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Emma Walk in Aurora, Oregon, 15018 2nd Street NE, Aurora, OR (2024)

08/02/2023

How Aurora Became a National Historic District
In 1973, after much discussion and volunteer time in research, the city of Aurora applied for national recognition of an area encompassing 18 buildings still standing from our original colony, 12 of which were within the city limits at that time. They identified Aurora’s “period of significance” as being 1856-1920, thereby taking into the future district not only the “Post-Colony” buildings that were important and reflected many of the same structural and decorative elements of the original buildings while including the next generation’s built landscape. About six months later on April 14, 1974 this became the Aurora Colony National Historic District, Oregon’s first such district (priors being individual buildings or Landmark areas). Many ask about how the boundaries were drawn. Well, they identified these 18 properties and drew lines connecting them! Within the national historic district boundaries, the city has jurisdiction over the areas within the city limits and the county on ones outside of the city limits. By coming into the national registry, the city was required to create a system for protecting, monitoring and guiding the exterior elements of these buildings against exterior changes, demolition or relocation. The regulation of buildings within this Historic Overlay Zone has been written and modified over these last 49 years and is updated every few years as needed. The purpose is to maintain the visual character of this unique community. The city created a board of commissioners who oversee applications and make decisions for exterior changes to all properties within the overlay district. They report to the city council. They also make recommendations to the planning commission on areas of mutual concern. The first city council in Aurora was in 1883! Little did they know that there would only be a few buildings left in the city to worry about! The Historic Review Board not only oversees the building change applications but also regulates commercial exterior elements such as signs, outdoor lights and temporary displays and booths, again to maintain the visual character of a national historic destination which brings the city revenue, keeps buildings occupied and fosters a healthy retail community.

07/29/2023

Getting Down to Basics
While you are enjoying Aurora’s historic buildings on the Emma Walk, you may wonder what’s under that siding and what is holding these Colony buildings up? They do look sturdy! Especially since many are over 150 years old. When we first arrived after purchasing this parcel of land on the Pudding River and Mill Creek, we used what was here to build our first shelters. Rough hewn logs and timbers, of which there were plenty, were not only in the earliest residences, but a “spider’s” inspection under the Colony homes will reveal that these giant timbers are the basics holding up these two story buildings. Bricks for the fireplaces, usually one on each side of the structure, were also made locally. Our seasoned builders used several structural systems including vertical plank bearing wall systems; the most common in the buildings on the tour are the simple stud wall, generally 4 x 4’s in the larger buildings. Sill, plates and large beams were hewn. Clapboard or shiplap was used for the siding, often over a wholly log structure, too. Windows were consistently double hung sashes with six lights over six with plain surrounds and slipsills. The eaves had a distinctive finish and the buildings are often compared to Pennsylvania farm buildings, where the Colony people first began. Our buildings in our last hometown in Missouri were similar in design but built from brick! But with all of this lovely timber, well, we had to do something with it! As more of us came to Aurora over the Oregon Trail, our buildings became more stylized, reflecting our success in both local commerce and organization. Enjoy the Emma Walk! For more information on the whole application, see the city’s website ci.aurora.or.us.

07/24/2023

Early on my Emma Walk self-guided tour, you will come to the original mill areas where we in the Colony established our very productive industrial businesses. We purchased two mills originally when we acquired this land in the 1850’s and then added others including a grist mill. We called our town Aurora Mills although we were also known as Dutch Town to Portlanders. (Did they mean Deutsch?) Supplied with power from the creek, this whole area was devoted to production of necessary products for us and the surrounding areas – lumber, feed, hops, etc. The building here now dates from about 1885 and the use of it as a producing mill continued right up until the 1990’s when it made pet food. Now it is a showcase for the sale of architectural elements from all over the United States and a new building blends the influence of the old with modern materials and design. Walk along until you see the railroad tracks and some of the oldest buildings on the property. This is where the noteworthy “blue barn” was located – one of the only buildings not painted white or left natural. Just across the street where the service station sits was another important barn, the livery stable. How this area has been transformed and yet. . . . you can still see some of the old bones of the Colony days.

07/19/2023

Take the FREE Emma Walk self-guided tour this summer in downtown Aurora, Oregon. Pick up your free map in one of our shops or at the Old Aurora Colony Museum. Combine a little shopping with historic preservation & grab a bite to eat at one of our many awesome restaurants.

