Butler house gets historic designation

The historic Julia Butler Hansen House, the oldest house in Cathlamet and Wahkiakum County, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the nation’s official list of buildings, structures, objects, archaeology, engineering and culture.

The Julia Butler Hansen House was built in 1867 for John Fitzpatrick, the first fish seiner on the lower Columbia River.

In 1871, George Roberts, formerly of The Hudson’s Bay Company, and his wife Rose, (the county’s first school teacher) moved into the house. After Robert’s death in 1883, the house was bought by James F. Kimball, grandfather of Julia Butler Hansen in 1885. In January 1886, James and his wife Julia Ann and their daughter Maude, Julia Butler Hansen’s mother, moved into the house. The house was the residence of Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen, Wahkiakum County’s most prominent citizen.

The JBH house has been in the Kimball, Butler, and Hansen families for 125 years except for 13 years when it was owned by the Wahkiakum Community Foundation. When the Foundation dissolved in 2017, the house reverted to David Kimball Hansen.