Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations A publication of the Willamette Heritage Center at The Mill Digital Proofer Editor: Keni Sturgeon, Willamette Heritage Center Editorial board: Willamette Valley Vo... Hannah Marshall, Western Oregon University Authored by Willamette Heritag... Duke Morton, Western Oregon University 7.0" x 10.0" (17.78 x 25.40 cm) Jeffrey Sawyer, Western Oregon University Black & White on White paper Amy Vandegrift, Willamette Heritage Center 78 pages ISBN-13: 9781478201755 ISBN-10: 1478201754 Please carefully review your Digital Proof download for formatting, grammar, and design issues that may need to be corrected. We recommend that you review your book three times, with each time focusing on a different aspect. Check the format, including headers, footers, page 1 numbers, spacing, table of contents, and index. 2 Review any images or graphics and captions if applicable. 3 Read the book for grammatical errors and typos. Once you are satisfied with your review, you can approve your proof and move forward to the next step in the publishing process. To print this proof we recommend that you scale the PDF to fit the size © 2012 Willamette Heritage Center at The Mill of your printer paper. Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations is published biannually – summer and winter – by the Willamette Heritage Center at The Mill, 1313 Mill Street SE, Salem, OR 97301. Nothing in the journal may be reprinted in whole or part without written permission from the publisher. Direct inquiries to Curator, Willamette Heritage Center, 1313 Mill Street SE, Salem, OR 97301 or email [email protected]. www.willametteheritage.org Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations In This Issue A Journal of Willamette Valley History This edition of Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations is the first of the Willamette Volume 1 Summer 2012 Number 1 Heritage Center’s new biannual publication. The goal of the journal is to provide a showcase for scholarly writing pertaining to History and Heritage in the Oregon’s Willamette Valley, south of Portland, written by scholars, students, heritage professionals and historians - professional and amateur. The Importance of Public Space as Community Anchors Its purpose is to promote historical scholarship focused on the communities of the area. Each edition is Joy Sears themed to orient authors and readers to widely varied and important topics in Valley history. 4 Willamette Valley Voices’ first edition shares articles about Public Spaces. Public spaces, both built and Dancing its Way into your Heart: Cottonwoods Ballroom 1930-1960 natural, anchor the Valley’s communities and shape and inform community identities. Identity-making Toni Rush and Jim Creighton around community anchors is an important way to reinvigorate city centers and downtowns. Civic 9 institutions and public spaces help create vibrant towns and destinations, as well as serve as catalysts for revitalizing the neighborhoods and areas around them. Salem School Names Fritz Juengling The articles in this first issue vary greatly in topic, but generally seem to fall into three areas: Those that 18 focus on history specific to a city, town or place - “Dancing its Way into your Heart: Cottonwoods Oregon State Insane Asylum: A Sanctuary Ballroom 1930-1960” by Toni Rush & Jim Creighton and “Salem School Names” by Fritz Juengling; Dianne Huddleston topics that have a largely statewide emphasis, though they also have broader implications - “Oregon 31 State Insane Asylum: A Sanctuary” by Diane Huddleston and “The First Women to Cross the Continent by Covered Wagon, Welcomed by Dr. John McLoughlin in 1836: Thoughts on Pathways of Heritage” The First Women to Cross the Continent by Covered Wagon, Welcomed by Dr. John by Rosalynn Rothstein; and finally those place a Willamette Valley public space into a more regional McLoughlin in 1836: Thoughts on Pathways of Heritage and/or national context or story – “The Big Green: Historical Perspectives on the Willamette National Rosalynn Rothstein Forest, 1893-1993” by John Scott, “St. Louis Woman: Marie Dorion and the St. Louis Cemetery” by 38 Johan Mathiesen and “A House Built of Cedar Planks” by David G. Lewis. What the authors in this issue think about the places they described and investigated says as much about what is important to us The Big Green: Historical Perspectives on the Willamette National Forest, 1893-1993 today as it does about the pasts of these public spaces. John Scott 44 Exploring the Valley’s heritage is a part of a continuing process and dialogue of which Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations is the newest vehicle for preserving the Valley’s history and St. Louis Woman: Marie Dorion and the St. Louis Cemetery sharing its