The Northeast Oregon Economic Development District and Mainstreet Oregon staff have been crucial in helping us develop a downtown corridor plan that will help business owners with storefront renovations. Old buildings are now getting new life. I drove by the purple church today (yes, you read it right) and it is getting a new roof and the paint is getting finished on the outside of the building. It sits right on Main Street and, as one would expect, attracts a LOT of attention. It used to be rather dilapidated, and you should have heard the comments until it started to get pulled together. Now some of those same people say "Hey, that's not too bad!". A block away from that sits the old Methodist church building, complete with belfry. Bells have not pealed out for some time now but there is hope as it was recently donated to the Nez Perce tribe. And across the street from that sits the old Burrow’s Café. A charming place that has changed hands a few times but is still in business under a new name. The café used to belong to Beth’s uncle’s mother and father and the original sign is in their backyard.
The old Coleman and Chrisman building was purchased by a gentleman out of Walla Walla, who owns a winery. The old Shell's Mercantile building is being converted into shop spaces, which I hear tell might even include a tackle shop. One of our neighbors was the driving force behind getting an abandoned lot right on Main Street converted into Memorial Park. It is a fantastic addition to the town. The old telephone building now houses midwifery and is the temporary location of one of the new clinics that are coming to town. This clinic is building a new building on the west end of town, with the other clinic remodeling a building that previously housed a shop wherein they built handcrafted recurve bows.
Even our high school is getting a much-needed facelift. Local citizens passed a bond levy that will fund the construction. If it turns out anything like the picture on the cover of the plans that I saw at the courthouse the other day, the renovation is going to be spectacular.
If I mentioned this before, please forgive me, but since I’m new to blogging, I figure I could get a hall pass. The east end of town has Melincko’s, a museum of flight that is a real draw and is a fantastic addition to our community. Laureano is a gift when it comes to his knowledge of flight. Just west of it is our local grocery store and across the street from that sits the newly renovated building which used to house the old movie theater. The little green building next to that used to house a bakery. I can still smell the bread…
On the other end of town, there’s the local gas station/convenience store and a drive-in that has been there since sometime in the ’70s (we think). We’d ask Rhonda but she’s closed up for the night. And then one of the meccas…the old Forest Service complex that was donated for use to the Wallowa History Center, headed by Beth’s aunt. She’s the town historian. I love parking my rig in front of her house because I find folders with pictures of the projects we’re working on in the seat of my pickup. It’s AWESOME!
Why am I telling you all of this? Tune in to the next post and we’ll talk about the Nez Perce tribe, the Homeland project, the timber bronze 53 grain elevator complex, and how it all fits together.