Historic Hood River
Birge/Balch Residence
Notes
This print is full of notes, but they all leave me confused. It is described as the “E.W. Birge Residence” with the added note it was originally the home of Homer Balch. You may remember Balch as the author of the 1890 book “Bridge of the Gods“. Bridge of the Gods has been described as the first book by a northwest author casting native protagonists, and was performed locally as an opera in 1951.
It is described as being “opposite the Valley Christian Church” which we know moved at least once. A note was added in 1979: “now Windmaster Comm. Church of God.” We know the original Valley Christian Church building is now the Foursquare Church on Barrett Road. There is definitely nothing that looks like this across the street from that location.
We really should talk more about Windmaster area in general if I can find an appropriate image. Anyone have a view of the drive in theater?
L.E.
Arthur……I don’t have time to look now, but under the tag Balch, I think there should be a photo of a young lady on a side saddle? She was related to Balch and he is mentioned in that photo.
Maybe there would be a connection to the house.
Arthur Babitz
Amazing memory, LE! 12 years ago I posted the Myra Helm photo, and she did indeed live in this house:
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/miss-myra-helm-sidesaddle-1888/
Arthur Babitz
FYI we now have a global search on the site which makes this much easier. Click on the magnifier on the upper right of the banner, type “Balch” and this page comes up.
I plan to improve the search interface a bit when I have some time, but it does work now.