07/14/2023

Residential Historic District
When you take my Walk with Emma self-guided tour of historic downtown Aurora, you will briefly stroll through one of Aurora’s prettiest residential areas. From the sidewalk my tour will show you a few private homes which are nice examples of our original Colony build contrasted with the second period in Aurora’s development history. You will notice, for example, the Charles Synder house (c. 1875) which still sits on its original corner lot (although in my time there were other out-buildings here). But turning the corner you will immediately notice the difference! Instead of the classic “box”, the houses become as individual as their owners were. As you descend Liberty Street toward the museum, the next homes reveal the architectural changes and individual choices that our group made in the years following the dissolution of the Colony in 1883. Inspired by design styles all around America at this time, our skilled carpenters showed that they, too, could enjoy what is now called “Queen Anne Victorian” style. These houses, by now under the shade of a great Oregon Heritage Tree (with its own informative placard), were all built by and for our own people at the turn of the 20th century. Here you will see the Christian Zimmerman house (c. 1900) with its large porches and original outbuildings behind, the Anton Will house (1897) with its fascinating “doll house” size and décor elements, the gracious Leonard Will house (1905) next door with its comfortable porch sitting high above the street and the Henry Kraus house (1900), much altered through the years but its bones recognizable as a solid companion of the street’s social status at the time. The upkeep and restoration of these homes is done by the owners. Please do not disturb their personal spaces while you enjoy looking at their details!

07/12/2023

Will-Snyder General Merchandise Store
One of your most popular antiques stores has an interesting past. That is the Will-Snyder General Merchandise Store, now Main Street Mercantile. Built in 1912, it was the first really “modern” commercial building in town with its square two story shape, large picture windows and urban styling. What a change it made for our little Main Street! The building followed the excitement of the new century introduced in the Northwest by the Lewis and Clark Exposition with its increase in building new homes and businesses. This store was built on the site of the George Smith house which was moved down past your Old Aurora Colony Museum, taking its place with other homes today. The expected “updating” of Main Street did not come, however, as this was the only building of its type to make it to Aurora even though the street boasted electric service and concrete sidewalks. Popular businesses such as grocery, drug, ice cream and other utilities used existing old buildings, adapting them as needed. So, the hotel became a local beer parlor, the William Keil store a meat/grocery, the annex a utility and so local business was continued. But no one came from afar to experience “Aurora” and “Dutchtown” was long past its prime. When Highway 99E went through in 1933, an extension was made on the backside of this building, conforming to the highway frontage. This is another antiques store today, Back Porch Vintage. And the basement in this large building? Yes, it was used for various purposes including a reported “shower” area for bathing!

07/08/2023

As you take my EMMA WALK, you may pass by our buildings and catch an aroma of good cooking from some of our eateries here! As mentioned before, our cooks were famous and the big Pioneer Hotel on Main Street, now gone, was the center of the same kind of cooking we did in our homes every day. We knew how to make simple dishes with fresh foods, baked and cooked to perfection and flavored simply. The public loved it and made Aurora a place to visit and stay overnight. Ben Holladay, the “Stagecoach King” of California Gold Rush fame, brought the train right through Aurora and the time tables were planned so that a stop in Aurora was a must. We also loved to cook for our big social affairs and after church where we would meet at our special picnic spot located about a quarter mile up Ehlen Road across from what is now the Aurora Colony Winery. There we had a covered pavilion for music and a building with ovens for our cooking. It wasn’t too long before we set up a special restaurant at the Oregon State Fair where we were the only food vendor for many, many years! A cookbook of Aurora Colony recipes was written by a Colony descendant and is for sale in the Old Aurora Colony Museum gift shop. It is fun to read and try the dishes, just as these ladies made them.

07/05/2023

We hope you will have fun taking my EMMA WALK. Although the Aurora Colonists were serious about our faith and society of cooperation, we did know how to have fun! And we practiced our talents so that everyone could enjoy those fruits, too. We enjoyed music, dancing and social gatherings. In addition to our good cooking, our bands were also famous throughout Oregon. We had enough members to boast two bands and several orchestral groups. In 1869 Ben Holladay hired the band for a 16 day trip to Puget Sound area where in Seattle and Victoria they impressed future investors in his Oregon-California Railroad. Winning many competitions, the bands were in popular demand for fairs, political rallies and ceremonial functions. It was written that the Aurora Band “was not excelled in the Northwest”. Photographs show the band playing on specially created platforms on top of the Colony church and on top of the Hotel roof. You can take a tour of the Old Aurora Colony Museum and see many of our instruments and hear the music. Much of the music was original, penned in blackberry juice and rediscovered over a hundred years later in a house on Main Street! This led to a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust where the music was digitally preserved, called the Oregon Music Project. Members of the Oregon Symphony have also recorded some of this music which is available on CD at the Old Aurora Colony Museum gift.

