Vista House

Look through any picture book of Oregon, and you can be sure there will be a photograph of the Vista House, perched on a promontory 733-feet above the Columbia River at Crown Point. With its awe-inspiring view and unparalleled setting, it serves as one of the most recognizable sites along the Columbia Gorge and a true Oregon icon.
The Historic Columbia River Highway was designed in 1913 to connect a series of waterfalls, scenic vistas, and natural wonders along the south side of the Columbia River, east of Portland. It was the first scenic road in America and combined traditional European and modern road-building techniques to create a spectacular highway that blended well with the landscape. Referred to as the “King of Roads,” it was a popular drive for early Portland motorists.
The story goes that Julius Meier, of Meier and Frank, had a summer home in Corbett at the western edge of the Columbia River Highway and one day took a group of ladies for a Sunday drive along the recently completed road. During the outing, it became obvious to him that there was a dire need for a comfort station or rest stop somewhere along the route. He immediately presented the idea to the Multnomah Board of County Commissioners. Samuel Lancaster, the county engineer who had supervised the building of the Columbia River Highway, had already expressed interest in constructing a building at Crown Point. He wanted “an observatory from which the view both up and down the Columbia could be viewed in silent communion with the infinite.”

Early plans called for a simple concrete and wood rest stop to serve travelers; a modest structure costing about $17,000. Edgar Lazarus, a Portland architect, designed Vista House in 1915 in the German Art Nouveau style and, thanks to the leadership and inspiration of Portland’s movers and shakers, the indistinct comfort station evolved into the beautiful building of today. The floors, stairs and wainscoting were covered with rare Tokeen Alaskan marble; the interior of the rotunda was lined with creamy, pink Kasota limestone; the inside dome was painted to resemble marble and bronze; gray sandstone was used to face the exterior; green tiles covered the roof; and the upper windows were designed with greenish, opalized glass. Of course, all these improvements and embellishments came with a high price tag, and by the time the building was completed, the costs had soared to over $100,000. County taxpayers who ultimately had to pick up the tab became increasingly disgruntled, leading one local newspaper to refer to the project as “the most expensive comfort station in the world.”

Despite the protests, the building was dedicated on May 5, 1918, amid much hoopla. For years, it served as a rest stop for motorists, a monument to Oregon pioneers, and an architectural treasure on the historic Columbia River Highway. Its location at the highest point along the road also made it vulnerable to the extreme weather conditions of the wind-swept Gorge. Over time, rainwater seeped into the rotunda damaging the marble wainscoting, stained glass windows, and terrazzo floors. Well-intentioned but ill-conceived attempts to weatherproof the structure actually caused more damaged. Vents were covered, windows were replaced with double-pane glass, skylights were covered with concrete. These repairs trapped moisture inside the building and the interior began to deteriorate badly. Crumbling masonry and falling tiles created a danger to visitors and Vista House was closed to the public in 2001.

Fundraising by local public and private agencies including Friends of Vista House and Oregon State Parks Trust helped generate the $4 million needed for repairs. The original daylighting design and natural ventilation systems were restored; a new glazed green tile roof was installed, new energy efficient restrooms and a sanitary system added; stained glass replaced; new interpretive exhibits and security system were added; and the building was made ADA accessible for all to enjoy.

City of Roses

It’s June and the City of Roses is gearing up for another Rose Festival, another Grand Floral Parade, and another year of celebrating the city’s best known flower. When locals and out-of-towners want to stop and smell the roses, they generally head for the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. But, Portland has another rose garden; one that is older and bigger, but not as well known.
Located in the Piedmont neighborhood in North Portland, Peninsula Park is bordered by Rosa Parks Way on the north and Ainsworth Avenue on the south with Albina and Kerby forming the east and west sides. The inspiration for the park was the City Beautiful Movement of the early 1900s, a nationwide effort at urban revitalization aimed at making cities more attractive and appealing places with parks, recreational opportunities, and community pride. While Portland lacked the industrial blight of older, Eastern cities, it was experiencing a period of rapid growth and expansion and prime for some urban development. The city responded by hiring the Olmsted Brothers, the premier landscape architects of that time, to visit the city and develop an open space and park plan. Their contributions continue to be enjoyed today in many of the city’s most popular parks- Forest, Washington, Laurelhurst, Sellwood, Mt. Tabor, Westmoreland, Peninsula and others.

