Arch Cape’s oldest home built by Englishman

Published 5:00 pm Thursday, July 12, 2012

ARCH CAPE Marmaduke Maxwells house can barely be seen, tucked away on the west end of Maxwell Lane, hidden by bushes and other buildings.

Its a simple, wood-framed structure on the beach, facing Castle Rock and looking much like it did when it first was built a century ago.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the house, built by Englishman Marmaduke Maxwell, a native of Devon County, England, who moved to America following the death of his fiancé. He sold his sheep ranch in Central Oregon and moved to Arch Cape, which, he said, reminded him of the Devonshire coast.

David Maddison, whose family has had ownership in the house since 1945, believes the house could be the oldest still standing in Arch Cape.

We had a nephew of Maxwells from England who was on his way to visit relatives in Canada, Maddison recalled. He was looking for an old tumble-down shack and asked me if I knew where it was. I told him, Youre looking at it.

It looks very much like it did when it was built, said Maddison.

Although Maddison lives in Idaho and visits the house infrequently (he planned to head to Arch Cape today for a stay), it is filled with family and friends throughout the summer, he said.

Maddison is too young to remember Maxwell, but others do.

Marney Beemer, Maddisons neighbor in Arch Cape, recalls Maxwell slightly.

I remember his white horse, Beemer said. I just remember that he had the horse, and he let us ride it.

Beemer used to travel to Arch Cape with her parents when she was a child in the mid-1920s and still laughs about riding in a car around Hug Point when the tide was out. Then, because there were no roads to the small, isolated Arch Cape community until the mid-1930s, they drove along the beach and up a steep, sandy path to Leech Road, the only access to Arch Cape at the time.

Beemers parents, as well as most visitors, stayed at the Arch Cape Hotel (later called the Singing Sands Hotel), built in 1905 and purchased by Maxwell in 1914, along with five other properties, according to the Arch Cape Chronicles. The Chronicles is a history of Arch Cape compiled from research and from homeowners memories by former residents Alma and David English.

Houses features

It was convenient for Maxwell to operate the hotel, because his house was next door. His photo, hanging on the wall between the dining room and the living room of the modest, cozy house, makes the white-haired man with his hands on his hips look somewhat fierce. But those who wrote about him in the Chronicles recalled his love of animals and the friendships he developed with his neighbors.

Maxwell had a barn behind his house and kept his horse, Lil, and cows, Cherry and Molly, there. Molly produced enough milk for Maxwell to sell it to neighbors and visitors for 10 cents a quart.

Cats and dogs also took up residence in his three-bedroom home.

Although the back porch of the current house has been remodeled to accommodate a larger kitchen, Maxwells back porch held a rain barrel reserved for washing dishes and for bathing. The house has a small bathroom upstairs with a claw-foot tub. Water used to be heated by pipes running from the back of the fireplace through the wall to the bathroom.

The fireplace is the focal point in the living room, but the stone facing and the hearth arent original. The stone was brought to the house when the Arch Cape tunnel was constructed between 1936 and 1940, and the hearth is engraved with the date 1939.

Chronicles

In the Chronicles, Arch Cape resident Eugenia Dooley recalled the fireplace:

Mr. Maxwell often built a huge fire in his fireplace and invited us over for the evening, she wrote. My brother and I enjoyed looking through his Montgomery Ward catalogue.

Maxwell would serve them a bowl of raisins from his cupboard. We thought they were the best raisins we had ever eaten, Dooley wrote.

Meanwhile, since it was 1919, Dooleys mother and grandmother would talk with Maxwell about post-World War I events in England.

The Arch Cape population at that time was small, and much of our communications then came from newspapers, often days old, Dooley recalled.

With the beach only a few steps away from the house, Maxwell would build a fire and cook crabs in seawater that Dooley carried from the ocean.

When the crabs were ready, the children ran around the neighborhood, inviting everyone over to eat crab. Since we didnt have refrigeration, crabs were hung in the open breeze on back porches until the next meal, she wrote.

While preparing a dinner for a friend from Cannon Beach one day, Maxwell asked Dooley to help him. The friend had forgotten his dentures at his home on Washington Street. Maxwell told Dooley to ride his horse around Hug Point, along the sand to Cannon Beach and to crawl through the mans kitchen window to get his dentures, which sat in a glass of water. Dooley accomplished the task.

Maxwell often dressed formally for dinner when entertaining guests, Dooley wrote.

For many of his social engagements, Mr. Maxwell wore a tastefully designed Norfolk English tweed jacket and a red tie. He looked the true Englishman and gentleman he was.

David English, the co-author of the Chronicles, wrote that Maxwell taught me so much.

I learned how to recognize the local trees: cedar, fir, hemlock, alder, maple and spruce and the ones to gather for kindling and firewood, he said.

Maxwell taught English how to use a hatchet and how to keep his tools sharp.

He used a treadle-powered grinding wheel with a huge round white stone, wrote English, who was responsible for filling the water reservoir above the stone so Maxwell had a constant stream of water available when he sharpened his tools.

That experience lives with me today, English wrote. My pocket knife and cutting tools are always sharp.

Maxwell also taught the young English patience. Together they built traps, one for catching chipmunks and another for catching rats. The chipmunks they studied and fed before turning them loose. The rats werent so lucky.

He showed English how to make four-sided kite frames with cedar and string, a surface of newspaper glued onto the frame with a flour paste and a tail made of colorful strips of rags knotted together.

Kite making and flying gave me many hours of fun and joy for years, English recalled.

Maxwell also showed a flair for writing; he may have taken after his father, J.G. Maxwell a well-known poet in England.

In an Easter card sent to Eugenia Dooley, he wrote:

As Easter cards, down here, are few

I send these lines, instead, to you

But if you think it would be better

Why later on, Ill write a letter.

Hotel sold

In 1929, Maxwell sold the hotel to David Englishs aunt Marie, who, along with her sister, Elsie, used to rent the entire hotel for the summer. He urged them in a letter to change the hotels name to something not quite so common something descriptive as well as striking.

They called it the Singing Sands because the dry sand had a musical tone when someone walked on it. The hotel has since been torn down.

House sold

Before his death at age 87 in 1931, Maxwell sold his home to Dora and Lil Cornelison. They sold it in 1945 to Frank and Betty Maddison David Maddisons parents and Clinton and Jessie Reynolds. Eventually, the Maddisons bought the Reynolds share of the house, which, by now, was named the Spoondrift.

Even with a new foundation, new windows and a remodeled kitchen, the house retains much of its century-old essence. The street it sits on also is a reminder of Maxwells legacy.

But unlike the house, which is here to stay, the street nearly lost its name when Clatsop County wanted to remove Maxwell and replace it with a number. Residents had quite a battle to keep the name, Maddison said.

We thought the historical significance ought to be retained, he added.