Samuel B. Cobb arrived in Portland in the 1880s and became the epitome of the self-made man and pillar of the Portland community. So why did he never talk about the kit home company he helped found during WWI? A recent NARA accession sheds light on a new chapter in the life of Samuel Cobb, whose sprawling 1911 Craftsman home is on the National Register of Historic Places. (Presentation text available on my blog at http://the-three-percent.blogspot.com/2011/10/stories-we-choose-to-tell-samuel-b-cobb.html.)

1. THE STORIES WE CHOOSE
TO TELL
SAMUEL B. COBB

2. Portland, 1882
2

3. Portland, 1882
3

4. Portland, 1882
4

5. Portland, 1882
5

6. 6

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

10. 10

11. 11

12. The Cotillion
Hall design
12

13. 13

14. 14

15. Text
Text
The Cobb
House
15

16. Cobb: Self-Made Man & Politician
16

17. The Incorporation . . .
17

18. . . . and SUDDEN DOWNFALL of
the National Home Building Co.
18

19. Camp Namanu: Cobb’s Legacy
19

20. 20

21. from “Labor’s Day”
by Samuel Cobb
Then, let’s be up and doing
Though sometime the hour
be late
Still keep working, working,
Let not labor ever wait.
(1950)
21

22. Acknowledgements
Ken House at NARA Seattle
Tony Kurtz at the WWU Archives
Dr. Randall Jimerson
Northwest Archivists
Society of American Archivists