Elizabeth Constable and John Quincy Adams Young House

The Elizabeth Constable and John Quincy Adams Young House is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Washington County. It is the last remaining structure associated with the early Cedar Mill that was built at the Falls of Cedar Mill Creek circa 1855. In the 1870s, Young became U.S. Postmaster for the growing community he christened “Cedar Mill.” He built a new home (no longer standing) across Cornell Rd. and used this building as post office and general store. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Elizabeth Constable and John Quincy Adams Young and their families traveled the Oregon Trail between 1847 and 1855, settling on adjacent land claims northeast of Hillsboro. They married on Christmas Day in 1856. In 1869, they bought the Cedar Mill at the Falls of Cedar Mill Creek with a partner, William Everson. They may have built the house at that time, but research shows it may have been built as early as 1863.

In 2005, THPRD acquired the Young House, the Falls of Cedar Mill Creek, and a half-acre of land with three heritage trees in a property exchange agreement with Cedar Mill Bible Church, which saved the house from demolition. Today, Friends of the Young House are working to preserve the house (which retains its original saltbox form and significant interior features) and to find a compatible use that will revitalize the surviving structure and site.