10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015
Gustafson: He was part of the ¿rst graduating First Presbyterian
class from the college’s preservation program Church dresses up
Continued from Page 1A
the church. The hall has more
than 50 windows, which Gus-
tafson is restoring through
next summer. He visits, takes
out three or four windows at
a time, and heads back to his
Albany workshop in a former
evaporated milk warehouse.
“You don’t want it to look
shiny and brand new,” he said.
“That’s not the point of histor-
ic restoration.”
Gustafson, who said he
has never replaced a window
in his career, mainly focuses
on repairing wood rot and
other weather damage around
the windows, most visible
on the south and west sides
of the building continually
pounded by wind and rain.
His process to repair the win-
dows is a mix of high-tech,
organic and antique tech-
nology. He takes off paint
and glazing putty using an
infrared heater, paints using
organic linseed oil from Swe-
den and fabricates new parts
for the window using pre-
World War II woodworking
tools.
Making it
When he started college
in 2009, Gustafson, his wife
Marcia and their 1-year-old
son, Donevan, lived large-
ly through the charity of the
community. They stayed at
his family’s farm outside As-
toria, trading handiwork for
room and board, before mov-
ing into Astoria to be closer to
his schooling.
They ate off food stamps
and distressed vegetables
from the Astoria Co-op Gro-
cery, Gustafson said, while
he rode his bike everywhere
because they couldn’t afford
gas. His wife was the main
breadwinner of the family,
he said, while he played Mr.
Mom and went to school, ar-
riving two weeks late to start
the year.
“He was a terrible student,
a pain in the ass,” joked Luc-
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Chris Gustafson’s company, Vintage Window Restoration, is restoring the windows
around Fellowship Hall at the First Presbyterian Church of Astoria. Pictured, from left, are
daughter Jennarose, wife and company co-owner Marcia, son Donevan and Gustafson.
ien Swerdloff, director of the
college’s 6-year-old histor-
ic preservation program, in
which Gustafson was one of
the ¿rst students.
Gustafson,
Swerdloff
said, was the kind of student
who became really engaged,
took every possible work-
shop and had internships
with local craftspeople.
Most students decide where
they want to focus by their
second year, said Swerdloff,
but Gustafson didn’t reach
that point until shortly be-
fore graduation.
In his second year, Gus-
tafson said he siphoned off
gas from vehicles around the
family farm to ¿ll his tank and
drive to a window restoration
project at Fort Worden in Port
Townsend, Wash. The project
ended up cementing his inter-
est in windows.
Gustafson was part of the
¿rst graduating class from the
college’s historic preservation
program, which has about 30
graduates. About three-quar-
ters of those graduates are
working in historic restoration
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Linda Oldenkamp shows one of the restored windows in-
side the First Presbyterian Church of Astoria Tuesday.
or related ¿elds. Gustafson
said he might be the only one
doing windows professional-
ly.
He and his family moved
to Corvallis, where he stud-
ied recreation and resource
management for a year, while
¿xing windows to help pay
for his education. While his
interest in earning the bach-
elor’s degree quickly waned,
his side job quickly turned
into his life’s passion. “I told
people I could ¿x a window,
and I was in business.”
Paying it forward
“That program has given
me such a freaking awesome
quality of life,” Gustafson
said of the college’s histor-
ic restoration program, add-
ing he tries to pay it forward
whenever he can.
Running the company with
his wife and a bookkeeper, Gus-
tafson teaches workshops for
Last year, the First Pres-
byterian Church of Astoria
embarked on a three-year
campaign called “Let’s Get
Dressed Up” to restore its
now 112-year-old sanctuary
and nearly 80-year-old Fel-
lowship Hall.
The church has reached
the midpoint of the three-
phase project, hiring Astoria
native Chris Gustafson this
summer to restore more than
50 windows on Fellowship
Hall
“The ¿rst priority was
the painting of the sanctu-
ary, which happened last
summer,” said Linda Olden-
kamp, a clerk for the church’s
elected body of elders. “The
second priority was Fellow-
ship Hall’s windows.”
Oldenkamp said the
painting of the yellow, cream
and brown of the sanctuary
last summer cost more than
50,000. Once ¿nished, the
church went out for bids on
the Fellowship Hall windows
and received three or four of-
fers. In May, the “Let’s Get
Dressed Up” committee se-
lected Gustafson, a graduate
of Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s historic preservation
and restoration program.
“We didn’t take his bid
because he was local or be-
cause he had gone through
the college as an adjunct faculty
member and takes on paid in-
terns who help with his projects.
“I choose these students
because they understand the
Secretary of Interior Stan-
dards,” Chris said, adding
most of his projects are fund-
ed through government orga-
nizations like the State Histor-
ic Preservation 2f¿ce.
Gustafson travels the state,
restoring the windows of
community landmarks, such
the college’s program,”
Oldenkamp said, adding
Gustafson’s bid was far and
away the most professional.
Fellowship Hall has more
than 50 windows needing
restoration, she said. This
summer, Gustafson is work-
ing on the south and west fa-
cades, long battered by wind
and rain, moving on to the
east and west next year.
Oldenkamp estimated it
will take more than $60,000
to restore the windows. The
church has been raising
money from its congrega-
tion of about 60, families
with a connection to the
church and the community
at large.
