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The 3.23 acre Weston Commercial Historic District is the historic
business core of the small agricultural community of Weston in
northeastern Oregon. It extends two blocks on both sides of Main Street
between Water Street on the west and Broad Street on the east, to
include all of the town's brick masonry commercial buildings and a few
others ranging in date, essentially, from 1890 to 1900. The center of
the district is the intersection of Main and Franklin Streets, and Pine
Creek flows in a northerly direction at the westerly end of the
district.
Of the 13
buildings in the district, the most imposing is the two-story Farmer's
Bank of Weston Building with its cast iron front. With a few notable
exceptions, ground story shop front remodelings are typical. The
buildings are one and two stories in height, and the 10 brick masonry
buildings exemplify the simplified Italianate Style typical of small
towns throughout the American West in the late 19th century.
The oldest of
the buildings making up the district is that which is now known as the
Weston Mercantile Building. Believed to have been built in the 1870s, it
survived the fire of October 17, 1883 which destroyed the entire
business portion of the town. Indeed, it may pre-date the first of
Weston's devastating fires, that which occurred in July of 1874 and
burned nearly all of the town north of Main Street except "Saling
and Reese's brick store."
Because most
of the buildings date from the last decade of the 19th century, the
typical period of development now represented in the district, there are
10 buildings in the primary category. While the wood frame "D and F
Cafe" dates from the secondary period of development following
1910, and would ordinarily be classified accordingly, it has been
remodeled with plate glass and stucco and is now more appropriately
placed in the compatible category. The district includes only one
secondary building, an Arts and Crafts cottage dating from 1900-1905;
one non-historic or intrusive building, the freestanding
cement-block Dot Supply and Post Office Building of 1960, and two
vacant lots.
The town of
Weston is located approximately 10 miles south of Milton-Freewater,
Oregon and 18 miles south of Walla Walla, Washington, in the
northeastern corner of Umatilla County. It is approximately 21 miles
west/northwest of Pendleton, Oregon, the county seat of Umatilla County
and is situated at the base of the Blue Mountains on Pine Creek,
approximately three miles east of Oregon Highway 11. Highway 11 runs
from Pendleton to Milton-Freewater and northward. Oregon Highway 204,
the Tollgate-Elgin Highway, intersects with it north of Weston. From its
intersection with Highway 11, Highway 204 runs east over the Blue
Mountains to Elgin, LaGrande and the Wallowa Valley on the easterly side
of the Blue Mountains.
Old Highway
11, now known as Bannister Road or the Old Athena Highway, runs easterly
from Athena, Oregon to the southeast city limits of Weston, There, it
becomes Water Street during its traverse through the city of Weston,
extending the entire north-south length of the town. It intersects
with New Highway 11 approximately three miles north of the Weston city
limits. It was in 1963, that the Oregon Highway Department placed New
Highway 11 approximately three miles north of town, thus effectively
cutting Weston off from the main flow of traffic between Pendleton and
Milton-Freewater.
Main Street in
Weston runs east and west and,
at one time, was part of the old
Tollgate-Elgin Highway. That is to say, Old Highway 11 turned east
on East Main Street in Weston, and the highway continued up the Blue
Mountains through Weston. Therefore, travelers between Pendleton and either Milton-Freewater or
Elgin-LaGrande were required to pass through the Weston Commercial Historic
District.
Cement sidewalks extend
along Main Street in the commercial district, and parking is allowed on
both sides of the street. Street trees have been planted in sidewalk
planters at a spacing of 50 to 75 feet. Street trees were typical on
Main Street before streets were paved and board sidewalks replaced after
1920.
The
epicenter of the district and the town is the intersection of Main and
Franklin Streets. In Weston's heyday, the intersection was marked by a
water fountain surmounted by a cast iron figure of a boy holding a fish.
Traffic along what was earlier the principal route to Elgin had to
detour around the fountain. In the 1950s the fountain was removed as an
obstruction to traffic.
Traveling
circuses, which were popular in eastern Oregon in the early years of the
century, pitched their tents at the intersection of Main and Franklin
when they came to Weston. In addition, early Umatilla County Pioneer
Picnics and other community celebrations, such as the 1918 Armistice Day
celebration, were held at this location.
The Farmer's
Bank of Weston is located on one corner, and, on the opposite side of
Franklin Street, where the post office and hardware building now stands,
was located the Marshall House, a large brick structure which, in
addition to being Weston's finest hotel, housed several doctor's and
dentist offices. Clearly, this intersection was the hub of town in the
historic period. The sense of a focal point is still conveyed today by
the three remaining historic buildings at the corners of the
intersection, and particularly by the dominant Farmer's Bank of Weston
Building.
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