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attorney organizes bypass lobbying event
State agency adopts new M-37 rules
County legislators receive committee tasks
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McKern buildings nearly ready to roll |
By Schellene
Clendenin, Newberg Graphic
reporter
E-mail Schellene at
sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
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The Friends of Historic Newberg recently received some good news
about the planned move of the historic McKern house and barn.
“It looks like the moving date will hopefully be the end of February
or early March,” said Lorraine Hall, curator at the Hoover-Minthorn
House Museum and one of the supporters of the move.
She said the movers, Northwest Structural Moving of Scappoose, are
working with Oregon Department of Transportation and Portland
General Electric to determine the costs of moving and to coordinate
road closures and preparing power lines during the day of the move.
“Still, it’s going to happen,” she said.
The McKern home was built by early Oregon pioneer Luke McKern, who
left Iowa in 1850 and travelled to the Willamette Valley on the
Oregon Trail, where he met and married Melinda Parrish, whose family
were also of the first pioneers to settle in what is now Newberg. In
1852, the couple filed for a 640-acre donation land claim and built
the farmhouse and barn at what is now the corner of Wilsonville and
Springbrook roads.
The house had been placed on the Newberg inventory of historic
properties until former owner Patricia Maze of Hermiston requested
that it be removed from the registry in July 2005 so she could sell
the property to local developer Coyote Homes.
Since that time community volunteers have stepped forward offering
to donate time and money to keep the house from being destroyed, a
plan that was supported by the developers, the city and Chehalem
Park and Recreation District. The plan was then put forth to move
the two buildings to a piece of property that was part of the
original McKern land claim, which would allow the Friends of
Historic Newberg — a committee spawned by the volunteers who plan to
save the buildings — to apply to have it placed on a state registry
of historic homes in the future.
Representatives of the stakeholders in the move — which include CPRD,
the Friends of Historic Newberg, the mover and city employees — met
Jan. 30 to discuss what has been done and what needs to be done to
move the buildings.
“The next step is to decide how will be sited on the piece of land,”
Hall said. City regulations must be complied with before the exact
placement of the buildings will occur, Hall said. But she and
husband Gordon Hall have already been on the property staking out a
possible site to get an idea of how it will look.
Then, 24 to 36 hours before the buildings are moved to the location,
excavation for the foundation will begin. Hall said this must be
done as close as possible to the date of the move because the soil
will be excavated down to the clay to provide a sturdy foundation
for the house, and the group does not want to contend with a muddy
mess.
The house will then be placed on footings which will remain under
the house until a concrete foundation is poured.
Previously the group had planned to place the house on a post and
beam foundation, the type original to the home, but concrete was
decided upon to make the house more structurally sound in case of an
earthquake.
The foundation will then be hidden with a wooden skirt around the
building. The barn will be placed on simple footings for now.
“Things are getting in line to get the house moved to its new site,”
said Barton Brierley, Newberg city planner and an early supporter of
the plan to save the buildings. At present, permits to move the
buildings have been submitted to the city. Additional permits will
eventually be needed to hook the house up to sewer and water.
Jim McMaster, the CPRD representative who is working to help get the
buildings moved, said plans are gearing up.
“If it rains, that doesn’t mean we can’t make the move,” he said.
Preparations are already being made for fund-raising events to help
defray the cost of the move, as well as what it will cost to open
the buildings up for the public, Hall said.
For more information, to make a donation or to volunteer, call CPRD
at 503-538-9404.
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From
Feb. 10, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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