The church, which esti-
mated about $1,200 for re-
storing each of the windows,
recently started an adopt-a-
window program, complete
with funky, hymn- and win-
dow-themed donation levels
like “Hallelujah Cornice”
$1,200, “Amazing Glaze”
$600, “Just a Closer Caulk
with Thee” $300, “Be Sill
My Soul” $100 and “Just
As I Jamb,” open for any do-
nation level.
The ¿nal phase of the
restoration, Oldenkamp said,
will be repairing a porch
on the northeast side of the
church.
To follow the “Let’s Get
Dressed Up” restoration
project, visit www.¿rstpres-
byterianastoria.org
as a U.S. Coast Guard Station
in Bandon, a masonic lodge in
Burns and, most recently, an
armory in Cottage Grove.
“When it all ¿rst started,
it was terrifying and ¿lled
with uncertainty of where life
would be next week,” he said
of creating his own career.
“Now … the bills are covered.
We have a retirement plan.
We get to go on vacation.
“Is it success? I guess you
could call it success.”
Cape D: Ports of Chinook and Ilwaco say they’re busier than ever
Continued from Page 1A
The ports of Chinook and
Ilwaco say they are busier than
ever. Trucks and boat trailers
line the streets of Chinook. Port
Manager Ashley Davis said they
enlisted the help of state patrol
to help manage traf¿c so that the
people lined up in their vehicles,
waiting to launch their boats,
didn’t completely shut down
the road through town. In Cape
Disappointment, near the public
boat launch, on a recent after-
noon, the main and overÀow
parking lots were ¿lled with
vehicles and boat trailers; some
were even parked in a grassy
area at the center of a round-
about at the far end of the main
parking lot. The ¿sh cleaning
stations have been getting con-
stant use all summer long, park
rangers say. With the facilities
are no longer available, there
have been complaints.
The
nearest
public
¿sh-cleaning station now is the
one installed only this year at
the Port of Chinook. The Port
of Ilwaco passed a “zero tol-
erance” ordinance forbidding
¿sh cleaning in the marina this
year and has no plans to install
a public ¿sh-cleaning station.
A work of art
State Parks is considering
what to do with Lin’s 10-year-
old installation, a large block of
basalt that was recently re-en-
graved with words from the
Chinook Indian creation story.
Painter said it may be relocat-
ed to some other site inside the
park where it can be appreciat-
ed as an object.
“Artwork is something we
really value,” Painter said.
Signs and wooden gates now
block access to the facilities.
Painter said concerns about
the park’s cleaning stations
“came from so many different
places.” The closure was not
the result of a speci¿c threat of
litigation or intervention from
the Washington State Depart-
ment of Ecology or others, she
said.
Leaders at the Port of Ilwa-
co were worried that ¿sh parts
dumped into the water could
attract sea lions to the area —
record numbers of the pinni-
peds hit marinas in Astoria this
spring. Ilwaco Port Manager
Guy Glenn Jr., said the port
voiced its concerns to the De-
partment of Ecology in March.
Currently, there is no ex-
isting mechanism at the site
to contain and treat solid ¿sh
waste and no permit has ever
been issued to allow this waste
to be disposed of in Baker Bay.
“I certainly understand the
concern,” said Colin Fogarty
executive director of the Con-
Àuence Project, a multi-lo-
cation interpretive art project
which includes the ¿sh-clean-
ing station at Cape Disappoint-
ment.
But, he added, there has not
been any evidence of sea lion
problems or pollution issues
since the artwork was installed
10 years ago. There have been
¿sh-cleaning facilities in the
same general area since the
mid-20th century in associa-
tion with the nearby public boat
launch. He believed the tidal
Àow in and out of the bay is
adequate to Àush any ¿sh waste
away.
“The frustrating thing for us
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Fishing surprise
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
On a busy Saturday afternoon, plenty of people were fish-
ing, but no one was using the Confluence cleaning station
but seagulls.
is that it does not seem to be a
problem … we’re not talking
about toxic waste; we’re talking
about ¿sh.”
“Certainly ¿sh waste is
not the most foreign thing to go
back into the water, but it does
create some water quality con-
cerns,” agreed Chase Gallagh-
er, southwest regions commu-
nications manager for the DOE,
who said the level of use there
has never been high enough to
require a permit. But, in recent
years, the facilities have seen
heavier use than State Parks
ever expected when it agreed to
the installation of Lin’s clean-
ing table, Painter said.
“So as the usage increased,
it probably still isn’t at the per-
mit requirement level, but it is
an area of concern,” Gallagher
said.
The news of the closure
caught Fogarty by surprise.
“We’re on the side of the
¿shermen,” he said, while ques-
tioning the advisability of clos-
ing it “at the height of the ¿shing
season, using that work of art as
it was intended to be used.”
He said the organization is
working with State Parks, the
Department of Ecology and the
Port of Ilwaco to come up with
a solution. He said the ConÀu-
ence Project has no issue with
State Parks, which has been a
“very good partner” in making
the project a success.
Ultimately, it may be desir-
able to construct a recreational
¿sh-cleaning facility with ap-
propriate wastewater treatment
in the park, but that would
“probably be an expensive and
complicated thing,” Painter
said.
On a recent afternoon, days
after the facilities at Cape Dis-
appointment were closed, sport
¿shermen drifted by, cleaning
¿sh and dumping the waste
over the side. A small Àock of
gulls followed close behind.