The C.J. Howe building is the largest historic commercial building remaining in the Willamette Valley town of Brownsville. Brownsville was an important agricultural trade center platted in 1853 and grew with development of wool manufacturing and other enterprises until it reached its peak at the turn of the 1900s. Unlike their urban counterparts, which may have given way to urban renewal, vernacular buildings such as the one built for C.J. Howe about 1908 have tended to survive in their small town settings. (MORE)