Old building in Powell Butte gets new owners hoping to preserve its history

Published 4:00 am Tuesday, November 26, 2002

POWELL BUTTE – The new owners of the Powell Butte Grange Hall are looking for some creative ideas on how to make use of 86-year-old building – and preserve the history of the building in the process.

”Some of the suggested uses have been a feed store or a produce stand,” said Rick Boatwright. Boatwright and his wife Michelle, recently purchased the building with Tom Clemens and Teresa Storie. All live in Alfalfa.

Crook County granted their business, Powell Butte Farmers Market LLC, a conditional use permit for the property that allows the new owners to pursue an agriculture-related type of business, such as a feed store, on the property.

The permit also requires that the main entrance to the business be on Reif Road and not Highway 126.

Boatwright said the group’s present goal is to protect the history of the grange hall. They have yet to decide what the exact business in the building will be.

”I’ve always enjoyed historical buildings,” he said. ”Tearing it down would be a total waste.”

The white barn-like hall was built in 1916, according to the faded numbers painted on the building’s facade. The building has served as a meeting place and dance hall for the Powell Butte Grange and more recently for the Powell Butte Farmers/Community Club.

The farmers/community club, the organization that sold the building, has used the hall for the past several years for its functions. The club is in the process of building a new community center in Powell Butte.

Since purchasing the building, Boatwright has found dance tickets from the 1930s and other historical items that he said he would like to put on display in the building.

Diane Umbarger, a Powell Butte resident and member of the farmers/community club, said many people were interested in the building, which was on the market for about eight months before Boatwright’s group bought it.

She and other community club members say they are pleased with the new owners’ tentative plans so far.

And although the club no longer has control of the building, she said, it’s comforting to know it will remain standing.

”One of the reasons that this person was the buyer was because they were intending on leaving the building intact,” said Umbarger, who helped sell the building for the club. ”That was one of the important things to the (farmers/community club) board as they were reviewing the offers.”

Kathy Eby, another club member, said she is pleased the building will remain as something that complements the community.

”The (new owners) have been very easy to work with,” she said. ”And I am very excited about the plans.”

Kelly Kearsley can be reached at 541-504-2336 or kkearsley@bendbulletin.com.