Celebrating two decades of caring

Historical Society members feel historic homes are their legacy

By Sharon Nesbit

The Gresham Outlook, May 16, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Contributed photo

Fairview Rockwood Wilkes Historical Society members gather on the front porch of the historic Zimmerman House. The home is one of two the society has helped restore during its 20 years of existence.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Twenty years ago, aspiring members of a new historical society borrowed the social hall of Smith Memorial Presbyterian Church for their first meeting.

Two decades and a thousand calluses later, the Fairview Rockwood Wilkes Historical Society has two roofs over its collective head. And, glory be, neither leaks.

“The last 20 years have been about bricks and mortar,” reflects President Dodi Davies, who is more comfortable with a weed-whacker than a gavel. After that first meeting in the church, the small band of historians took on the rescue of the Zimmerman House, a National Register building at 17111 N.E. Sandy Blvd., and Fairview’s Heslin House, at 60 Main Street, now the society’s headquarters.

Heading into its second 20 years with Fairview approaching its centennial, the focus is changing to museums and the history of the three areas the society represents, says Twila Mysinger, vice president.

There is still plenty of grunt work to do, and Davies and Mysinger, who are both executives in their workday life, tend to dig in. Most photos show the two of them trimming hedges, shoveling manure and fighting blackberries.

Davies, a systems consultant from Portland, was first attracted to the Zimmerman House in 1995 when she drove to work at the US Bank data center on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Mysinger, from Corbett, is in charge of information management at Kaiser Permanente, and showed up a few months later. The society, already committed to rebuilding the Heslin House, split its slender forces and took on both buildings.

The adventures since, the smiles and the tears will be retold in a birthday party at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 20, in the Fairview Community Center.

Davies prepared a video program focusing on the people who made the organization work. It is ironic, notes Mysinger, “that as a historical society we draw more historians with great stories and not as many strong backs.”

And as to money, “We didn’t even operate on a shoestring,” they say. “We didn’t even have the string.”

Regardless, the members, tired and the retired, and “kids” of Mysinger’s and Davies’ generation, dug out debris, scaled mossy roofs, swabbed floors and even slept in buildings at night to guard against prowlers.

The Zimmerman House was complicated by animals, a dog named “Moon,” whom Davies cared for until his death, a crop of feral cats, a litter of coyote puppies, acres of moles, and these days, a deer or two.

1 | 2 Next Page >>