Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
September 19, 2018
A5
PEELING THE ONION
Litch building restoration moving forward
Developer
finds treasures
in Enterprise
structure
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
A good bit of structural
work remains to be done in the
Litch Building on the corner of
River and Main in Enterprise,
but developer Andy McKee of
McKee Brothers Investments
says it’s like a treasure hunt
inside the building.
“We’re not just slapping
a coat of paint on this stuff,”
he said. “We are starting from
scratch and trying to restore
history that was basically cov-
ered up for 80 years.”
Starting from scratch
included removing what has
been layered onto the orig-
inal building. In tearing out
lathe and plaster, huge dou-
ble doors, arches and windows
have been revealed. Bowlby
stone with hand-chisel marks
from the early 1900s have
been uncovered.
Stained glass windows, rare
textured glass windows made
with chicken wire embedded
in it, an ancient freight elevator
and a steel header that runs the
full length of the front of the
building are other revelations.
That elevator is mystifying
workers. That massive length
of steel was transported to
Enterprise before the railroad
was available. How did build-
ers do that?
Even the alley out back is
the “coolest side of the build-
ing,” McKee said.
A group of city council
members and a few fans of
McKee’s work gathered in late
August to hear about his prog-
ress and vision.
“My vision is to restore
it back to its original flavor,”
he said. “I think it would be
best for Enterprise to have
the facade historically correct.
This is not easy to do.”
Restoration includes find-
ing giant 850-pound win-
dow frames, which must be
restored out of old-growth
fir, finding matching glass or
having artisans recreate glass
that is no longer available
commercially.
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Andy McKee explains his ambitious vision for the historic Litch Building during a walk-through tour taken by Enterprise City
Council, Aug. 21.
An example of the aged wir-
ing McKee’s crew had to
completely tear out and re-
place in the Litch Building.
RECOGNIZING THE RICHES OF ENTERPRISE
Courtesy photo
The Litch Building on Main and River Street in Enterprise.
“Just to salvage this floor
alone, in what used to be Sugar
Time Bakery, we had three
weeks of manpower in here:
it was Pergo over old linoleum
panels that were asphalted on,”
McKee said.
McKee is also balancing his
intent to create the new spaces
inside as modern and energy
efficient as possible keeping in
mind what will rent.
“There’s a reason why
rental turnover is so high here,
and that’s because nobody has
figured out the right recipe,” he
said. “That’s really what we’re
trying to do — figure out the
right recipe.”
That means experimenta-
tion and a bit of risk-taking.
“We don’t necessarily
know what will work. This is
kind of an evolving process,”
McKee said. “My biggest hur-
dle and struggle is there are
only a limited amount of peo-
ple in the county who want to
go into business — most of
those people have their own
businesses. With 80 percent
of Main Street in Enterprise
vacant, how do we get people
to say ‘hey, I want to take my
business to Enterprise.’”
Putting the “we” in down-
town revitalization is crucial
to its success, McKee says,
noting the work of other revi-
talization entrepreneurs on
Main Street: Michael and Jody
Berry, Darrell Brann and Bill
Warnock and Michelle Starr.
But support also needs to come
from all of the existing down-
town businesses.
To that end McKee would
like to see a “why not Enter-
prise” movement.
“If I don’t have the com-
munity support, I’d rather go
somewhere else,” he said.
“I hashtag all our (commu-
nications) with ‘why not
Enterprise?’”
More help may be com-
ing in the form of grants. His-
torical tours of Enterprise are
being scheduled with grantors
who have already expressed an
interest in the restoration and
revitalization of not only the
The corner section of the Litch
Building was built in the 1880s as a
saloon and was partially destroyed by
fire in 1901. A single story was rebuilt by
W.K. Funk and Sons.
Sam Litch bought the building and
added a second story 1901-10, the
same period in which his architect,
Calvin R. Thorton, also built the Wallowa
County Courthouse. Thorton actually
died as a result of a construction
accident during the Litch Building
project, McKee said.
McKee’s plans for the building
remain mostly the same as when he
first undertook the restoration: eight
apartments and three temporary rental
Litch Building but the entire
Main Street.
Representatives from the
State Historic Preservation
Association have visited McKee
before and will visit again soon.
“When I bought this
(Litch) building, the pres-
ervation coordinator for the
COME
ON
DOWN
units upstairs, remodeled retail spaces in
the 10,000 square feet below.
There may be more short-term rental
units in the Litch building because
McKee’s early experience turning a
luxury apartment in the Burnaugh
Building into short-term has been
extraordinarily successful.
“People are like, ‘Oh man, I had no
idea Enterprise was so cool,’” McKee
said. “I think having people stay here in
something cool and historic is going to
benefit Enterprise.”
McKee is also completing construction
of new micro-offices in the Burnaugh
Building that rent for $300 to $400
monthly with all services included.
whole state called me and
said ‘please save that build-
ing’ because it has been on the
radar for a long time,” McKee
said.
Community support is
essential to obtaining the grants.
McKee’s work on the exte-
rior of the building has been
stalled recently as he works
his way through a State His-
toric Preservation Association
facade grant and family busi-
ness — he has recently moved
his 80-year-old mother to the
county.
“This building is my Ever-
est,” McKee said.
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