Historic Downtown Oregon City

Main Street Oregon City will be bumper-to-bumper on Saturday September 11th and that’s okay with us.

Join us as we celebrate the first ever Downtown Car Show on Main Street.  The Cruise to Historic Downtown Oregon City is fueled by  Columbia Insurance and J&M Auto Body. All cars, trucks and motorcycles are welcome. Early registration is $10. Proceeds go to support future downtown car shows.

Cruise to Historic Downtown Oregon City fueled by J&M Body Shop and Columbia Insurance

The Cruise to Historic Downtown Oregon City fueled by Columbia Insurance and J&M Auto Body is produced by the non-profit Main Street Oregon City and Oregon City’s Trick ‘n Racy Car Club. The Oregon City News is the event’s media sponsor.

Click on the application to download a pdf form.

Cruise to Downtown Oregon City

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This Friday, August 6th is a First Friday event downtown from 5 to 8 p.m. Join the summer fun as we celebrate commerce and culture in downtown Oregon City.

First Friday also includes the Sounds of Downtown music series.  This Friday will feature Smoky and the Flames in front of Hopps Upholstery and Shoe Repair at 916 Main Street and Rae Gordon in front of Wynona Studio at 719 Main Street.

First Friday Itinerary Highlights:

• Say hello to the Mike Berman, Oregon City native and new owner of the 505 Tavern.
• Listen to Smoky and the Flames rock at 916 Main Street.
• Enjoy the Blues with Rae Gordon performing in front of Wynona Studio.
• Thank Janet Jost-Hopp from Hopps Upholstery and Shoe Repair at 916 Main for inviting her friend and Oregon author Matt Love for a book signing and reading of “Gimmie Refuge“.
• Meet Oregon City’s First Friday Featured Artist Teresa Kuchler in front of the Caufield House at 723 Main St.
• Visit Ann Howden at Howden Art & Framing, 1512 Washington Street, for a showcase of fine art glass work from Lori Bedard, Dennis Peterson and Jenelle Kathan. This is a special, one-day, all-day event and will include wine tasting with King’s Raven Winery. Special thanks to Kim Walton and her family.
• Take a ride on the  City Trolley, on the roll for extended hours of service. So tell your customers, friends, neighbors you’ll see them downtown – Friday night.

There’s plenty of fun to be had downtown on First Friday in Downtown Oregon City.

First Friday in Downtown Oregon City is produced by the non-profit Main Street Oregon City and the Three Rivers Artist Guild, with support from Work for Art a program of the Regional Art and Culture Council and an OCCIT Grant. Special thanks to our media sponsor the Oregonian.

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Downtown Oregon City is hosting the First City Celebration in Downtown Oregon City this Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm. Main Street will be full of artists, food vendors and wineries.

Parking is free and open to the public at the municipal lot on 12th Street and at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on Washington Street with a free trolly ride to downtown.

See You Downtown.

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Saturday July 31st –  join us downtown as we celebrate the unique heritage and identity of Oregon City with Arts, Wine and Entertainment all Day.

Festival Open to the Public from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Oregon City’s First City Celebration is produced by the non-profit Main Street Oregon City, the Three Rivers Arts Guild and the the Rotary Club of Oregon City. Funds raised through the event will support a public art project at the foot of historic Singer Falls.  Oregon City’s First City Celebration is supported by an OCCIT Grant and print Media Sponsor the Oregonian.

What is the First City Celebration?

The non-profit Main Street Oregon City was created to build partnerships around downtown Oregon City to make our community a more vibrant and healthy place to live, work and visit. We are pleased to partner with the Three Rivers Artist Guild and the Rotary Club of Oregon City to produce a signature event for our community.

Over the past 12 months we explored a range of festival ideas that we could call a “signature event” for our community.  We realized one of our community’s greatest claims to fame is the fact that Oregon City is a City of Firsts. Here are some examples.

First book of fiction written in Oregon, 1842. First provisional legislature met in Oregon City, 1843. Oregon City declared capitol, 1844. First almanac published on Pacific Coast by the Oregon Printing Assn, 1847. First Territorial Legislature of Oregon Territory, 1849. First US troops in Oregon, a mounted rifle regiment in Oregon City, 1848.  First official plat for San Francisco filed in Oregon City, 1850.

For more than 160 years Oregon City’s downtown has been at the center of these firsts.  As Oregon’s “First Downtown in Oregon’s First City” we are proud to introduce another first to Oregon – The First City Celebration.

This Year’s First City Celebration Activities Include:

• An art venue that celebrates the creative spirit of Oregon City.
• A children-oriented craft component using locally made paper products.
• A wine tasting venue that recognizes our connection to regional viniculture.

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Oregon City Service Club Partners in Public Art Project and Summer Event Downtown.

Not many people know that Oregon City has two significant waterfalls. Everyone knows about Willamette Falls but there is also a smaller historically significant water fall right downtown.