The 16-acre parcel of land designated for Peninsula Park was purchased in 1909 for $60,000 and, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation, was formerly the site of a roadhouse and horse racetrack owned by businesswoman Liverpool Liz. When completed in 1913, the land was transformed into an outstanding example of a neighborhood park of that era, and included a community center with swimming pool, children’s playground, and Portland’s first public rose garden.
The two acres devoted to the garden were laid out in a formal, classic, European-style with symmetrical rows, neatly trimmed boxwood hedges outlining the flower beds, brick pathways, and a large water fountain and pool in the center. The sunken garden was situated six feet below street level and contained nearly 9,000 roses representing 65 varieties. The official rose of Portland, Mme. Caroline Testout, was cultivated here and can still be seen growing in the garden. This deep pink rose was extremely popular at the turn of the century. After World War I, the city planted 10,000 of them along 20 miles of street ways; thus earning the moniker, City of Roses.

Overlooking the garden is an ornate, octagonal band shell built in 1913. It served as the setting for patriotic rallies during World War I and is now a popular venue for summer weddings and concerts. The last of its kind in Portland, the building is a National Heritage Historical Structure and official Portland Historic Landmark.
When the rose garden first opened in 1913, it was an immediate hit and received over 300,000 visitors in the first year. Floral enthusiasts made it the home of the annual rose show. In the meantime, the city with the support of the American Rose Society was developing a rose test garden in Washington Park on Portland’s west side. When the International Rose Test Garden opened in 1917, rose festival activities moved there leaving Peninsula Park’s lovely garden to enjoy its quiet, neighborhood ambiance.
While on the eastside of town, another place to view an outstanding assortment of roses is in the Ladd’s Addition Rose Gardens. This urban, residential neighborhood in southeast Portland off Hawthorne Avenue was originally laid out in 1891. While most of the area streets are on a grid system, the Ladd’s Addition consists of diagonal streets extending outward from a central park. At each of the four compass points are diamond-shaped rose gardens with a total of 3,000 plants.

Not in Portland, but another charming rose garden on the eastside is the Sara Hite Memorial Rose Garden located on Kellogg Creek Road in the southeast suburb of Milwaukie, across from the Milwaukie Senior Center. With over 450 rose bushes in neatly manicured beds, the garden also features a lovely gazebo, large brick plaza, and plenty of benches for stopping and smelling the roses.

Mt. St. Helens: It's a Blast

Thirty years have passed since that fateful day in May when the landscape of a chunk of western Washington suddenly and dramatically changed forever. On the morning of May 18, 1980, a 5.1 earthquake centered at Mt. St. Helens triggered the largest landslide in recorded history. This, in turn, set off a massive eruption when trapped gases and super-heated ash spewed 60,000’ into the air. When it was all over, 230 square miles of forest were flattened, 57 people lost their lives, and 1300’ in elevation disappeared from the mountain.

Today, you can view a much quieter volcano and learn more about that eventful day by visiting one of several visitor centers and interpretive sites in Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The easiest and most popular access route is from the western side along Highway 504 (exit 49 on Interstate 5). Five miles west of the freeway is the Silver Lake Visitors Center operated by Washington State Parks. Admission is $3 and this is the only facility open year-round.
Displays feature information about the geology of volcanoes and the natural history of the region. Of special interest, is a timeline with newspaper front pages detailing the events before, during, and after the eruption; and a collection of mementos from various camps and resorts around Spirit Lake. There is a short video, book/gift store, and nature trail at the site.

