Joel Palmer (1810-1881) was one of Oregon’s preeminent pioneers and early statesmen, and the co-founder of the town of Dayton. He left Indiana in 1845 leading one of three wagon trains headed for Oregon, and completed the journey again the following year to escort his wife and children west to their new home. After co-founding the town of Dayton in 1848, Palmer built a house for himself and his family there in 1857, which the Joel Palmer House Restaurant now occupies.

The Joel Palmer House began as a story-and-a-half frame structure in 1857. The original section became the rear ell, or wing, when a two-story, end-gabled section in the Classical Revival style was added to it in the 1860s. The original window sash probably had six-over-six lights. The main volume had a single-story front porch during Palmer’s occupation. The original front entrance, with its distinctive classical framement and multi-pane sidelights, remains largely intact today.

The house appears to have undergone three main episodes of remodeling after Joel Palmer’s day, but outstanding among interior features that Palmer himself would have seen daily are the classical east parlor chimneypiece and, possibly, the hand-grained paneled wainscot. The object of hand-graining woodwork was to simulate the look of a fancy, or expensive wood. The process entailed applying a tinted glaze over a natural stain or base color, and combing a pattern through it before the uppermost layer was dry. This process is very labor-intensive and now is nearly a lost art.

Remodeling episodes following Palmer’s death in 1881 appear to include the refinishing of rooms in the Queen Anne/Eastlake tradition. Through the front parlors and upstairs bed chambers are architrave frames for doors and windows, baseboards with elaborate crown molding, sliding pocket doors, a built-in wardrobe and picture moldings near the ceiling – all features characteristic of fashionable interiors of the 1880s.

According to tradition, the single-story front porch was replaced in 1911 with the grand, two-story portico we see today. This temple-fronted porch with its slender, classical columns reflects the taste of the early 1910s for American Colonial architecture that came to be called the Colonial Revival.

Other 20th Century modifications made by Palmer’s successors in the house include: the square window turned on point in the upper façade. It replaced an earlier opening that provided light to the upstairs central stair hall. The sunporch addition (in the angle between the dining room and west parlor) and the west parlor fireplace and outside end chimney, which were added about 1930. Over the years, the house was updated with a state-of-the-art heating system and electrical service. Each modification before 1940 has gained a certain historical significance in its own right, and shows the evolutionary change that is required to make houses “livable” to succeeding generations.

In the central stair hall, the banister of the straight flight of steps to the second story is composed of a hand rail and new post unsupported by turned balusters. It is unclear whether this unusual feature is the result of remodeling, or whether it is the way it was used by Palmer. Many details about the history of the house are yet to be assembled with the help of former owners.

In 1996, the Czarnecki Family converted what had been an abandoned home for over 20 years into the fine-dining restaurant it is today. The Kitchen Wing was added, heat at AC were installed, electrical wiring was upgraded, and the entire building’s foundation was replaced.

In 2009 the roof of the original home was replaced.

In 2021, a massive, 3-part renovation was undertaken. The garage’s (not historical) roof was replaced, the exterior deck was expertly repaired, and an interior renovation of carpet, wallpaper, ceiling, lighting fixtures, and sound system was engineered to respectfully upgrade (yet not diminish) the dining spaces of the restaurant.