LIFESTYLES
Sons Of Guns
reunite for
new album/3C
9 hacks to
drink wine
better/4C
WEEKEND, JANUARY 30-31, 2016
Snowshoeing
gains in
popularity/10C
Pendleton House owners recover
Prohibition stash during renovation
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
They say a good Scotch whisky only gets
better with time.
Tracy Bosen and Kevin Michel will test
that notion when they uncork one of the
three vintage bottles of whisky they found
during a renovation project at their Pendleton
bed-and-breakfast, at 311 North Main St.
The owners of Pendleton House are in
the process of remodeling the 1917 Italian
Renaissance-style home by removing
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replacing them with private bathrooms. The
whisky bottle discovery came in the bedroom
once inhabited by original owners Lowell and
Minnie Rogers.
“The master bedroom has two large
closets,” Bosen said. “On the blueprints, one
closet is marked ‘Mr. Rogers’ and the other is
marked ‘Mrs. Rogers.’”
A few weeks ago, Bosen and Michel
decided to tear out a built-in chest of drawers
from Mrs. Rogers’ old closet before the
carpenters arrived the next day. As they
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noticed a hidden compartment in a place
where the dresser and a perpendicular shoe
bin converged.
“I wonder what’s in there,” one of them
mused.
But, distracted by the task at hand, they
forgot about the box and continued removing
drawers.
“We forgot about it until the next day when
the construction guys came and one of them
started tearing out the shoe bin,” Bosen said.
“They took the lid off and inside were three
bottles of Scottish whisky.”
One of them called to Bosen and Michel,
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with incredulity at the trio of bottles of Teach-
er’s Highland Cream Blended Scotch whisky.
An inspection showed no date on the labels
or molded into the glass, but one bottle was
wrapped in a strip of yellowed newspaper,
bearing the date Dec. 19, 1930.
“Immediately I got onto Google and
researched when Prohibition was,” Bosen
said.
He discovered that the nationwide ban on
alcohol lasted from 1920 to 1933. The bottles
each have a U.S. Internal Revenue tax stamp,
a thin strip of paper that loops over the top.
Since William Teacher & Sons LTD is still in
business, the men may attempt to contact the
company and pin down a manufacture date.
Besides the whisky, the men have discov-
ered other clues to past occupants as they
renovated the house they purchased in 2013.
When they tore out the dumbwaiter, which
had not worked for years, they discovered
that Mr. Rogers was likely a cigar smoker.
“There were a bunch of stogie butts on top
of the dumbwaiter box,” Bosen said. “He had
stuck them through a knothole and they had
landed there.”
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throughout the city. Another discovery was
a blank check from an account at Inland
Empire Bank, where Rogers served on the
board of directors.
The men are partnered in business
Lowell Rogers
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The owners of the Pendleton House found three bottles of Teachers Whiskey while reno-
vating one of the closets in their bed and breakfast recently in Pendleton.
Minnie Rogers
“There’s no other home
like it in Pendleton. It’s
just very unique. It’s
cool to own a piece of
Pendleton history.”
— Kevin Michel, co-owner of
Pendleton House
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The 6,000+-square-foot Pendleton House was built in 1917 by Lowell and Minnie Rogers
and is now a bed and breakfast owned by Tracy Bosen and Kevin Michel.
and also in life. Bosen said Michel was
especially drawn to the home several years
ago after they spotted it. They drove around
the block twice to get a better look.
Serendipitously, they became friends with
the last owner, Marijo Baird. When Baird put
it up for sale, they bought the place.
“There’s no other home like it in Pend-
leton. It’s just very unique,” Michel said. “It’s
cool to own a piece of Pendleton history.”
In renovating the 6,000+-square-foot
home, the men must straddle the line between
historic and modern, Michel said. They are
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Tracy Bozen, co-owner of the Pendleton House, gestures to a built-in closet dresser
where three bottles of Teachers Whisky was discovered during recent renovations.
bringing the central vacuum and intercom
systems back to life and are maintaining an old
European shower with a network of pipes that
surround the bather and spray from multiple
angles. They wouldn’t dream of removing
ornate ceilings, old ice delivery doors, the
bathroom chandelier or a four-person elevator
installed in 1947 for the Rogers’ daughter,
Gwendolyn, who had polio.
“We want it to be kind of a time capsule,”
Michel said of the house.
In a nod to modernity, they made some
adjustments so guests can stay connected.
“The walls are so thick in this house,”
he said. “We have to have router boosters
all over the house so everyone can use their
devices. Everyone wants Wi-Fi.”
Back in the day, Bosen said, the home
“was kind of a party a house. There were lots
of social events held here.”
One year in the ’20s, Pendleton High
School held the prom in the home’s basement
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Pink is a prominent color at the Pendleton
House.
“Pink is the most noticeable aspect of the
house,” Bosen said. “It’s pervasive. Mrs.
Rogers loved pink. They must have bought
pink by the barrel.”
They’ve heard stories about Mrs. Rogers
driving a pink Caddie and coloring her poodle
pink. The elevator and many of the rooms
remain a pale pink and the outside is painted a
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a fellowship hall at Pendleton’s First Presby-
terian Church with the caveat that pink would
always be included in the color scheme. The
hall, dubbed the Rogers Room, still has pink
accents.
The couple’s wealth came from growing
and canning peas. According to local historian
Keith May, Lowell and his brother-in-law
Harold Bennett planted wheat and peas
near Adams. They developed a method of
canning peas and started the Rogers Canning
Company in 1935.
Lowell died in 1954 at age 70 and Minnie
died in 1950 at 77. Gwendolyn lived in the
house until she died in 1987. Black-and-white
portraits of Lowell and Minnie hang in the
upstairs hallway.
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owners, said the Rogers built the house for
$50,000. The property is now appraised at
$380,000. The list of past owners includes
Ernie Rostock who bought it in the late ’80s,
Sandy Parker who purchased the house in
1993 and Baird, who bought it in 2006.
The owners encourage long-time Pendle-
tonians who knew the Rogers to share stories
about the place. One such tale involves the
Rogers’ grandson Berkeley Lowell “Pat”
Davis, the son of the Rogers’ daughter
Mildred. One day, the story goes, young
Pat hid from his Aunt Gwendolyn, who was
babysitting. When she couldn’t locate her
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found the boy in one of the home’s many
nooks and crannies.
“The sheriff took care of the discipline,”
Bosen said.
Bosen held up one of the bottles and stared
into the liquid amber. He said he and Michel
will likely open one of the bottles, probably
the one with a label that has come partially
unglued, on a special occasion.
“They say that whisky and scotch get
better with age,” he said. “I would assume
this is probably pretty good stuff.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastorego-
nian.com or call 541-966-0810.