From here, it is an additional 47 miles to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Make sure you have plenty of gas as there are no services on this or any of the other routes in the park. The observatory is at the end of the road and, as the closest point to the volcano, offers a breathtaking, unobstructed view across the pumice plain to the massive crater. Here you will find interpretive displays focused on volcanic geology as well as a video, ranger talks, and a trail to higher viewpoints. Admission charge is $8, but free for holders of a federal Senior Pass.
While most visitors to the park stick to the western side, it is the access from the east that provides the most dramatic view of the power and damage done by the 1980 eruption. There are no videos or museums on this side, but a number of trails and view sites offer explanations and a ranger is on duty at Windy Ridge during summer months. It is a long drive (allow about three hours from Portland) from either Woodland or US Highway 12 at Randle, but well worth it especially if you have only visited the western side. There is a feeling of remoteness and desolation as Forest Service Road 99 winds its way up to Windy Ridge. The drive passes through the blown down forest where blasts of wind more than 300 mph knocked down mature Douglas Fir like matchsticks. On clear days, there are sweeping views to the other dormant volcanoes of the Cascade Range and you can only wonder if they too will someday awaken from years of dormancy like St. Helens.

There are a few short trails along the way offering an opportunity to see close-up how nature is making a comeback in this devastated area. Finally, at the end of the road is Windy Ridge where the panoramic view overlooks the volcano and Spirit Lake. Once a popular resort, the lake is now filled with decomposing logs and surrounded by a landscape more reminiscent of the surface of the moon than wooded, western Washington.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the eruption, several events have been planned. Mt. St. Helens Institute will offer an education program focused on volcanic science in your backyard on May 15, and on the actual anniversary date, May 18, there will be a free admission day at the Johnston Ridge Observatory when the Forest Service will unveil a new, interactive seismic exhibit and movies.
To relive events, may I suggest a visit to Youtube.com and a search for CBS News Mt. St. Helens for a very young and serious Dan Rather reporting the story accompanied by some amazing footage. It’s a blast from the past!

Maryhill Museum

Take one wealthy road builder, one granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and the Tsar, one fabulously rich sugar baroness, one Folies-Bergeres dancer; shake together and add an impressive chateau, life-size replica of Stonehenge, French fashion mannequins, icons from Tsarist Russia, Rodin sculptures, and an assortment of peacocks. The result: one rather bizarre cultural attraction, right here in our backyard.
Maryhill Museum is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River on an arid bluff overlooking the rolling fields of Oregon. About 100 miles east of Portland, it was once described by Time Magazine as “the world’s most isolated museum.” To prove the point, a road sign a few miles east advises no gas for the next 82 miles.
How a major art facility ended up in such an odd setting is the story of one man’s vision, along with the help of a trio of extraordinary female friends. Sam Hill was a lawyer, entrepreneur, railroad executive, philanthropist, and road builder who had the dream of creating a utopian agricultural community where the “western rains meet the eastern sun of Oregon and Washington.” In 1907, he purchased 6,000 acres along the Columbia, naming the site Maryhill after his wife and daughter. Seven years later, construction began on an imposing 18th century, Flemish chateau similar in style to his Seattle mansion.
Because of the remote location and lack of a dependable irrigation system, the farming community failed and Hill’s interests took him elsewhere. During his world travels, he became friends with several fascinating women. Loie Fuller, a famous modern dancer, had connections with the Paris art scene including Auguste Rodin, and persuaded Hill to turn his unfinished mansion into an art museum.
Another friend, Queen Marie of Romania, showed her gratitude for Hill’s assistance to her country during and after World War I, by dedicating the empty museum in 1926. Her royal visit and entourage, including trunks of artwork for the new museum, created quite a stir in the national press.
After Hill’s death in 1931, it was another friend, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, who supervised the completion of the museum. The heiress of a San Francisco sugar fortune, she provided many paintings and other works of art from her personal collection. The museum opened to the public in 1940.

Today, it offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy an eclectic assortment of art objects found nowhere else. The first floor is filled with Queen Marie’s gilded furniture, throne, jewelry, family photos, and the gown she wore to the coronation of the last Russian Tsar. Another room features a small yet impressive collection of Orthodox icons, many donated by the queen.

