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The Farm:
The Hukari family has been in the orchard industry
in Hood River for 4 generations. Camille’s
great-grandfather, JR Nunamaker, moved to Hood River
in 1905 from Morrow County in Oregon. Her
great-grandparents on her father’s side, Alex and
Amanda Hukari, born in Finland, also moved to Hood
River in 1905. Both sets of great-grandparents
became orchardists upon their arrival in Hood River.
Both the Hukaris and the Nunamakers have been active
in the fruit industry in Hood River and Oregon.
Arvo Hukari (Camille’s grandfather), helped found
the Apple Grower’s Association (now Diamond Fruit)
and served as AGA’s foreign market sales
representative for many years. Don Nunamaker
(Camille’s grandfather) served on the Board of
Directors of AGA. Her father, Ross, served as
the President of the Oregon Horticultural Society in
1958 and was named as the Hood River Young Farmer of
the Year in 1959. Camille served as the first
female member and Chair of the Board of the Hood
River Grower Shipper Association and continues to be
active in the industry today. Camille has been
actively farming since 1983. Her husband,
Jerry, joined the farm in 1998.
Much of the fruit and all of the flowers offered
for sale at The Gorge White House are from our
fields. The farming operation at The Gorge
White House consists of Bartlett, Golden Bosc and
Stark Crimson Pears, with a few heirloom apple
varieties. Spring flower bulbs of daffodils,
tulips, gladiolas and fragrant lilies bloom April
through June. Seeded flowers such as zinnias
and sunflowers begin in July and our spectacular
dahlias finish the season through first frost –
usually in October. We grow 5 varieties of
blueberries, 3 varieties of strawberries and 3
varieties of table grapes.
The Home:
The Gorge White House was built in 1910 by M. M. (Martin
Michael) Hill, formerly of Waterloo, Iowa.
M. M. Hill was a progressive farmer who assisted in
organizing and implementing trends significant to
the fruit industry in the Hood River Valley.
M. M.
Hill was born on September 14, 1869 in Waterloo,
Iowa. He married Carrie B. Smith in 1892.
He left his wife with relatives in Long Beach,
California and went north to Oregon. According
to “Pine Grove Memories” by Patricia Krussow, M. M.
Hill came to Hood River and found a 50 acre piece of
land he wanted. He located the owner, Mr.
Johnson, a street car conductor in Portland, and
rode that streetcar until Mr. Johnson agreed to sell
the property to him. He bought the land, set
up camp and began building a small house, not
telling his wife of what he had done. When she
did come north, he told her he had bought the
property and if she would stay, he would build
her the finest house in the valley. Mrs. Hill was
from a very wealthy mid-western family and cried
when her husband gave her the news of his land purchase, as
to her, the Hood River Valley was an uncivilized,
barbaric area, void of expected comforts.
Because of his pledge to build her this house,
she agreed to stay. In 1910 the M. M.
Hill House
was completed, making good on his promise to his
wife.
The Gorge White House remained in the Hill family
until his daughter, Ruth Hill Beacon sold the house
and orchard in 1947 to Don and Aileen Nunamaker,
Camille Hukari’s grandparents. Camille’s
parents, Ross and Daphne (Nunamaker) Hukari
purchased the home in 1950. Camille grew up in
The Gorge White House and continues to own it today.
The Gorge White House is an excellent intact example
of a Dutch Colonial Revival House in a rural setting
in the Hood River Valley. The Colonial Revival
Style was popular from 1890 through 1915 and was an
effort to establish a uniquely American style based
on Colonial architecture of the 1700s. The
Gorge White House has many of the characteristic
elements of this style including the gambrel roof,
classic entablature, oval windows with keystones,
fanlights (lunettes) attic windows, transoms,
dentils at the cornice, balconies, screened sun
porch,
tripartite windows with decorative leaded beveled
glass, fluted round porch columns, union jack
railings, arched window with keystone in the west
facing gable and side lights framing the doors. The
Gorge White House also has the classic style
elements of wood frame construction with thin
horizontal cedar siding, dentil moldings, fluted
columns, pilasters, leaded glass windows, porches,
balconies, and a central prominent entrance
(porte-cochere).
Both the exterior and interior of the house are
intact, with minor alterations. The interior main
salon has original quarter-sawn white oak columns,
coffered ceilings, floors, staircase, newel posts,
doors, windows, moldings and baseboards are
original in finish, patina and materials. The first
floor of the home is now open to the public as The
Gorge White House.
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