NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Friday, July 12, 2019
Restoration of old theater moving forward
About 1,500
old bricks were
installed in facade
of La Grande’s
Liberty Theatre
By DICK MASON
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — The
renovation of the Liberty
Theatre building is keep-
ing the past alive — in more
ways than one.
Restoration
workers
have finished installing
about 1,500 old bricks at the
theater’s facade. The bricks
resemble those of the origi-
nal theater’s entrance before
it closed six decades ago.
The bricks will be a
prominent part of the
re-creation of the facade
of the old building. The
entrance will include new
doors and a metal awning
that will cover much of the
sidewalk running past it at
1010 Adams Ave. next to La
Grande City Hall.
“It will look almost
exactly as it did when the
theater was open,” said
Dale Mammen, a leader of
the Liberty Theatre resto-
ration project and a histor-
ical preservation consul-
tant for the Liberty Theatre
Foundation’s staff.
Ashley O’Toole, a mem-
ber of the Liberty Theatre
EOMG Photo/Dick Mason
A metal sign reviews the history of the Liberty Theatre in La Grande. Dale Mammen, a leader
of the Liberty Theatre restoration project and a historical preservation consultant for the
Liberty Theatre Foundation’s staff, hopes the Liberty Theatre will someday look as it did in
the 1920s when it was in its second decade of operation and named the Arcade.
The bricks at the
entrance might look famil-
iar to many area residents,
because they are from the
gym of the old Central Ele-
mentary School at K Ave-
nue and Sunset Drive. The
school and its gym were
built in 1954 but were torn
down about two years ago
Foundation’s board, said
people get excited when
they see the highly visi-
ble facade being recreated,
which is one reason focus is
being placed upon it.
“We have made it a pri-
ority because we want to
generate a buzz in the com-
munity,” O’Toole said.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Partly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny and
pleasant
Partly sunny and
delightful
Mostly sunny and
nice
90° 62°
88° 61°
after the new Central at
Second Street and H Ave-
nue was constructed.
“I can’t stress enough
how fortunate we are to
have the bricks,” O’Toole
said. “So many people went
to school (at Central).”
The old Central School
was taken down because it
86° 59°
85° 58°
94° 66°
92° 64°
91° 61°
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
87° 59°
90° 64°
OREGON FORECAST
90° 63°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
72/58
84/57
89/59
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
91/63
Lewiston
79/59
94/65
Astoria
71/58
Pullman
Yakima 89/62
79/56
93/66
Portland
Hermiston
82/62
The Dalles 94/66
Salem
Corvallis
80/59
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
88/58
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
84/58
85/52
92/56
Ontario
101/69
Caldwell
Burns
88°
65°
88°
58°
107° (2002) 42° (2008)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
81/59
0.00"
Trace
0.08"
4.55"
5.10"
5.78"
WINDS (in mph)
98/66
93/53
0.00"
0.02"
0.11"
9.59"
6.49"
7.68"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 84/54
82/60
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
90/62
87/64
87°
62°
88°
58°
107° (1897) 40° (1911)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
78/58
Aberdeen
84/61
85/63
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
78/61
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
91/62
Sat.
WSW 6-12
WNW 6-12
WSW 7-14
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
89/50
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:17 a.m.
8:44 p.m.
5:03 p.m.
2:11 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
July 16
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 114° in Thermal, Calif. Low 33° in Gothic, Colo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
vations made at the theater
in 1923, which were found
at the University of Wash-
ington. They also have pho-
tos of the theater taken that
year, two inside and one
outside. These photos are
helping the Liberty The-
atre Foundation restore the
inside and outside of the
building to what it looked
like in the 1920s.
Long-range plans call for
the Liberty Theatre build-
ing and the now vacant
and historic Putnam build-
ing next to it to be part of
the Liberty Complex. The
Putnam building, which
the Mammens own, will
include a bakery, an exten-
sive kitchen and eating
area, a stage for entertain-
ers, skylights, a dressing
room for theater perform-
ers, offices, living quar-
ters and much more. Work
on the Putnam building,
which like the Liberty The-
atre will have a mid-1920s
look, is being funded by the
Mammens.