stories. Johan Mathiesen 62 Keni Sturgeon, A House Built of Cedar Planks Curator and Editor David G. Lewis 70 Image, cover: The 8th grade class and two teachers in front of the second Hayesville School (c1915). It was built in 1909 and burned down in 1923. Image courtesy of the Willamette Heritage Center. The Importance of Public Space as Community Anchors One of the great spaces on the university campus is the pioneer cemetery on the edge of campus. Cemeteries are Joy Sears, Restoration Specialist sometimes treated as parks in urban areas like Eugene Oregon’s State Historic Preservation Office and Salem, and I love to wander through them. To some, this may seem a morbid fascination but cemeteries are a The University of Oregon campus; the Jacksonville Cemetery; Mount Hood National Forest; fact of life. Without the settlers and pioneers who came sidewalks in historic residential neighborhoods; and the Wallowa County Courthouse Square in before us, we would not have spaces like the cemetery Enterprise. Other than being some of my favorite public spaces, they are all composed of both that teach us about the history of an area, cemetery art natural and built environment elements. Public spaces are liked for a range of reasons that and funerary practices. Whenever I am in Jacksonville, allow you to be part of a gathering or to be alone with your thoughts. All in all, the afore Oregon, one of my favorite things to do is to stroll mentioned array of public spaces are just a few of the wonderful locations that are our through one of the oldest cemeteries in Oregon. The community anchors, and are important aspects of our society. I have always been drawn to Jacksonville Cemetery, with tons of great headstones, these places no matter what city, state or country I have been visiting. These public spaces say monuments and large trees, is located on a hill just as much about our history as they do about how we live today. overlooking downtown. I find the deer are as frequent visitors as people. Cemeteries can even be thought of a I have lived in old houses with my family all my life, and a majority of my relatives lived in green space as they, like Jacksonville Cemetery, usually older houses, so I was always around a mostly rural and do-it-yourself environment. When I cover a large amount of acreage. was a kid, my love of old buildings lead me to believe that I should be an architect when I grew up. As I went to college, I realized, that despite my love of old buildings, being an Figure 1. Gravestone of an Oregon Most of our open green spaces were set aside for a Pioneer in the Jacksonville Cemetery. architect was not for me. So I stayed rooted in my fine arts background and included some reason. One of the green spaces that was thankfully set Courtesy of the Friends of Jacksonville's architectural history and American studies along the way. After I spent time in Europe Historic Cemetery, Inc. aside by the federal government for present and future exploring their centuries of history, I began to learn more about historic preservation, which I generations is Mount Hood National Forest, which is my favorite camping area. Why? immersed myself in upon my return to the States. When I pursued an American studies minor Granted it is not a place for everyone, but it is open, forested, remote and generally quiet, and began to discuss historic preservation with my professor as a potential career path, he told depending on what area you visit. My favorite campground, deep in the forest, is a place I go me that I needed to move to get greater exposure and experience. Toward that end, I looked at to get away and commune with nature. There is no electricity, running water or improved the list of universities that offered master’s degree programs in preservation. He told me that it restrooms. Inevitably wildlife shows up to visit. Campfires are great. In the end, I think about had to be my decision to choose where to attend school. Since I didn't know exactly what path not going home. I wanted to take, I looked for programs with a more hands-on focus and in the end, applied to vastly different programs at the University of Vermont and the University of Oregon, far from Speaking of home, when I first moved to Salem in 2005, I immediately started looking around my Midwestern roots. the neighborhood, which I later learned was called Grant Neighborhood, where the State Historic Preservation Office in the North Mall Office Building is located. I have never been When I was accepted to the preservation program at the University of Oregon, though I had one for commuting long distances or paying for parking at work, so I was looking for a small been to the state on vacation in the past with my family, I came to the university sight unseen house with a yard within easy walking distance.