Historic Hood River
Riverside Congregational Church
4-23-2021
Notes
This building on State Street probably doesn’t need an introduction. According to the State of Oregon Inventory of Historic Sites and Buildings, it was built in 1912-13 for $24,000, with a western extension constructed in 1969. It is described as a “two story building of dressed stone construction” with “a gable roof…supported by decorative beams.” They say it has a “stone pediment suggestive of the Northern Baroque Style.”
Wendell
Certainly wish we knew what happened to the cannon that sat on the eastern side of this church……
nels
And don’t bother trying to grow flowers as the ground is rock chips from the building process with a thin layer of dirt on top.
I wonder if the abutments serve a real purpose or just decoration like the cathedrals.
It is my understanding that the builders were the same European rock men who built the Old Highway. And they also built several stone in The Dalles as well.
ArthurB
Wendell, I am constantly on the lookout for any clue about what happened to the cannon. My guess is WWII scrap drive, but I would like to know for sure. If you recall we had tracked the Civil War vet who fired it every July 4 until he was too old to do it safely.
Ellen Heltzel
There was a new wing put on the west side of the church before 1969, maybe a decade earlier. It contained a fellowship hall and kitchen on the top floor and classrooms below. The focal point in the fellowship hall was a large painting or mural of Mt. Hood that I believe is still there.
nels
Isn’t that a Percy Mansur painting? Rather matches the ones up in the middle school.
ArthurB
Thanks Ellen. I got the date from the SHPO inventory, which isn’t always accurate. I believe nels is correct about the painting being a Percy Mansur.
Norma
Percy Mansur also did the painting at the Elks Club.
Ellen Heltzel
There was a new wing put on the west side of the church before 1969, maybe a decade earlier. It contained a fellowship hall and kitchen on the top floor and classrooms below. The focal point in the fellowship hall was a large painting or mural of Mt. Hood that I believe is still there.
Dan K
I know the west wing was added before 1969 because I was in Boy Scouts and out troop met there.. Think I started Scouts about 1966 or 67 and the wing was there.
Ellen Shapley
Warren Weber, a Portland modernist architect, (1912 – 1982) designed this addition which opened in 1956. He designed a number of churches around Oregon