Much of the Liberty
Theatre and Liberty Com-
plex work is being funded
by grants, including one
for $200,000 received ear-
lier this year from the Ore-
gon Main Street Project.
Mammen said $100,000 of
this grant went to the Lib-
erty Theatre and $100,000
went to the Putnam build-
ing restoration.
Oregon seed crop dodges
damage from July rain
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
was in poor condition over-
all due to its age. The same
cannot be said for the bricks
inside its gym. They are
in excellent shape because
they were not exposed to
the elements, Mammen
said. He is delighted that the
bricks will help preserve
memories of the old school.
“It is nice to be able to
help keep Central’s legacy
alive,” he said.
Crews are also continu-
ing to do extensive work on
restoring the interior of the
Liberty Theatre, which was
built in 1910 and closed in
1959, after which its facade
and lobby were torn out to
accommodate retail estab-
lishments. Work being done
now includes rebuilding the
lobby and restoring utilities,
such as water and electric-
ity. Work to be conducted in
the future includes restor-
ing the floor and balcony
seating, building a staircase
to the balcony, renovating
the stage and much more.
Mammen hopes the Lib-
erty Theatre will someday
look as it did in the 1920s
when it was in its second
decade of operation and
named the Arcade. Mam-
men and his wife, Ginny,
selected the mid-1920s
because that was when the
Liberty Theatre was at its
peak in terms of elegance
and because they have the
blueprints for major reno-
SALEM — A short
spell of unseasonable rain
in early July isn’t expected
to diminish yields for Ore-
gon seed farmers during
this summer’s harvest —
unless it persists.
While growers can typi-
cally count on dry weather
this time of year, steady
showers on July 9 and
overcast skies on July 10
probably won’t cause prob-
lems as long as the sun
soon comes back, said Tom
Chastain, seed crop physi-
ology professor at Oregon
State University.
“I don’t think we’re
looking at a disaster, it’s
just going to be a delay for
people,” Chastain said.
Roughly a half-inch of
rain fell July 9 on the cen-
tral Willamette Valley,
where much of the state’s
grass seed is produced —
the equivalent of the entire
month’s average rainfall
all in one day, he said.
The downpour was
likely too gentle to knock
seeds loose to the ground,
thereby reducing yields,
which can occur during
violent storms, he said.
“I’m not expecting a lot of
shattering, at least for the
crop that’s not cut yet.”
Sustained moisture can
induce seeds in wind-
rows to germinate, hurt-
ing quality, but forecasts
call for a return to sunny
weather that would dry
out the crop before that
occurs, Chastain said.
“I don’t think it got wet
enough for long enough for
us to have problems with
sprout,” he said, noting
that pest and fungus pres-
Capital Press Photo, File
Grass seed is harvested in a Willamette Valley field. A recent
spell of rainy weather isn’t likely to impact grass seed yields
unless the sunshine stays away for longer.
sure can also result from
prolonged moisture.
Different types of grass
seed are harvested in
stages in Oregon’s Willa-
mette Valley, with annual
ryegrass and forage-type
tall fescue being cut into
windrows, and then run
through a combine to col-
lect seed earlier than
perennial ryegrass and
turf-type tall fescue. Like-
wise, red and white clover
are harvested after crim-
son varieties.
Crops that have already
been windrowed face other
issues from rain aside
from seed shatter and ger-
mination: grass blades can
grow into the windrows,
interfering with the com-
bine’s harvesting mecha-
nism, Chastain said. That
possibility can also be
averted if sunshine soon
dries out the windrows.
In recent memory, the
area saw 0.63 inches of
rain in July 2011 and 1.12
inches in July 2014 with-
out causing serious dis-
ruptions to seed farmers,
he said. “Things were OK
those years, we didn’t have
a lot of yield problems.”
However, the 3 inches
of rain that fell in July
1983 did cause sprouting
that cut yields because the
seed was rendered unus-
able, Chastain said.
If weather forecasts
are correct and condi-
tions return to normal,
the recent rain will prob-
ably just result in a more
compressed harvest sched-
ule for growers, he said.
“They’ve got to pick up the
backlog of fields they hav-
en’t harvested plus the new
ones coming online.”
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
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