The ITALIANATE Affair

ust two years after Oregon gained statehood, the very year Abraham Lincoln became President, a modest Italian Villa was built in a rural area of Southwest Portland. Although it was surrounded by cow fences, the house was elegant, as it was home to George Law Curry, Oregon’s last territorial governor, and his wife, Chloe Boone, a great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone. We can imagine its towering, arching windows hung with delicate lace curtains. • In 1885, the 1861 house was enlarged by about 520 square feet, and subsequently it was moved. “The house was supposed to be razed, in 1964, to make way for a freeway,” current owner Karla