07/03/2023

I am Emma Giesy, leader of your walking EMMA WALK tour of the historic section of Aurora, Oregon. I have told you a little about our famous Pioneer Hotel, sadly no longer here, but one of our most interesting remaining buildings is one of the hotel’s seven outbuildings. You see, all of our main buildings had “out” buildings – places where we often did our chores, stored things, places for our animals and of course our privy! Each house in town was located on a corner and between the houses many of these small barns and out buildings filled each lot. The hotel had one particular building which is known now as the Octagon Building. I forget what we called it then! Sometimes it was called the “Band stand”, maybe because the band went there to tune up and to smoke! Maybe it was used for the chickens? Of all of the hotel buildings, this one is still standing, thanks to some very interested conservators. In 1984 they carefully took it apart, numbered the pieces and reassembled it where it sits today! You can go inside when the shop that fills it is open. There are quite a few “octagonal” buildings around the world. At the time they were popular in the US, 1870’s, they were considered the “most efficient use of space”.

07/01/2023

On the EMMA WALK you will stop at a lower viewpoint on Main Street, just above the railroad track. Here you are asked to picture the grandest building in all of Aurora Mills (so named at the time). This was the Pioneer Hotel which was built around 1867, at least the back portion of it. The fancier front with its veranda, hip roof and “band stand” on top dates to 1885. Now hospitality in our Aurora was nothing new. Dr. Keil used portions of his “big” house as a hotel with famously good meals because our location on the stagecoach line, as early as 1860, was a stopping point between San Francisco and Portland. With word getting around that Aurora’s cooks were something special, when Ben Holladay’s Oregon and California Railroad came through here in 1870, you can bet that Dr. Keil was ready. He had us cooking our famous meals so that our little town became a regular stop, even though the Portland terminal was only 28 miles away! Important men wrote about the Aurora food at “Dutch Town” (actually Deutsch town). It’s an important draw for any location to have good food, even in these days. (Just look at what years of the tiny Chez Moustache restaurant did for Aurora’s appeal beginning in the 1970’s and now our current Filbert’s Farmhouse Restaurant is an important feature, and both located in our historic buildings!} The influence of the train expanded the scope of our expectations about our small society as we witnessed the greater world which came through here regularly. Within the next 15 years as the hotel expanded, Aurora would become a full-fledged Oregon city (1883) and as a group we would have divided the large assets of the Colony and become the business and property owners of this 20,000 acre area. But our hard work and attention to our tasks made this original investment pay off. The hotel later became a market, pub, and was finally demolished in 1934 when the front would have been lopped off to extend the new Main Street to meet the newly built Mill Creek Bridge and the parallel Highway 99. Although the building is gone, it does have an “underground history.” An archeological dig was completed in 1995 and discovered the hotel’s septic system of the time. Important enough to be a landmark of its own and to remain untouched, this site is now owned by Archeological Conservancy with the stipulation that nothing can be built upon it nor excavated from it. But the train still rumbles on, 24-7 so they say today. Stand here long enough and you may be able to wave to the conductors!

06/28/2023

Although there is quite a mixture of architectural styles on Main Street, there is one building that really stands out as being very different. How did that stone building get here? It’s almost like it was dropped from the sky into this little town! Well, there are many stories about the Aurora State Bank Building, now the Pheasant Run Winery Tasting Room, and just why it got here. Oral history says it was moved from the site of the Lewis and Clark Exposition of 1905 in Portland and in fact, it resembles many buildings from that development. Old Hugo Keil, a Colony descendant, recalled being present when the train brought the pieces to town around 1905-6. You will enjoy going inside and reading the many articles and lore about the building and even going into the bank’s vault! The exterior stone work was recently repaired with a matching grant from the National Park Service.

