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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2018)
A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM HISTORY Continued from Page A1 bad thing — it contributed to the reputation Hermis- ton still has today of being a friendly, welcoming town where it doesn’t mat- ter whether you were born there. “In some respects, peo- ple had more to do with each other and not so much with the things we have,” he said. It has also made it eas- ier to develop and modern- ize without worrying about historic preservation. The downside is that today Hermiston lacks the “historic downtown” approach to draw tourists. There is no grand, historic city hall building. The Oasis theater that used to sit on Main Street is gone, as is the old hotel. A tall brick cathe- dral with stained glass win- dows from the early days of the city was replaced with a Chevron station. Dick Lowry, another of Hermiston’s unoffi- cial historians, said Herm- iston “tends to tear things down” to clear the way for new buildings. None of the schools Lowry attended are still standing. He was par- ticularly sad to see the old Sandstone school building go, as he remembered hop- ing for a fire drill as a stu- dent so he could go down the giant slide that served as a fire escape. “It was just a great old building and they tore it down,” he said. “There were some other great buildings torn down. Some just wore out, like the Old Oregon Hotel.” He said Hermiston has some old homes around still, but they blend in, such as L.A. Moore’s old home on the corner of Highland Avenue and 11th Street. “That’s nothing spectac- ular, and he was a million- aire,” he said. Preservation projects Hermiston does have a few historic buildings that residents are working to preserve. Mitch Myers has renovated a number of his- toric buildings over the years. He turned a 75-year- old car dealership building into Nookies Restaurant and more recently turned a rail- road storage building from 1914 into the Maxwell Sid- ing Event Center. He is currently work- ing on two other preserva- tion projects. He is turn- ing the “coal bin building” off of North First Place into a retail/restaurant space he plans to lease to busi- nesses that will “pay honor to that building,” which he believes is the oldest in Hermiston. Myers is also working on the building on the corner of Highway 395 and Main Street that housed Hermis- ton’s first bank in 1910. F.B. Swayze, the bank’s owner, was a powerful influence in Hermiston for decades and the first place people stopped when they arrived. While the main floor held the bank operations, Swayze used affordable rental space upstairs to entice a doc- tor, dentist, optometrist and other services to Hermiston over the years. “He was a real driver in the area,” Myers said. The main floor has been used for retail space in recent decades, but when Myers purchased it he was able to track down several original aspects of the bank, including the teller’s desk, and restore it to the build- ing. What he couldn’t find original, he restored as close as he could get, including $200,000 worth of mahog- any. He is using the down- stairs as offices for his com- pany, Mitco Investments. Now Myers has turned his attention to the upstairs, which had been stripped down to the floor joists and become a mess of rot and dead pigeons. “If we hadn’t come in when we did, the way the roof was pulling it, I’d say within five years we would have lost the downstairs too,” he said. Instead Myers poured resources into rescuing and rebuilding the upstairs, restoring it to a three-bed- room apartment he plans to rent out by the night. He is attempting to restore it to as close as possible to its orig- inal Victorian look, track- ing down everything from furniture to floor tiles to stained glass windows from that era. He purchased the vividly-patterned wallpa- pers from a specialist in New York that uses authen- tic old-time presses and techniques to replicate what the wallpaper of the day WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2018 FROM A1 would look and feel like. “You’ll be paying to get a glimpse of 1910,” Myers said. He plans to have an open house for the public once the project is completed within the next few weeks. Down the street a reno- vation of another of Herm- iston’s historic buildings is underway as a group of investors turns the old Roe- Mark’s building — built in 1907 and home to numer- ous businesses over the last century — back into the Union Club, a bar that existed during Hermiston’s mid-century boom. Myers said a group of roughly 25 citizens have revived the Hermiston Her- itage Association and are working on creating a list of buildings in Hermiston they will ask the city council to provide special protections for. “It’s way too easy to tear something down and put up an ugly brick building,” he said, noting the environ- mental and structural chal- lenges that come with reno- vating historic buildings. Preserving artifacts Preserving history isn’t just about buildings. Bar- bara Lund-Jones, execu- tive director