Shelton McMurphey Johnson House

1888 Queen Anne 'Castle on the Hill' on Skinner Butte

Address 303 Willamette Street

The Shelton McMurphey Johnson House sits halfway up the south face of Skinner Butte and looks like a fairy-tale castle dropped into the Willamette Valley — a three-storey Queen Anne in pale pink and cream, built in 1888 for a local doctor. Eugene has always called it "the Castle on the Hill."

The interior is restored to the period and run as a small museum by the city — original woodwork, original wallpaper in places, and three generations of family photographs and possessions. Open afternoons Wednesday through Sunday. The walk up from downtown is short and the view over the city is the best reason to do it apart from the house itself.

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A story
Local lore had the house giving its name to Ken Kesey's most famous character — Randle McMurphy — when Kesey lived on Skinner Butte and looked up at it daily. The Johnson family owned the house until 1986, when it was sold to the city and opened as a museum.