4C | SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019 | PROGRESS — R EAL E STATE
IN THE
S IUSLAW
From millwork to museums, Del Phelps knows the Siuslaw region
By Jared Anderson
Siuslaw News
Del Phelps loves real estate, and
the history of it.
“It’s probably the most enjoyable
profession I’ve ever had,” he said. “I
get to help people find a home and
make themselves happy. That’s the
biggest thing for me, to have a hap-
py customer. When I get a customer,
if they allow me, they’ll be my cus-
tomer for life. I’ll take care of them
in any way they need. In fact, I’m still
helping people I sold houses to five
years ago.”
But Phelps also loves history —
telling it, preserving it and making it.
A former Florence First Citizen, the
Berkshire Hathaway realtor has seen
the area grow from a mill town —
where he worked as a mill worker for
over three decades — to the bustling
retirement community it is today,
with communities such as Florentine
Estates, which he helped build.
“I think the kids who grow up in
this town, and the people who live
here, can always look where they’re
going if they can see where they’ve
been,” Phelps said. To learn where
the community is going, he believes
it’s vital to know where it has been.
His family has a long history in the
Siuslaw region. A grandfather, a Civ-
il War veteran, brought his family to
the area in 1888.
“I don’t know how in the world
they ever did it in those days,” Phelps
said. “They came from the Indiana
area with five kids by train to San
Francisco, but then by schooner to
Portland.”
After staying in Portland for a few
years, homesteading was opened in
the Siuslaw region. Not liking their
lives in the city, the family applied for
a homestead in Indian Creek.
“They went by covered wagon to
Eugene, then from Eugene to Rain
Rock, which is just above Maple-
ton. They went by buckboard. They
couldn’t do a covered wagon because
there is a place on Stagecoach Road
called Beacher Rock that wasn’t high
enough for a covered wagon. So they
put everything they had in hand
carts and pushed everything up eight
miles to the Indian Creek Valley to
set up their homestead.”
That is the area where Phelps grew
up.
The main industry upriver was
timber, and when Phelps graduated
high school he got a job at a sawmill
with Davidson Industries, where he
worked for 33 years. Over the course
of seven years, he worked his way up
to the head sawyer position for 20
years. He then switched over to the
planing mill.
Phelps helped institute educational
opportunities for the workers, help-
ing to cross-train employees and set
up seminars. But during the 1980s,
the industry began to wane.
“Don Lee Davidson, who owned
the mill, began telling us in the ear-
ly ‘80s that things were not looking
good on the horizon for the indus-
try. He told us that quite often in our
meetings. He was always up front
with us about the writing on the wall.
It was going to go downhill.”
While there are multiple reasons
for the decline of the logging indus-
try, the Davidson Mill was threatened
by government regulations. Around
one-third of the timber being fed to
the mill came from property owned
by Davidson.
“But the other two-thirds had
to come from Forest Service land,”
Phelps said. “And that land is where
they were starting to strict the envi-
ronmental stuff, the spotted owl and
so forth. He could see we weren’t
going to win. It was a good time to
switch gears.”
In the late ‘80s, Phelps’ then son-
in-law came to him with the idea for
a community which would come to
be known as Florentine Estates, a
443-lot subdivision on 180 acres.
“He was kind of a visionary and
wanted to do something. He started
planting ideas. I had watched Gre-
entrees Village introduced to the city
council. He needed me because I had
the contacts. So we sat down and de-
engineer on board.”
Construction work
was helpful to a lot of
the mill workers who
were losing their jobs.
“Not all of them, but
a lot of them became
regular
tradesmen,”
Phelps said. “It takes ce-
ment workers, plumb-
ers, electricians. So the
trades were building
up to serve that sub-
Berkshire Hathaway HomeSer-
division. I know a lot
vices Northwest Real Estate
of folks who transi-
Agent Del Phelps has a deep
tioned from the mills to
familial and personal history with
trade. My son was one
the Siuslaw region’s logging and
of them, he became a
home-building businesses.
painter. I’m really proud
of that, because as the
cided what could be done. I said it sawmill industry was going down
was time we do another Greentrees, and people were losing jobs, we were
creating jobs.”
only bigger.”
And they adapted well. Despite
At the time, there was a rush to
change Florence from a small mill the monumental task, there were no
town to a retirement community, major problems with construction,
with revitalization occurring all over though “we did have one thing that
hit the newspapers,” Phelps said. “I
the area.
“We wanted to make it an upscale asked my engineer what would hap-
retirement community,” Phelps said. pen if the drainage way would not be
Phelps incorporated Florentine able to hold water that comes from
Enterprises in 1987, and it took two the north. He said, ‘Well, we’re go-
years to get land, annex it into the ing to design the streets so that if the
drainage ways can’t handle the water,
city, and draw up plans.
“In 1989, we started doing our the streets will. And we’ll have a run-
construction, brought in investor off area that goes into Munsel.’ So we
money, got our bank loans lined up,” did that. And that’s exactly the way it
Phelps said. “Then we actually start- worked.”
