History in the News
No time like the present for honoring the past
Introducing the CMHS Board & Staff
By Catherine Quoyeser, President, CMHS Board
We’re all finding our way in the Coronavirus epidemic—as individuals, families, businesses, non-profits, and governments. Cedar Mill Historical Society (CMHS) is not immune to the crisis.
At the time of our update in the March issue, we were poised to work on revising the cost estimate and doing a feasibility study for restoring the John Quincy Adams Young House, having signed an initial Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for that purpose with the owner of the house and grounds, Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District (THPRD). Both tasks require lots of consultation with City of Beaverton (which annexed the site), Washington County, and state officials—on planning, permitting, infrastructure, and historic preservation requirements. But all these government agencies have had to close their doors to the public, lay off staff, and redeploy resources to the public health crisis.
For that reason, and with THPRD’s blessing, CMHS has put the MOU on a back burner for now. The setback has prompted us to look inward a bit and reflect on our priorities, assets, and opportunities.
One asset is surely our community. We’re grateful for your response to our call to action in these pages back in March. As a result, we acquired a new advisor and a new Board member, both with hands-on experience in historic preservation. Scroll down to see our current team. We continue to build our capacity to work together to get things done, albeit via Zoom meetings.
Job 1 is a plan to mobilize still more community support. We’ll be launching Friends of Cedar Mill History, our membership program, in the coming weeks. The goal? With your help in the form of membership dues, we intend to build a virtual museum over the next few months. We envision the CMHS website as a forum where residents can learn about local history and share their own knowledge, experiences, images, and memories. We have a lot of content already. The task is to organize and repackage it in a user-friendly way.
A virtual museum is a direct response to community wishes. In the summer of 2018, the Oregon Organization Development Network partnered with CMHS to carry out survey research on how the community sees us and our future. The top two activities of interest to respondents were visiting a history museum and a way to learn about local history online.
Though social distancing measures are likely to be a fact of life even after Oregon’s stay-at-home order is lifted, a virtual museum can be used and safely enjoyed in the months ahead. In fact, it can help to sustain community ties in these trying times.
Creating a brick and mortar museum in the JQA Young House will be at least a two- or three-year undertaking and require funding well beyond what the community alone can sustain. We want to begin offering services and benefits to you in the near-term. In doing so, we’ll build our capacity for the bigger, costlier, and longer-term undertaking.
Stay tuned for details on the membership campaign. If you’d like to be put on our email list, please be in touch: catherinequoyeser@kw.com 503-705-5725.
Intoducing the CMHS Board & Staff
A retired financial director, Jim Bauer was born in the Cedar Mill area and grew up surrounded by farms owned by his family. The Bauer name is still attached to subdivisions that were developed on what was once farmland. Jim has chosen to return to the area in his retirement. He enjoys traveling and sharing local history, and handles Membership for CMHS.
Liza J. Schade is a Public Historian with a decade of experience in historical research, collections, archives, oral history, public presentations, and reenactments. Now a grad student at Portland State University, she is working on a thesis about current issues facing Oregon’s historic properties. She wants to help build awareness and interpretation of these properties and public access to them. Liza is Secretary for CMHS.
A lifelong resident of Cedar Mill, Andy Saultz teaches education policy at Pacific University and is running for Mitch Greenlick’s seat in the Oregon Legislature. He wants to improve schools and communities for all Oregonians. Andy handles Partnerships for CMHS.
Robert Dupuy is a lighting designer who brings theatrical expertise to architectural projects. Fascinated by historic and museum work, he has designed lighting for Crater Lake Lodge, High Desert Museum, and Mt. Tabor Reservoirs, among others. A Cedar Mill resident, Robert’s keen to help bring a neighborhood treasure back to life. He is Chair of the Restoration Management committee for CMHS.
Paul Reeves has family history in Cedar Mill going back over 100 years. A distant relative may have come to the area on the Oregon Trail. A recently-retired state employee, he brings project management and IT skills to the Board and is the Treasurer for CMHS.
A realtor with Keller Williams, Catherine Quoyeser is passionate about houses, good design, and community. After grad school in the Bay Area and many years working overseas as a communicator, she’s grateful to call Cedar Mill home since 2012. She chairs the CMHS Board and handles Marketing & Communications.
Executive Director Virginia Bruce moved to Cedar Mill in 1995. Having loved stories of pioneers and the old west all her life, she began learning all she could about our history. In 2008, she created a display of historic photos from the Cedar Mill History book at Leedy Grange Hall. She obtained official non-profit status for Cedar Mill Historical Society in 2016 and created a temporary museum in the old Milltowner center in 2018. She founded Cedar Mill News in 2003. She believes that people who understand the history of the place they live have a deeper connection and form a stronger community.
