As commuters busily go about their day driving along Highway 22, little do they know the bit of history that awaits them just east of Oak Knoll Golf Course.
The centerpiece of the Brunk Farmstead, once a sprawling 1,100 acres now whittled down to 1.12 acres, sits on one of Polk County’s oldest remaining two-story wooden homes. The Brunk House, now owned by the Polk County Historical Society, was once home to three generations of the Brunk family.
The home reopened May 12 with two tour guides who share a piece of the homestead’s legacy.
Cathey Harrison, after moving to Dallas in February, couldn’t miss the chance to volunteer at a house once owned by the Brunks, her ancestral cousins.
“I’d always wanted to see the Brunk House when I found out it was standing back when I was a child,” she said. “I just find this very fascinating.”
Harrison hadn’t memorized all the home’s history and had to rely on a printed script, detailing everything from the story of Harrison and Emily Waller Brunk having the home built in 1861 to Clara Brunk doubling the size of the kitchen in 1948, which included installing plumbing and electricity.
Having previewed the renovated home before its opening with her daughter and grandchildren, Harrison said she is most amazed by historical significance of the undertaking that brought the Brunks out west from Missouri.
“To me it’s just mindboggling the journey that not just the Brunks, but all of those who came from back east to partake quote ‘a better life’ in the Willamette Valley,” Harrison said after her tour of the house was over. “Because politically, too back then, it was part of the ‘Westward Ho,’ thinking what a hardship that must have been. And the work. It was obviously a lot of work to keep this up. They built their reputation here, maintained their faith. To me it was just fascinating. The integrity they had, hard work, and yet they did it. And it’s still standing today.”
The Brunks had originally journeyed west in 1849 to take up a Donation Land Claim in an area that would eventually become the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Proving too marshy for farming, Harrison sold the land and purchased the land claim of A.C.R. Shaw. Their growing family lived in a log cabin until the main home was finished Nov. 7, 1961. Daughter Leora Frances Brunk was the only one of 12 children actually born in the home.
The Brunks raised wheat and other grains, flowers, apples, cherries and peaches. The orchard of filbert trees that still stands behind the Brunk House is owned today by the Walker family.
While the upstairs is still off limits to tourists, tour guides like Harrison will lead visitors through the small spaces by today’s standards, which contain a sewing room, guest and master bedrooms and a nursery, before ending in the since expanded kitchen. Throughout, the home is stocked with some original items from the Brunks, like their sizable kitchen tables, and re-creations, like the rope frame bed shipped out from Missouri.
Self-guided tours of the Brunk house have been on hold for about 3 ½ years. Manager Alan Bittel explained the biggest reason Brunk House closed was the front porch fell off.
“A beam inside the house wasn’t flashed properly and it rotted. We were looking to do work to shore it up and it came down,” Bittel said. “Then with covid, everything closed, even after porch was rebuilt.”
They took advantage of the closure to continue work on restoring the inside, changing walls out and replacing peeling wallpaper.
He and his wife Sandi enjoy maintaining old things, which originate with their own home in Perrydale built in the 1890s.
“That’s what drew us to Brunk. Preserving it. Fixing it up. It’s always going to need maintenance. We told the board one time, there’s like 13 buildings out here it’s going to be an ongoing restoration effort long after I’m gone,” Bittel said.
One of the other volunteer guides is Grant Olds. He, too, moved to Dallas about three years ago. Emily Brunk was his great, great aunt. He points out her maiden name was Waller and his grandfather was George Townsend Waller.
“I found that out, doing genealogy research about five years ago. When I found out she was my aunt it was kind of exciting,” Olds said. “But then when we moved to the area, and discovered I actually just lived a few miles away from the Brunk House, I took advantage of it and wanted to volunteer.”
While leading visitors through the outdoor attractions on the farmstead, Olds gets to point out the Brunk Farm was named a Century Farm in 1958. In addition, in 1978, it was designated as a National Historic Site and recognized as a Polk County landmark.
The granary and outhouse are original structures of the farm. The orchard house was relocated nearer the main house and is now used as the visitor center and souvenir shop. The garage was originally a carriage house. And the machine shed, built only to look old, Bittel said, houses the blacksmith shop, which is home to monthly classes to create your own railroad spike knife.
“It’s kind of neat to walk on the same wood floor, the same house my aunt was in 1881,” Olds said. “It’s kinda cool.”
Located at 5705 Highway 22 W. Brunk House farmstead tours are Fridays and Saturdays, on the hour from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, go to www.polkcountyhistoricalsociety.org/brunk-house.
(1) comment
Great article on an important piece of history for our area. I wish you’d proofread a bit better and check dates. The article notes that the “main home was finished Nov. 7, 1961.” Should that be 1861?
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