10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
‘To me, this house is a person’
For one home on the Cannon
Beach Cottage Tour, the woman
who lived there makes it special
By BRENNA VISSER
COAST WEEKEND
W
hen Kelly Giampa
bought her house in Can-
non Beach 15 years ago,
she didn’t expect the previous
homeowner to come with it.
Giampa wasn’t keen on Can-
non Beach at first because of its
“tourist feel,” but after seeing
“charming photos” of the inside,
she decided to give it a chance.
And when she and her husband
came for the showing, there was
an unexpected bonus: meeting the
seller of the home, Lannie Hurst, a
Portland theater icon and activist.
On the outside, the house
looked terrible, Giampa recalled.
“We almost didn’t want to go in,”
she said. “But when we walked
in, Lannie greeted us in the kitch-
en, which was unusual because
usually the seller isn’t there.”
They immediately connect-
ed and soon bonded over their
shared love of Broadway, music
and shared roots in Portland.
In the transition, Hurst quickly
became family to the Giampas.
“We told her to keep a key to the
house,” Giampa said. “It was our
house.”
The home is one of several
featured in this year’s Can-
non Beach Cottage & Garden
Tour happening Friday through
Sunday, Sept. 8 through 10. On
top of enjoying live concerts and
luncheons, people tour homes
with creative architecture, scenic
landscaping and historical signif-
icance.
Built in the 1950s, Giampa’s
home is no exception to these
features, especially after the
many years she has spent gradu-
ally renovating the outside of the
beachfront home.
A picture of Lannie Hurst, a Portland theater icon and activist, who passed way
in 2010. Her north-end home is on the Cannon Beach Cottage & Garden Tour.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Cottage tour 2017 rack card artwork