One-hundred seven years after it was built as the manse for a 200-acre pear orchard, the Vilas House is undergoing a gutting and complete remodeling — making it into a modern home inside but leaving the many-gabled exterior looking mostly the same.

Built in 1900 by Joseph Vilas, the scion of a long line of timbermen from Wisconsin, the hardy, 3,600-square-foot farmhouse has its original shiplap siding, upstairs oak floors, downstairs maple floors, side French doors, summer sleeping porch upstairs and charming pineapples stenciled on the stair risers.

However, the rest of the Medford-area home, namesake of Vilas Road, will speak of the 21st century — including new kitchen and energy-efficient vinyl framed windows.

"It's a great house. We'll be done by the end of March and it'll be both modern and old. It's one of the original orchards in the valley," says Jerry Nilles, who bought it with 15 acres for $360,000 in 1999. Large commercial pear orchards still border the land.

Behind the farmhouse is an original root cellar (for storing root crops all winter), a 1907 orchard superintendent's house and a packing shed housing Nilles' restored 1940 Case tractor, which he uses to bale hay for himself and neighbors — and to drive in the Pear Blossom parade.

Advertisement

As builders screw in sheetrock, Nilles shows the spread in Kay Atwood's "Boughs and Branches," a history of the Rogue Valley pear industry, pointing out the farmhouse, small schoolhouse and huge, now-gone barn — along with a shot of Ned Vilas, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Vilas, visiting with a friend in the side yard half a century ago.

With Roxy Ann Peak on one side and Table Rocks on the other, the farm presents a sweeping view of the Agate Desert area. In the beginning there was nothing between the Vilas farm and Eagle Point, Ned Vilas says in Atwood's book, and farmers would get lost — eventually turning their horse teams loose so the creatures would find their way home.

Because of clay-filled mud, the road was first called Sticky Road, says Carol Harbison Samuelson of the Southern Oregon Historical Society. It was changed to Vilas and now forms a major intersection on Highway 62.

"It took a lot of money to raise an orchard because there was no income for eight or ten years, until the trees came into paying production," said Ned Vilas in Atwood's oral history interview. "My father planted 26 acres of apples here. They all had blight so bad one year that we just took them all out my father experimented. We raised corn out here (to feed 30 hogs) while the trees were small."

Of the $200,000 remodel, Nilles jokes, "I was happy with it the way it was" but his bride-to-be, Kit Saling, envisioned changes. They will be married April 21 and have a big reception in the carriage house behind the farmhouse.

"It's gorgeous," says Saling. "It's been well-maintained. The previous owners did all the things they were supposed to do. You can really feel the history. It has wonderful vibes. People have been happy in this house."

The home's brass doorknocker is inscribed E.P. Vilas for Edward Platt Vilas, owner and operator of Vilas Orchards for many years and one of four sons of Joseph and Elizabeth who lived. In 1922, he married Catherine Deuel, whose family owned The Deuel department store in Medford and Del Rio Orchards. A graduate of Oregon Agricultural College (now OSU), E.P. Vilas died in 1980.

Another son, George W. Vilas wrote the biography "Tales of a Rogue Valley Rogue," tracking the family's history and spinning many yarns of early 20th century times. The Vilas family sold the farm in 1951 to Steven and Carolyn Bowie, who sold it to Nilles, according to the Jackson County assessor's office.

The original farmhouse was built on a river rock foundation and was much smaller, about 900 square feet, but with each new child, rooms were added, says Kurt Waldmann of Rich Construction in Eagle Point, which is doing the remodel.

Remodeling is kind of like archaeology, says Nilles, pointing to an old newspaper serving as insulation inside a ripped-open wall. It displays a picture of the Lusitania, offering voyages to Southern Italy. The ship was torpedoed by Germans in 1915, helping draw the U.S. into World War I.

Nilles also uncovered some valuable collectibles — fruit crate labels emblazoned with eye-catching art and the brands: Vilas Round Robin Extra Fancy Pears, Table Rock Pears and Medford Pears.

A Rogue Valley resident since 1964, Nilles was living on North Phoenix Road, but a 300-home subdivision came and "I wanted to get out of there. I'm an old farm boy. I found this place and I just liked it."

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.