Historical Society saves building

A little of old Sisters is being preserved with the opening of the Maida Bailey Building. Located behind the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, at 151 N. Spruce St., the newly remodeled building will provide area residents a place to gather and network.

The facility is available to the public for meetings, lectures, conferences, social events and the like free of charge, although donations will be accepted. Information on the use of the building and scheduling events is available through the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber's executive director Cheryl Mills told The Nugget that the board table in the new meeting facility will seat about 15 people and approximately 50 people can be accommodated for a lecture or meeting.

The Sisters Country Historical Society, which is responsible for the building's remodel, also hopes to offer history classes and maintain a reference library, according to John Hayes, the president of the organization's board.

The purpose of the building is "to give people in Sisters a space that they can use for meetings, whether it's seniors who want to get together or whether it's small clubs and organizations that are looking for a space where they don't have to pledge their mortgage on their house. This is going to be a place where you can come and meet. ... It will just become the heart of Sisters," said the historical society's retired volunteer executive director Jean Nave.

The new facility was named after early Sisters resident Maida Bailey, one of the pioneer driving forces behind the establishment of a public library in Sisters.

On Wednesday evening, June 6, the Sisters Country Historical Society was joined by the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce in presenting the newly remodeled meeting facility to the community at an open house. According to Nave almost $70,000 in donations of both cash and materials has gone in to updating the building.

The building, which consists of two joined-together sections, served as Sisters first public library. It originally stood on Cascade Avenue on the site of what is now the closed-down Chevron service station, "just on the other side of Depot Deli," said Nave.

Long time Sisters residents Martin and Carolyn Winch, who were personal friends of Maida Bailey, provided $25,000 in seed money in August 2006 to get the renovation project off the ground. Grants were also received from the Oregon Lottery and from the Bend Foundation.

"It took me nine months of begging, pleading, cajoling and working with contractors, individuals, getting money and getting people to give us materials and supplies, and some wonderful people stepped up and really helped a lot," Nave said.

The Friends of the Sisters Public Library gave $5,000 and Hoyt's Hardware & Building Supply gave a price reduction on materials costs. Bill Willitts of FivePine Lodge and Conference Center donated a new furnace and heat pump for the facility.

The building was moved to its present location behind the chamber in December of 1980, according to Peg Bermel, branch manager of Sisters Library, who started working for the Sisters Library in September 1979.

Nave told The Nugget that the original library, the front section of the current building, was constructed between Christmas and New Year's in 1938 and opened as a public library in January 1939.

All of the original knotty pine paneling remains in the remodeled building, with the older bat-and-board style in the original section and scribed knotty pine in the Lundgren Mill section.

Vignettes of Sisters history are revealed in the historical photos that decorate the walls. A large covered deck connects the remodeled facility to the chamber's offices providing direct access from the chamber.

To schedule an event or gathering contact the chamber directly at 549-0251.