Upstairs is an exhibit, Theatre de la Mode, a collection of 1946 haute couture fashion miniatures. In post-war Paris, supplies were so scarce the major French design houses resorted to using dolls scaled to one-third size to show off their new lines. The show traveled around to all the fashion capitals of the world and somehow ended up here in the middle of nowhere. On the bottom level is the internationally recognized Rodin collection of sculptures and watercolors. A display of more than 200 historic and unusual chess sets; large exhibit of Native American baskets, bead work, and other crafts; and memorabilia of Loie Fuller complete the collection.

Outside, the lushly landscaped grounds feature an outdoor sculpture garden with works by contemporary Northwest artists and a shady picnic area decorated with wandering peacocks. But the most eccentric of Sam Hill’s creations is about four miles east of the museum. Here, at the end of a gravel parking lot, on a bluff 600 feet above the Columbia River, is a full-scale, cement replica of Britain’s Neolithic Stonehenge. Raised as a Quaker and pacifist, Hill was deeply touched by the devastation of World War I and built this monument as a memorial to local Klickitat County soldiers killed in the war.

Portland's Pittock Mansion

He was 75 and she was 65 when they built the ultimate Oregon retirement house. Sitting on 46 acres, 1000’ above sea level, near the center of Portland, this grand manor served as home to one of Portland’s most influential businessmen, Henry Pittock and his wife Georgiana.
Pittock immigrated to Portland in 1853 by way of the Oregon Trail, and worked his way up from lowly printer’s apprentice to owner of the Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper. Additional investments in pulp and paper mills and real estate provided the Pittocks with the necessary resources to splurge on an opulent, new mansion appropriate to their station in life. Construction began in 1912 and the Pittocks, along with one of their daughter’s family, moved into the $350,000 house in 1914.

Built in the French Renaissance Chateau style, the exterior’s rounded towers, cone-shaped roofs, and massive sandstone walls create the appearance of a sturdy fortress, ready to ward off any unwelcome invasions from Forest Park. The house was situated to take advantage of its sweeping view of the city of Portland, Columbia and Willamette Rivers, the Cascades, and, on a clear day, five volcanoes.
The interior in dominated by a grand marble staircase that winds continuously from the basement to second floor. The 16,000 square feet include 22 rooms filled with furnishings and artworks representing a mish-mash of styles: Victorian, English Jacobean, Turkish, Renaissance Revival, and Arts and Crafts. Of special note, are the plasterwork, light fixtures, painted ceilings, and wooden floors. For its time, the house contained a number of state-of-the-art features still sought after today including a central vacuum system, indirect lighting, intercoms, and a fancy shower with multiple sprayers.

The Pittocks’ offspring occupied the house until 1958, when it was placed on the real estate market. The Columbus Day storm of 1962 inflicted serious damage to the property, blowing over trees, knocking out windows, and damaging the roof. Subsequent leaks destroyed some of the wooden floors and finishes. When it looked like the property would be sold to a developer with plans to raze the house and subdivide the acreage, the city of Portland with the help of private donors stepped in and saved the house in 1964. After extensive repairs and restoration, the house was opened to the public as a museum operated by Portland Parks and Recreation and the Pittock Mansion Society.
Through mid-July, the museum is hosting a special exhibit "At Home in Portland 1909-1914". These were the city's development boom years and the exhibit features promotional materials designed to sell property in the new neighborhoods of Laurelhurst, Eastmoreland, Kenton, Portland Heights and the Ladd Addition. It also examines different architectural styles in the new Portland including Revival, Arts and Crafts, and Prairie Style.

