HISTORY, OREGON HISTORY

You could walk by this building on NW Everett and just keep walking.

Nothing to see here, just a worn out facade in a beat down part of Portland with chips and stains.

A couple of radiator shops across the street complete the view.

If there was anything special about it, there wasn’t a sign, but it had a secret.

Secrets? What secrets.

No one who didn’t need to know didn’t, but it held a floor of big history, the sort of objects that need trailers.

Moving back to Oregon from Brooklyn gave me a case of ‘the mores,’ as in doing more, doing things here you couldn’t do anywhere else.

Do more? More than history, more than research, more than a library? And keep a secret? That was more than most jobs asked.

If you couldn’t keep quiet, you might be a former employee faster than you could say TV Land.

The Oregon Historical Society was the ideal platform for just such a dream and this was off-site storage.

The aging cement block had a few cracks and leaks, but who doesn’t after enough years.

One of the treats of the history warehouse was bringing in new people. They had no idea what was up the stairs.

Although two elevators worked, one for people, one for vehicles, the stairs prolonged the anticipation.

History geeks floated up the steps.

A short flight, then a long one, and you turned to The Door on the second floor.

If you didn’t have the right three keys you didn’t get in.

Key for the front, a key for the stair door, and one more.

This was a building you could transplant in any city anywhere and it would fit.

That history made it unique to Portland.

What fits on a forty thousand foot cement floor? Everything you could imagine.

The third key got you inside the perimeter.

To the left and outside the frame is the auto elevator.

The gates on the right opened wide, the one facing was the man-gate no one used.

It felt like an ideal set up for a heist movie, until a robbery happened.

What sort of thief could climb that fence?

A motivated thief of history, Oregon history.

Runs of shelving, row after row of historical objects.

Some called it Oregon’s attic.

If you put this stuff in an attic the house would collapse.

Ever hear of a square grand piano?

If you’ve never used a pallet jack, or pallets, it’s hard to appreciate the technology.

History has an industrial size that needs industrial tools.

A history, Oregon history, isn’t all about Oregon.

It’s also about building stuff to hold history.

A four by four footprint of shelves stacks on metal poles, eight by four pegboards with hangers and hooks did the job.

The code words were, “If you can’t find it, you’re history.”

It got easier to find things after a few inventories and storage improvements.

Locating one object in a pile of 85,000 – plus was always the challenge.

At first it was, “Needle, meet haystack.”

Since light fades and degrades most material, the windows had shades down.

Since every floor was circled by window walls, the future earthquake damage to the building said the outer walls would crumble.

The outer walkways were clear of collections, or they’d be on the sidewalk.

One night I got the call: Police answered an alarm. Robbers on the floor.

They’d cracked the gun vault and made off with some weaponry.

When I showed up the cops went in with force. And a dog.

A couple of guys took a non-working bi-pod machine gun, the Nambu from Japan in WWII, and set up shop.

They also took a few hand guns that didn’t work.

The police don’t know these were de-commissioned guns. Their guns worked just fine.

So did the dog.

It all ended well and I got back home before midnight.

Like all good dogs, their K-9 left a nice present. By my desk.

Historical note: Wagons on the wagon trains were colorful.

When the pioneers set up shop in Oregon, they found other uses for their wagons.

Some wagons turned into buggies, some of the wagon wood turned into furniture.

More than one set of wagon planks turned into a coffin.

Take a walk through the Oregon Historical Society exhibits.

It’s a beautiful experience that speaks to the past and the future.

From design, to the objects, to interpretation, you’ll come out in a state of wonder every time.

Is it an important experience to share?

Yesterday’s vote says yes, with 69% of the voting public approving Measure 26-174.

It’s a great day for history, and a great time to plan a visit.

Take a friend.