06/27/2023

Visitors to Aurora often ask “Where was the blacksmith’s barn?” when they hear that William Fry, better known as “Boss Fry” lived in the classic Colony house on Main Street. Well, it was conveniently placed next door, right on Main Street. And next to that was the New Aurora Colony Hotel (yes, that was its name – seemingly in competition to the earlier grand Pioneer Hotel.) Now this space is occupied by a small yard and then Mr. Fry’s son Walter’s house, but that was later. My, this street will see many changes in the coming decade!
Caption: The Aurora Blacksmithing, W Fry, in all its glory! Located right on Main Street, typically with a pile of firewood out front. Notice the attempt to make it “Main Street worthy” with decorative molding at the top. Many of Aurora’s downtown buildings had a flat façade mounted onto a standard pitched roofed building. Peek around the edges of this one and you can see that. We imagine that this was really an airy barn for the work to be done there. And this may be the last stages of this building.

06/23/2023

The town of the Aurora Colony period was a functioning hub for the Colonists and began to be of interest to the surrounding population when the Dr. Wm Keil General Merchandise Store was built on Main Street c. 1871 although there is evidence that he began some store around 1861. It is distinguished from the general Colony buildings by its two story balcony with pedimented front and design detail of turned pillars and balusters. It was also NOT WHITE. The building was open to the broader community and was therefore painted in a color - light gray as it is today. It housed a broad array of products, housed the post office and was the seat of the city’s business. Enter the building next door (Annex 12A) and you may go upstairs to the big store building where you will see an amazing space that was used for community gatherings. An important building by both function and design, it still dominates the downtown. The Old Aurora Colony Museum has one of the original ledger books where Colony members signed for products they took for themselves.

06/21/2023

You will have to envision, while taking my Emma Walk, that the town looked quite uniformly designed with rectangles of multiple paned double hung windows, steep pitched roofs and nearly everything painted white! In addition to the Colony style houses, the “working” buildings also were of uniform design – again not all identical. These large buildings, of which only one still exists – the Ox Barn at the Old Aurora Colony Museum – were used for all manner of communal work. From mills of various purposes, shoe maker or furniture maker to the Colonists’ own store for personal trading, these large rectangular buildings dominated the town’s personality. These were scattered mainly in the north end of town where the natural use of the Pudding River and the Mill Race were used for power. On the Emma Walk you will pause as you read about the Old Colony Store which sat on Hwy 99E between the current island and the pub building. It housed a tailor shop, harness shop, shoe shop and a boarding house for some Colony members. The Ox Barn, at the start of the tour, was used as a barn for the Colony oxen and may be as early as 1869. Over the years the building had other uses including a general merchandise store, a hauling business and family residence. Picture in your mind, lots of these big buildings around town!

06/20/2023

On the Emma Walk we will visit some of the original Aurora Colony houses. Located on Main Street IN ITS ORIGINAL LOCATION, sits the William Fry house built in 1874. William Fry was the Colony blacksmith the blacksmith shop was next door to this residence. That is why his family was able to have a residence in the center of Aurora’s original commercial area. The house sits right on the street with its back porch on the opposite side. From the inside you can see that there would have been two doors at the rear off this porch – Mr. Fry was no doubt directed to go directly into the kitchen to clean up before going further! You will also notice when inside that the windows are all placed oriented to the sun with fewer windows on the north side of the house (where the kitchen was located). Without electricity, these buildings relied on light from the sun at different hours of the day. They took advantage of providing extra light with four glass panes above both parlor doors. Even on a cloudy day, this house is pleasantly lit inside! The alterations inside include a new stairwell and the typical enclosure of the extended back porch which held the modern kitchen and bathroom with indoor plumbing.
The other Colony house here is the Jacob Miley House, c. 1866, which was moved to this spot in 1990 from its original location on the family farm from what is now Charbonneau. This was a larger log Colony home with a wide reconstructed porch and an enclosed rear area. Check out the evidence of its log structure when going inside! It is one of only three surviving log Colony structures.

06/16/2023

My Emma Walk tour includes Aurora Colony style buildings but not nearly as many as the original town had. This was mainly because by the early 20th century these buildings were not considered as important as the location for the 1931-32 construction of Highway 99 which bisected the town with an angle that forever disturbed the grid plan of the original town. Only a few buildings that were salvageable were moved to different parts of the town. The construction of the highway through the core of the city also included a massive regrading leaving several older buildings to sit awkwardly below the present highway elevation. The Emma Walk tour allows you to walk the downtown area and visit original buildings as well as view sites of former ones that played an important role in the village life and livelihoods.
Visit Emma Walk in Aurora, Oregon

06/15/2023

On the Emma Walk tour you will see many of the original Aurora Colony Style buildings with our simple boxed German style, steep roofs, multiple paned windows and white exteriors. In fact, Aurora has the largest collection of this type of architecture by Germanic peoples in the West. The homes were all of this style and although they might look identical, they were all a little different from each other – room arrangements, orientation to street, stairwell placement and location of doors and windows. Four of these Aurora Colony style homes are on the Emma Walk tour: Kraus House at the Old Aurora Colony Museum (also known as Emma’s home), the Miley House (now Whistle Stop Café) and the William Fry House (Time After Time shop) both on Main Street as well as the Snyder House, a private residence on Third & Liberty Streets. (There are more of these remaining Aurora Colony era homes scattered around the area and in town: Filberts Farmhouse Kitchen is one on Hwy 99E and another residence on 2nd Street past the museum.)