The Rotary Club of Oregon City is taking on the challenge of enhancing Singer Falls, first with a $40,000 public art project to help the club celebrate its 75^th anniversary next year and eventually with other improvements as a way to give back to the community.

The Rotary Club of Oregon City will begin its fundraising effort (with an initial goal of $40,000) for a public art project at the base of Singer Falls with a wine tasting event during Oregon City’s First City Celebration on July 31. On Saturday the 31^st, the wine tasting venue will be set up at the base of Singer Falls on Eighth Street between Main Street and Railroad Avenue.

Marcia Wimmer, 2009-2010 Rotary Club of Oregon City President, said the club began thinking about a special project to celebrate their 75^th anniversary a year ago. “There is so much going on downtown right now we decided we wanted some kind of project there that we could share with the community,” she said.

In addition to a public art project, Rotary hopes to eventually raise funds to plant native vegetation in the area around the Singer Falls, a project Wimmer hopes will get the public and other service clubs involved.

“Downtown Oregon City has ‘great bones’ and unique features like Singer Falls,” said Lloyd Purdy, Downtown Manager. “Partnering with organizations like the Rotary Club of Oregon City is a powerful way to celebrate our strengths and make positive change.”

The little urban waterfall downtown sends Singer Creek underground and into the Willamette River. Singer Falls was built as a Works Progress Administration project in 1936. Before the falls, the creek flowed freely down the hillside. It is named for William Singer, an early settler who used the falls to power his cotton mill in the 1880s and 1890s.

The Works Progress Administration was organized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a way to create jobs following the depression. Mt. Hood’s Timberline Lodge also was a WPA project. In addition to Singer Creek Falls project in Oregon City, the WPA also replaced old wooden steps that led up to the little park with concrete ones, locally known as the grand stairway.

Photo by Linda McCarthy and Mike Wonser

“With a motto of Service Above Self , the Rotary Club of Oregon City is committed to continue serving our community for years to come,” says Wimmer.  “We want to do more than just install a ‘pretty piece of artwork’ at the base of Singer Falls.    Building on our past 75 years of service, we want residents to take notice and get involved in shaping the identity of Oregon City.”

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The countdown to Oregon City’s newest signature event — the First City Celebration on July 31st in downtown Oregon City has begun.

Time and again, we’ve heard Oregon City residents and the downtown community ask for more special events and programs that celebrate our unique identity. Downtown Oregon City is becoming a destination downtown. The First Friday Art Walk series is a good start. The Wednesday afternoon Farmers Market Downtown took another step forward. This summer we will host a “signature event” for Oregon City – the First City Celebration.

Oregon City has a long list of “firsts” that make it a unique place to live, work and visit. We’re pleased to partner with the Three Rivers Artist Guild and the Rotary Club of Oregon City to add another first to that list — the First City Celebration on July 31st. On Saturday July 31st Main Street, 8th Street, and Liberty Plaza will come alive for a summer celebration downtown with more than 60 artists, local entertainers, activities for kids, and area wineries offering wine tastings.

See You Downtown – on July 31st

Lloyd Purdy, Executive Director Non-Profit Main Street Oregon City

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Arts, Wine and Entertainment all Day, Saturday,  July 31st.

A range of artists will gather along Oregon City’s Main Street during the July 31^st First City Celebration.  The day-long event, Saturday, July 31, puts the spotlight on the historic “City of Firsts” at the End of the Oregon Trail. (See page two for a list of first related to Oregon City.)

The non-profit Main Street Oregon City is working with the Three Rivers Artist Guild and the Rotary Club of Oregon City to organize this signature celebration for Oregon City. The July 31^st, day long event, includes a wine-tasting component to raise money for public artwork at Singer Creek Falls and more than 68 local artists on the street beginning at 11 a.m.

The July 31^st First City Celebration also includes local food vendors, local musicians, and activities for kids. (Including a kid friendly scavenger hunt hosted by Wynona Fabric Studio.) Local businesses and restaurants downtown will also be open.

Main Street in Downtown Oregon City will be blocked off so that art vendors can set up their displays and visitors can mingle all day long. More than 68 artists are expected to be on hand representing all kinds of skills from photographers and painters to acrylics and encaustic creations as well as watercolors all on display.

The Three Rivers Artist Guild, a group that was organized in 2006 in support of local artists is one of the major partners in the First City Celebration.  The Three Rivers Artist Guild began as a group of 40 has now grown to more than 120 members.  The guild runs a gallery in space it shares with the Friends of the Oregon City Library at the corner of Center and Seventh streets, offering members a space where they show and sell creations.

Late last year, TRAG turned its attention to downtown and began working with the non-profit Main Street Oregon City on a number of projects like the popular First Friday Art Walk and Art in Windows, where art is displayed in vacant downtown buildings. Lynda Orzen one of the original organizers of both the Three Rivers Artist Guild and the non-profit Main Street Oregon City is working with TRAG member Janice Gunderson to manage the art fair component of the July 31^st First City Celebration.

