Engage Corvallis

15/06/2024

Today and tomorrow!
(Saturday and Sunday, June 15th and 16th)

Are you a history enthusiast or simply curious about Corvallis? Enjoy an enriching walking tour experience this weekend ("Biographies and Beer," "Corvallis Placekeeping: a Walking Seminar," or "A Sip of History,") that concludes with a beer or other refreshments at The Bière Library, the last historic building on the tours.

Times and reservations at https://engagecorvallis.com/

📷 The Biere Library social media

29/05/2024

Glad to know they're called 2x4s for a good reason!

This image from Edmonson Bros shows the difference between 2x4’s used in older homes as compared to today.

28/05/2024

This (FREE!) tour is amazing - not just history of Owen's farm, but contextualized in the history of the area. Highly recommend!!

We are wrapping up festivities for !

Join us on May 30 for a presentation and walk of Owens Farm: past and future and a historic preservation celebration at The LaSells Stewart Center.

Get the details: https://ow.ly/BkmS50RpNU4

Visit Corvallis, Albany Visitors Association, City of Corvallis, City of Albany, Oregon, Preservation WORKS

26/04/2024

Very excited about this lecture! Friday April 26th, 10:30 at the museum in Corvallis. See you there!

This Friday, April 26th we're hosting a lecture by William G. Robbins, Ph. D about 'Building an Infrastructure in Benton County' at our Corvallis Museum starting at 10:30am. His most recent book, "Benton's Story", the most comprehensive history of Benton County in over 100 years, will also be available in our store.

18/04/2024

This Friday at 6!
Ticket link in comments.

Bring your BAE, your bestie, or a buddy-to-be on a date night edutainment spree!

Theatrical storytelling on the streets of downtown will leave you knowing:
✔ who incited a rogue revolution in the 1970s
✔ why there are no parking garages near the river
✔ how Madison Avenue came to be sprinkled in art
✔ the dark history of a Darkside-adjacent spot
✔ the domino effect following the arrival of automobile
✔ what caused the biggest financial collapse in the town's history
✔ the effect travel bloggers of the 1800s had on the native Kalapuya
✔ why Pacific Northwest beaver fur was considered better than any other
✔ what Flathead Cherries and Corvallis-area farms have in common

See you on the streets!

08/04/2024

Of all our upcoming events, we're most excited about this one!
Can you join us?

Wed - April 17th - 4:30
Fri - April 19th - 2:30
Mon - April 22nd - 3:30 (celebrate Earth Day!)
Sat - May 4th - 2:30
Mon - May 6th - 3:00

See comments for more details!

08/04/2024

We've been reading lots about the hop farmers locally, and the way steamboat transit helped farmers close to the river. Also just watched The Boys in The Boat that takes place in this same era of extreme hardship.

Yakima, Washington, 1939...

Caption
Champion hop picker in squatter camp before the season opens. Earned five dollars a day in the 1938 season. Age twenty three, been on the road seven years. Married. "I think I did pretty well, only have one baby. Want to get out of this living like a dog." Washington, Yakima Valley...

Source
Farm Security Administration Dorothea Lange photographer

26/03/2024

If you don't already know about Vina Moses and her husband Mr. Moses, they are a mega legacy in our community!

It's very likely your daily life has benefitted from their work that started more than a century ago.

Women in our community have done some amazing things!

Pictured here in 1905 on their wedding day is Victor and Vina Moses. Victor was a county clerk, judge, and postmaster and Vina led a community welfare center that would go on to be known as the Vina Moses Center, founded in 1918. "Helping people through times of hardship, engaging the community to build resilience and improve wellbeing." The center has been in its current location on Garfield Avenue since 1986 and makes a huge difference in our community. What an incredible legacy!

This wedding portrait can be found on the second floor of our Corvallis Museum in the Hats & Chairs exhibit. Learn more about the Vina Moses center at www.vinamoses.org.

11/03/2024

This coming weekend is meant to be 🌤☀️☀️☀️☀️!

Three chances each to catch the Corvallis 101 and Corvallis 201 tours, with prizes from the Benton County Museums and The Bière Library!

Friday at 2, 4, and 6pm
Saturday the same!

Engage Corvallis

01/03/2024

Tonight's monthly free tour will be more indoors than out, because . A few spots left for the 5:30 start:

These brief, free, monthly walking tours connect you to local stories as we explore an invisible side of downtown Corvallis.

07/02/2024

Happening this Saturday, 4pm!

ICYMI - hopefully will be available a few more times in Feb...

Meet Corvallis' streets! Enjoy a golden-hour history adventure with eleven stops through the heart of Corvallis. Trace the threads of transit history, consequential architecture, and remnants of civic and economic forces

15/11/2023

Wow!

A few months ago, the Van Buren Street Bridge key was donated to us before construction started! Built in 1913, it is currently in the process of being replaced to make way for a seismically fit and safer bridge. Happy to hold on to this iconic piece of Corvallis history!

04/11/2023

Until 1913 in Oregon, Women did not have the right to vote. Voting rights were and are withheld from many individuals throughout U.S. history.⁠
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1913 is also the year the Majestic Theater was constructed.

02/08/2023

You know the building that kind of looks like a small-scale gothic castle at the (downtown) edge of campus?

In the 1990s it was discovered that the sandstone that gives the building its iconic look was detaching from the iron. The entire building was laser mapped and then the data was used to create identical replacement stones - this time made from limestone.

Over the building's 121 year history (it opened in 1902), many seeds of world-changing knowledge have been planted. One famous example: as a grad student Linus Pauling took classes, labs, and taught in the building.

While we won't be going to campus on this Friday's (8/4) 15 minute tour, we *will* be talking about someone who had one of the most memorable experiences of their life on campus.

See you nerds Friday
➡ 5:30 on the waterfront (Howland Plaza) for a quick nerd convention
🎤 5:45 departure for our 15 minute tour
🍻 6pm nerd finale at The Biere Library!

(If you can't make it this Friday, try for first Friday next month. The tour is different every time.)

07/06/2023

Before that, primary access was on foot, horseback, or via stagecoach.⁠
⁠
1851 was also the year Sojourner Truth addressed the 1st Black Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio and American inventor Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine.

30/05/2023

The basement walls are constructed of the same granite. If you know where to look, the quarry is still visible on Witham Hill.⁠
⁠
Anyone know the Kalapuya name for Witham Hill?

17/05/2023

The curbing was put in at the beginning of the automobile era, when many still used horses for transit. The horse rings have been preserved thanks to dedicated historians.

09/05/2023

Starting 18,000 years ago, pressure built up behind a dam made of ice that held back a huge lake over 500 miles inland from here.

The sudden gush of water raced at 70mph until it reached the Columbia Gorge on its way to the Pacific. When water reached a natural pinch point in Washington, it sought a new path of least resistance down the Willamette Valley.

The floods crested as high as Crown Point - marked by that octagonal historic build you've maybe seen or stopped at in the Gorge - 700 feet above river!

The floods happened about every fifty years for 3,000 years. Kalapuya tradition includes stories of these floods.

03/05/2023

Why purple? The glass was originally clear, thanks to added manganese. (Otherwise the glass would have had a yellowish or green/blue tint.) However, when exposed to sunlight, the manganese slowly turns the purple color we see today.

Bonus points to anyone who can name a location of one of these Corvallis gems (pun intended)!

27/02/2023

More dates available starting mid-summer! Add your name here to be notified when next round of booking opens:
https://mailchi.mp/dd485c0626e2/sign-up-for-more