods,” Joyce Chapin said. “One of my brothers was on the varsity rowing team in college.”

The interior decoration is selected Joanna Darling exquisite, exquisite. “The exterior is warm and welcoming and has a seriousness to it,” said Darling of New York-based Joanna Darling Design.

Attic opening between the first and second levels, visually connected by a modern mobile chandelier created Apparatus Studio New Yorkfocused “on heights,” said Joyce Chapin, “inspiring a sense of the future.”

Steps in history

Architect Forrest Good said the spiral staircase in the new farmhouse is more than a means of moving between floors. It is sculptural and dramatic, with two spiral stringers extending from the wall. The design creates a sense of suspense and draws attention to the craftsmanship.

But most importantly, the 46 steps, created through close collaboration between the Chapins, designers and builders, are “a central element of the story,” said Forrest Hood, who came up with the idea.

The team at Nathan Good Architects determined the size, shape and thickness of the steel steps, and selected the stencil font, text size and spacing to ensure cohesion and legibility. The family curated its history and MW Design Workshop made the stairs in their workshop in Salem and then transported the parts to the site where they were reassembled.

The Steps tells the story of Luther and Nellie Chapin, who both graduated with honors from Washington State College in 1911. The following year, Luther was named Oregon’s first agricultural reporting agent, credited with creating Oregon agribusiness and called the father of Oregon corn. industry.

In recognition of the family’s 100 years of work on the land, this year the Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation adopted the Chapin-Barker Century Farm into its register of farms and ranches of the century.

Read interior designer Joanna Darling’s tips for displaying family photos and treasures.

— Janet Eastman talks about design and trends. Contact her at 503-294-4072, [email protected] and follow her on X @janeteastman.