06/13/2023

I’m Emma and let me tell you about my Aurora! What you now call the Aurora Colony was known as the Aurora Cooperative Society, a closed society of mainly German heritage singles and families who followed our Christian leader, Dr. William Keil, from our home in Bethel, Missouri to establish a new and additional area where we could farm, build and live according to the belief that by combining our financial and human resources, we would live fuller lives – each contributing according to his abilities and talents and also benefiting from those resources of the others. In 1852 Dr. Keil sent a small party West, including me, and led by my husband Christian Giesy, to find a suitable new homeland. After determining that the first choice of our search party would not allow them to farm as well as they intended, they found this spot in the North Willamette Valley. Although already possessing a few fruit orchards and two mills, the area was undeveloped and required the first group of our society’s members to toil getting the most basic living arrangements ready for the next groups to arrive. One of the many books on Aurora recounts a comment “Before breakfast, we had to either fell a tree or kill a deer.” Aurora wasn’t built in a day. It took several years from their arrival here in 1854 before the area actually resembled a town.

06/10/2023

I am Emma, your official tour guide and you may pick up the FREE self guided tour map “Walk with Emma” at Aurora’s downtown shops or at the Old Aurora Colony Museum. You may begin my tour at any point (the buildings are numbered) or start at the Old Aurora Colony Museum. The map shows both BUILDINGS here today and SITES of important buildings that are now gone. You should begin to see what it was like in the mid-1800’s in a small, country village of that time as well as the building styles that evolved in later years. The map is filled with bits and pieces of interesting information about the Aurora Colony and it also makes a fine souvenir of your visit here. We know you will plan to return!

06/07/2023

Let me introduce myself! I’m the spirit of Aurora Colony’s Emma Giesy (1833-1916) and I am your tour guide to the historic downtown of Aurora, Oregon. This is now a national historic district which means that properties within its boundaries that “contribute” to the original Aurora Colony are carefully watched over by the City of Aurora to preserve their exterior elements so that YOU can experience an optimum authentic visit. The FREE self guided EMMA WALK is a circular stroll of about 10 blocks in the downtown area beginning at the Old Aurora Colony Museum complex and takes in shops, eateries and a look at residences before returning to your starting point. (You may start the tour at any point.) Pick up my wonderful FREE map at the downtown shops or at the museum and you are on your way! Crosswalks are clear and sidewalks are easy with our blue resting benches and the only hill is down! In my day, these were dirt paths, often muddy and then wooden sidewalks. This summer our new digital tour will be ready for you too. Welcome and let’s get you started. . .
Photo of Main Street.

05/24/2023

The Aurora Colony Visitors Association welcomes you to this self-guided tour of downtown historic Aurora, Oregon, a national historic district that preserves the resources of the Aurora Colony (1856-1883). The free tour map is available in local shops and at the Old Aurora Colony Museum. The tour is a fairly level circular ten (10 ) block walk that starts outside the Old Aurora Colony Museum and leads through the business district, into the edge of the residential area and back down to the museum. Except for private residences, the buildings on the tour are open to the public during their posted hours. “Emma” leads the tour for you in the text and points out what life was like here in her time (1833-1916). The tour will also be available in digital form during summer 2023 with a link on this page. (The Old Aurora Colony Museum itself has a variety of separate tours with tour fees. There is no admission fee to visit the book/gift shop and to obtain the Walk with Emma map.)

The Walk with Emma tour is sponsored by the Old Aurora Colony Museum with cooperation from the Aurora Colony Visitors Association and the City of Aurora, Oregon. Grant funding for this project is from the Oregon State Historic Preservation and National Park Service.

“The activity that is the subject of this ad has been financed with Federal funds from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior.
“This program receives Federal financial assistance for identification and protection of historic properties. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally assisted programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office for Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20240.”