When floods came in 1996 and 97,
ed putting housing in.”
For the first two years, Phelps split the Florentine streets were knee deep
up his day, working at the mill during in water.
“Somebody got out there in the ca-
the daytime, Florentine in the after-
noe with a fishing pole,” Phelps said.
noon.
“I was burning the candle at both “But it worked as designed.”
Since then, the city has put a by-
ends,” Phelps said. “I went into Mr.
Davidson’s one day and said, ‘Don, I pass around it and “so far we haven’t
think I’m going to have to retire be- had that tested severely,” he added.
Homes were being sold as fast as
cause I think this Florentine thing
is something I really need to do.’ He they could be built. The first year, 40.
did like he always did when he got to The second, 60.
“I knew Florentine was going
thinking. He put his feet on the desk,
hands behind his head, looked up to sell out one day, and I knew we
at the sky for a minute. ‘You know, I wouldn’t do it again. So in ‘98, I got
think you got to take the tiger by the my real estate license and started do-
tail,’ he said. ‘Run for it.’ He also said ing real estate.
And he’s been doing it ever since.
I could come back. So, I did. And it
“When it comes to real estate, I
turned out to be very successful.”
In many ways, the construction serve my customers and I’m always
business was not dissimilar from the here,” he said. “I’m 84 years old and I
do it because I love it.”
mills for Phelps.
And as a lover of history, he was
“When it came to getting on the
ground and putting lots together, also able to use his real estate skills to
roadwork, etc., it wasn’t all that dif- help bring the past to life for those in
ferent then the experiences I had,” he the present.
“In 2004, my good friend Bud
said. “It was familiar, and I had a good
Miles came to me and said, ‘I would
really like you to come on my muse-
um board and be my vice president.
We need to find a way to get into Old
Town.’”
At the time, the Siuslaw Pioneer
Museum was located in a dilapidated
building just south of the bridge. Vis-
itors were scarce, and the museum
was $20,000 in debt for a roof.
“He wanted someone he could
trust to take over,” Phelps said. “He
was the first guy I met when I moved
into Florence in 1959.”
Phelps agreed to be on the board,
and a year later, Miles stepped down
and Phelps became president. It was
around that time that the old school
house on Maple Street in Historic
Old Town Florence came up for sale.
“I immediately called a board
meeting the next day, told them what
I thought we should do. I wanted
permission to be able to sit down and
talk a deal with the owner. They al-
lowed it, and I called the real estate
company and said I would like a
meeting to talk turkey.”
Phelps was honest, stating that the
museum was in debt and disarray.
“I said, ‘I need time.’ They gave
me a six-month option and it would
cost me $1. And that’s what we did. I
talked to the bank and brainstormed.
The best thing we could do was put a
consortium together, two banks and
the Davidson family. Between the
three of those, we got $710,000. And
we went from there.”
The Siuslaw Pioneer Museum
Board hit the ground fundraising,
and with the help of interest free
loans and a Western Lane Commu-
nity Foundation grant of $200,000 at
$20,000 a year over a 10-year period,
the museum under Phelps’ direction
was able to find a new home and pay
off its debts.
This is what makes Phelps proud.
“People who live and visit here can
look back and see how things were
back then, and they get an apprecia-
tion to what they have now,” Phelps
said. “It gives them ideas and they get
visions about how things were. And
it’s exciting to them. Those kids come
in there and they are just mesmerized
by what they see. The docents that
work there will tell you that 99 per-
cent of the people that come in here
from anywhere, the last thing they
say is, ‘Hmm, best little museum on
the Oregon coast.’ And it makes me
proud that I was able to be a part of
that, with everybody’s help.”
“Delbert “Del” Phelps, long time COCBR/OAR/NAR member was recently recognized by the local “Central
Oregon Coast Board of Realtors and the Oregon Association of Realtors® for his long-term service to the Realtor
community and for his long history of service to the Florence community over the last forty some years.”
Del Phelps, Licenced Broker
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services North West
C- 541-991-7787 • O- 541-997-6000 • 800-788-3319
I am here to Serve You, whether you are Buying or Selling.
Homes, Lots, or Land
Current Projects:
SOLD
I have listed, over 80
acres of land in North
Florence city Limits
Zoned for Residential
use and am seeking
buyers, or ways to
develop this property
to better accommodate
Florence’s “work Force”
housing needs.
Come see Me!
Whether you are buying or Selling, most likely you are committing to
one of the largest FINANCIAL decisions in your life.
Wouldn’t you want a Realtor who is trusted and experienced in the
community to guide you through the process? I can be that person for you.
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services
Northwest Real Estate
Del Phelps
Delbert L. “Del” Phelps
Real Estate BROKER
1875 Hwy 101, P.O. Box 276, Florence, OR. 97439
C- 541-991-7787 * O- 541-997-6000 * 800-788-3319
<dphelps@bhhsnw.com> * efax- 503-906-9962
www.oregoncoastallistings.com • Licensed in the state of Oregon #980100207