“The arts have breathed new life into downtown,” said Lynda Orzen one of the First City Celebration event coordinators. “The arts are a vital part of Oregon City. I talk to people everyday who are thrilled with what’s happening.”

For more than 160 years Oregon City’s downtown has been at the center of Oregon’s firsts.  As Oregon’s “First Downtown in Oregon’s First City” the non-profit MSOC, TRAG and Rotary Club of Oregon City are proud to introduce another first to Oregon – The First City Celebration.

The First City Celebration, scheduled for Saturday July 31^st from 11 am to 8 p.m. is a foundational event – one that the Oregon City community can build year after year to celebrate the unique identity of Oregon City.

This year, the event focuses on the creative energy of our community, the youth in our community, and our connection to regional viniculture.

This Year’s First City Celebration Activities Include:

• An art venue that celebrates the creative spirit of Oregon City.
• A children-oriented craft component using locally made paper products.
• A wine tasting venue that recognizes our connection to regional viniculture.

Oregon City, a “City of Firsts” celebrates its history of firsts during the July 31^st First City Celebration.

• The first provisional legislature met in Oregon City on July 5, 1843 at the Rose Farm, where a house that remains there is now a museum. Oregon City became the first incorporated city in the territory in 1844.
• The first newspaper west of the Rockies, the Oregon Spectator, was published in Oregon City in 1846 and the Willamette Valley’s first post office set up shop in the city at the end of the Oregon Trail in 1843.
• In 1849, the first mint in Oregon began making $5 and $10 gold coins in Oregon City and that same year, the city was designated as the first capital of the Oregon Territory.
• The first federal court and land office were in Oregon City beginning in 1850.
• The city of San Francisco filed its plat that year and the original plat remains in Oregon City despite efforts by San Francisco to bring it to their city.
• The first telegraph message in Oregon was sent from Oregon City to Portland in 1855 and

• The first long distance commercial electric transmission in the United States sent power to Portland to light 55 street lights downtown.

The First City Celebration is produced by the non-profit Main Street Oregon City, the Three Rivers Artists Guild and the Rotary Club of Oregon City. The Oregonian is the print media sponsor for the event. Partial funding was received from an OCCIT Grant.

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Good things continue to spin off from downtown Oregon City’s economic development initiative “Blue Collar Creative”. Our nationally recognized project gained some local attention this week.

From Tuesday’s Portland Business Journal:

Funnelbox Motion Picture Studios received a 2010 Silver Telly Award for the company’s creation and production of “Blue Collar Creative: This is Downtown,” a video promoting the economic redevelopment of downtown Oregon City. The award-winning video can be viewed at www.bluecollarcreative.org.

The Rest of the Story:

Blue Collar Creative brings the 160 year commercial history of our community to entrepreneurs and creative professionals and celebrates our community’s roll up your sleeves work ethic. Call it what you want — throughput, results, tenacity, persistence and an unwillingness to surrender no matter how great the pressure — our community’s businesses, creative professionals and entrepreneurs exemplify that spirit.

The name, Blue Collar Creative, fits this initiative. This economic development campaign speaks to creative professionals and entrepreneurs who pursue their labor with passion, perseverance and unflinching dedication to their craft. It introduces business owners, artists and entrepreneurs to the authentic historic urban location of Downtown Oregon City and shows the excitement and energy developing in our community.

Special thanks to local creative entrepreneurs Robb Crocker, owner of funnelbox, as well as Trey Carskadon and Alex Brauer, from BDC Advertising, for the work they’ve done to get this economic development campaign started.

If you have yet to take a look at www.bluecollarcreative.org take a minute and a half to watch the video and see what the excitement is all about.

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This summer it’s time to enjoy more of Oregon City’s Historic Downtown.  Great events are happening mere steps (or a short elevator ride) into downtown. Arts, culture, music, restaurants all in a 160 year old marketplace.  And this summer, Oregon City’s Municipal Elevator will be open late to make your visits to downtown even easier.

Downtown Dates to Celebrate

June

First Friday Art Walk, June 4^th 5-8 p.m.

Farmers Market 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays June 16^th, 23^rd, 30^th

July

First Friday Art Walk, July 2^nd 5-8 p.m.

Farmers Market 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays July 7^th, 14^th, 21^st, 28th

First City Celebration, Saturday July 31^st 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

August

First Friday Art Walk, August 6^th 5-8 p.m.

Farmers Market 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays 1^st, 8^th, 15^th, 22^nd, 29^th

Antique Fair, August 29^th 8am to 4 p.m.

September

First Friday Art Walk, September 3^rd 5-8 p.m.

Downtown Car Show, Saturday September 11^th 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

This summer, downtown Oregon City and special events like these are even easier to enjoy. The Municipal Elevator will stay open late on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings June  through October.  Take a walk, and an elevator ride, to rediscover downtown.

See You Downtown,

Lloyd Purdy

Downtown Manager

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