When Bridges Covered Oregon

Bridges, so the saying goes, are America’s cathedrals. They inspire a range of emotions from awe to pride, but no bridge generates more affection than the humble, country, covered bridge. While most of these bridges are concentrated in the eastern states of New England, Pennsylvania and Ohio, Oregon can claim the number five spot and proudly boast of having the largest collection of covered bridges west of the Mississippi. Oregon’s tradition of bridge building dates back to 1851, when the first one was constructed in Oregon City. With the state’s vast forests of Douglas fir, wood was the obvious and logical building material, but not necessarily the best. A wooden plank bridge deck might last about eight or nine years before succumbing to the damp Northwest climate. On the other hand, one covered in a house frame to protect the deck and large timber trusses from the elements, could survive ten times longer. Soon covered bridges dotted the countryside, particularly in the Willamette Valley and southern timber counties. By the early part of the 1900s, the state was home to over 450 covered bridges.

Over time, however, new construction materials like steel, iron, and concrete made the wood bridges obsolete. The cost of maintaining these structures grew so dramatically that county and state highway departments chose to replace them with concrete spans. Many were dismantled and destroyed. Today, only 50 bridges remain in the state, largely through the efforts of local historical groups and the Oregon state legislature which provided funding for their preservation.

A good place to view a variety of these remaining links to the past is the small town of Scio, about 25 miles southeast of Salem in Linn County. Scio bills itself as “The Covered Bridge Capital of the West” and has five bridges within a ten mile radius, most of them spanning Thomas Creek The most colorful of the lot is the Shimanek Bridge, painted bright red with a white trim on its Gothic-style, louvered windows. Built in 1966, it is the area’s newest bridge replacing four earlier ones destroyed in floods and storms.
Downstream, on the other side of Scio, is the Gilkey Bridge, dating back to 1936. Recently, the bridge experienced a run of bad luck. In 1997, an over-loaded vehicle stressed the bridge creating serious damage and forcing its closure for a year of extensive repairs. In 2008, a large, farm service truck smashed into the bridge causing damage to the roof and side-support timbers. Once again, the bridge had to be closed for repairs but is back in business now.

The bridge offering the most attractive setting is the Larwood Bridge in a county wayside park of the same name. Here the Roaring River flows into Crabtree Creek, creating a geographical phenomenon so unusual, i.e. river flows into creek, it made it into Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. A pleasant, shaded picnic area offers a fine view of the bridge, streams, and the remnants of an old water-powered mill.

The Hannah Bridge, also dating to 1936 and spanning Thomas Creek, has open walls and exposed beams, making it one of the most attractive. Finally, the Hoffman Bridge over Crabtree Creek was built mostly with hand tools and adz marks are still visible in the upper timbers.

To learn more about the area’s covered bridges, a visit to the Depot Museum (open weekends only) in Scio is a must. Located in the old train depot from West Scio, the museum houses a collection of historical items from local pioneer families and has a notebook of clippings and early photos of area bridges that have been destroyed or replaced. A brochure is available detailing a bicycle and driving tour that visits all the local bridges.

Where Rhodies Rule

It’s that time of year when large clumps of pink and purple flowers begin showing off in front yards throughout Pacific Northwest neighborhoods. Our mix of moisture, mild weather, and acidic soil, make this region a Rhododendron paradise.
The plant’s diversity is amazing. With a native habitat ranging from 19,000’ alpine meadows in Nepal to tropical regions in Northern Australia and the wind-swept coast of Scotland, the rhododendron exhibits a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. The blooming season can extend from early January to mid-summer, but April and May are the peak times for most of our local plants. Fortunately, there are a number of outstanding public and private gardens in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to this species.

Best known in the Portland area is the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden located in the southeast section of the city, between Reed College and the Eastmoreland Golf Course. Once an overgrown, abandoned patch of brambles and brush, the garden was co-founded in 1950 by the Portland Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society and the city Parks and Recreation department. Today, its seven acres include winding paths, a spring-fed lake, waterfalls, bridges, and a wide variety of birds and waterfowl. With over 2500 rhododendron, azaleas, and companion plants, the garden offers a dazzling display of color this time of year.

 I visited the park today and many of the plants are displaying their full glory while others are still thinking about it. Happening this weekend (Saturday April 6) is the Early Show and Plant Sale. Check it out.