This Italianate-Revival style home was built in 1878 for General Oliver Otis Howard, who served as Commanding General of the Department of the Columbia from 1874 until 1880. Considered “the finest dwelling house north of the Columbia,” it became a center of social events and welcomed famous guests including Ulysses S. Grant in 1879 and U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. After the Marshall House became the new department commander’s home in 1886, the house served as the local post commander’s residence, then from 1934 as a Non-Commissioned Officers’ Club until it was surplused after a fire in 1986. Howard was praised for his work with African Americans as Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau from 1866 until 1872 and for helping found Howard University, an all African American institution. His reputation was far less positive for his role in the Indian Wars campaigns against Native American groups resisting pressure to move to reservations, most notably the 1877 Nez Perce War, when Chief Joseph led his people on a five-month flight from northeastern Oregon to Montana before their capture by Howard and his soldiers. Howard also unjustly incarcerated Nez Perce Chief Temme Ilppilp, known as Red Heart, and thirty-two of his people at Fort Vancouver for eight months in 1877.

Photo: Kevin W.

Photo: Kevin W.

Photo: Kevin W.

Vancouver, Washington · USA