of the Umatilla County Historical Society, said the society’s museum in Pendleton does have a Hermiston exhibit, but the society would love to add to its small collection of artifacts from Hermiston’s history. “That is one area in which we would like to expand,” she said. “... Hermiston’s story is very important, and we would certainly be encouraging people to share more of that.” Items currently on dis- play include information on the two rival companies that helped create Hermiston and the history of the Uma- tilla Army Depot. It also points out that the Shari’s restaurant chain began with a restaurant in Hermiston. “We have the very first uniform worn by the very first waitress on the very first day,” she said. Lund-Jones said it doesn’t matter if Umatilla County communities are preserving their own history through their own museums or donating items to the his- torical society, “as long as it is being preserved.” CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Special Olympics tournament director Kristi Smalley, center, is pictured with Jason Sperr, Elizabeth Sperr, Cindy Rogers and Randy Sperr, winners of the 13th annual Hermiston/ Pendleton Special Olympics Local Program #510 fundraising golf tournament, held Aug. 11 at Echo Hills Golf Course. BTW Continued from Page A1 there are opportunities to give blood over the next month. Good Shepherd Health Care System will be holding blood drives on Monday from 12:30-6 p.m. and on Aug. 30 from noon to 5:30 p.m. at the hospital. A blood drive will be held at the Boardman Pool and Recreation Cen- ter from noon to 5 p.m. on Aug. 24 and in Heppner at the Morrow County Fair on Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Donors can find infor- mation about blood drives in their area and make an appointment by download- ing the free American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit- ing RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). • • • After traveling miles and miles to see Sawyer Brown several times over the years, Hermiston resi- dent Heather Weems was looking forward to hear- ing the country group play in her own backyard. The band provided a Kodak moment for the longtime fan during their Aug. 7 Main Stage performance at the Umatilla County Fair. Weems, who has been a fan since she was 8 years old, and her daughter, Michelle Weems, 16, wore big smiles as they posed for a photo with mem- bers of the band. Sawyer Brown has cruised across the country living the life of a ‘travelin’ band,” as one of their hit songs says, since in 1981. • • • A foursome calling themselves “Hole in 1,” which included Randy Sperr, Jason Sperr, Eliz- abeth Sperr and Cindy Rogers, shot a 55 to win the Hermiston/Pendleton Special Olympics Local Program #510 fundrais- ing golf tournament. In its 13th year, the four-person scramble event teed off Aug. 11 at Echo Hills Golf Course. The “Best Dressed Team” award went to Kraft- maid Cabinets with Jeff Edmundson, Gaylord Allen, Mitchell McClan- nahan and Madison McClannahan. Tournament director Kristi Smalley said more than $6,000 was raised, thanks to the support of local businesses and indi- viduals. Gold medal sponsors included Uma- tilla Electric Coopera- tive, Knights of Colum- bus Our Lady of Angels Council #3999, A & A Mini Storage, Roger’s Toyota of Hermiston and Jim Purswell’s Pumps Co., Inc. Special Olympics pro- vides year-round athletic training and sports com- petitions for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabili- ties. For more information, contact Smalley at 541- 567-1546 or smalleys@ eotnet.net. GoodHealth LIVE Learn about how a joint replacement can help reduce your pain! . 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From online now August 31, 2018 access the the survey From until now until August 2018 you you may may access survey of that 31, survey. online online at www.HermistonHerald.com/hh/readersurvey at www.HermistonHerald.com/hh/readersurvey Hosted by Good Shepherd Advanced Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Institute September 5, 2018 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. At Good Shepherd Health Care System Conference Center 1 and 2 610 Ni 11th Street Hermiston, OR 97838 From now until August 31, 2018 you may access the survey From online now until August 31, 2018 you may access the survey at www.HermistonHerald.com/hh/readersurvey online at www.HermistonHerald.com/hh/readersurvey RSVP https://gsmgortho.eventbrite.com For Info Call 541-667-3509 Or watch on FacebookLive at www.facebook.com/gshcsnews J.M. Jeremy Anderson, D.O. Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon Thank you for helping us to make the Hermiston Herald and HermistonHerald.com Thank you even for helping to make to the Hermiston Herald that and we HermistonHerald.com more us valuable the communities serve. even more valuable to the communities that we serve. Thank you for helping us to make the Hermiston Herald and HermistonHerald.com Patrick Harrison, D.O., Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon ADVANCED ORTHOPEDIC & SPORTS MEDICINE INSTITUTE