SILVERTON

Mt. Angel Historical Society moves closer to permanent home

Christena Brooks
Special to the Appeal Tribune
An undated photo of the Saalfeld House in downtown Mt. Angel.

Could the little white farmhouse on the corner of College and East Garfield streets become Mt. Angel’s own history museum?

Local historians are close to deciding whether to turn the Saalfeld House into a history hotspot open to visitors. The outcome depends on the cost of upgrading the quaint structure’s foundation and floor, as well as other major repairs.

“The idea of turning the house into a museum is by no means dead, but it’s taking time,” said Bill Predeek, Mt. Angel Historical Society president. “Now contractors are going to evaluate what has to happen under the house and how much it’ll cost.”

The late Henrietta Saalfeld donated her family home to the City of Mt. Angel in 2010, stipulating that the yard become a public park. 

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Two years later, volunteers turned the tidy little yard into usable patio and park space. At the same time, the Mt. Angel Historical Society was being formed.

Almost immediately, the society’s board was cautiously optimistic about asking the city to use the house to store photographs, documents and artifacts – and to possibly convert it into a museum someday.

As the nonprofit grew to its current size – a seven-person board serving 109 members – it successfully negotiated a one-year lease with city council, followed by a 15-year lease that began in February. 

For $1 per year, the organization is now using the house as a home base for small meetings and archiving. The lease agreement makes the city responsible for the building’s exterior and the historical society responsible for its interior. The society has also verbally committed to spending up to $20,000 in repairs.

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“It’s been wonderful to have what we’ve collected here so we can work toward organizing and categorizing information,” Predeek said.

Although the historical society only has a small annual operating budget – less than $5,000 last year – it already has in the bank a $30,000 donation toward the Saalfeld House project, Predeek told members at an Oct. 9 meeting at St. Mary’s Public School.

Repairs to the house could climb higher than that, depending on the price tag contractors attach to the floor/foundation-reinforcement and other things. Marion County requires the floor of an office building to support heavier usage than that of a residence.

Now the historical society is waiting to hear back from contractors about the cost of pouring additional footings, inserting beams and any other necessary improvements.

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Even without a full-fledged museum, the society has been busy since its formation seven years ago. Volunteers have digitized and organized photographs and documents started a DVD library, and begun compiling oral histories. With a presence online at www.mtangelhistory.org, they regularly serve local residents and visitors inquiring about family history.

At last week’s meeting, Predeek shared some of the latest finds: a photo album from Gary Epping about the city’s Flax Festival and Mt. Angel Weaving Guild, new information about the catastrophic fires at Mount Angel Abbey in the 1890s and 1926, and pottery recovered from an old hotel near the train station.

The evening meeting’s rapt audience viewed and commented on a series of photographs projected on a big screen in the grade school’s cafeteria.

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“I love anything to do with history,” said Nancy Bochsler, society vice president. “It’s fascinating detective work, connecting everything together.”

She, Predeek and the rest of the board – treasurer Sue Tapia, secretary Angie Brenden and at-large members Mary Ellen Butsch, Stan Schoenfeld and Ann Ebner – were unanimously voted in to serve another year.

“By being involved with the historical society, I’ve been able to find photos of my aunts and uncles – they’re gone now – and see them when they were young,” Brenden said. “I wanted to go back and find my family history, and I’ve discovered much Mt. Angel’s history along the way.”

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