John and Flora Gilbert operated a farm in the Town of Oregon for many years before retiring to the village around 1906. John built several homes in the village including the house at 357 North Main Street and an adjacent house on West Lincoln Street, located in the Lincoln Street Historic District. John and Flora Gilbert resided in this house until their deaths in 1956 and 1962.

The Gilbert House is one of the best intact examples of the Queen Anne style in the Village of Oregon. The Queen Anne style achieves ornamentation through the use of complex volumes, textural variety, and polychromatic detailing. The Gilbert House displays characteristic architectural details in its irregular massing, wraparound porch, cylindrical turret, and Ionic columns. Consistent with the Queen Anne style, the interior plan of the house contains compartmentalized interior spaces and a flow of movement from rooms intended for public use to more private and utilitarian spaces at the rear and on the second story. The house retains an original fireplace with wood mantle, mirror, carved wood accents, and cast iron mounted ventilating grate. Original cottage windows with figured-glass decorative designs, pressed steel ceilings, and woodwork, including a cased pedestal colonnade and cap trim sets for door and window openings, ornament and finish the interior of the house.

This house is a private residence. Please respect the privacy of the owners.