Shadden House

11105 NW Baker Creek Rd  |  Built 1859

One of the earliest homes in McMinnville, the Shadden house dates to 1859 and the earliest days of non-native settlement in the area.

Thomas Jefferson Shadden arrived in Oregon in 1842 before departing to serve in the Mexican American War. Shadden returned in 1850 and built this stately home from 1856 to 1859. The home was later purchased in 1937 by Judge Lester Grenfell, and his wife Roberta, prominent McMinnville residents. Their oldest daughter, Mary Ann Grenfell, married Norwood Draper and the couple later inherited the home. 

The house is currently part of Draper Farms, a longstanding and cherished local farm that has provided McMinnville and the Yamhill Valley with fresh, local produce for the last five generations, going all the way back to the days of Norwood and Mary Ann. 

The house, which is remarkably well preserved, sits on the edge of town, just past the traffic circle on Baker Creek Road.