This Oregon State Capitol History Center Project Newsletter is being sent to you as someone who may be particularly interested in this exciting new project at your Oregon State Capitol.
In this Issue:
First Donation
Interview
Pacific Wonderland
Oregon Pioneer
Capitol Foundation
Members
Sen Jason Atkinson*
Sen Betsy Johnson
Sen Joanne Verger
Rep Vicki Berger
Rep Brian Clem*
Rep Matt Wingard
Sandra Allen
Frankie Bell*
Kathryn Boe-Duncan
Frank Brawner
Jane Cease*
Herb Colomb*
Verne A. Duncan
Paul Hanneman
Ginny Lang
Bill Markham
Anthony Meeker
Fred Neal*
Norma Paulus
Annette Price
Norm Smith
Gerry Thompson
Fred VanNatta*, Chair
Gary Wilhelms
* Project Governance
Committee Member
History Center Project Honored with First Donation!
On behalf of the Capitol Club, President Annette Price, presented the Oregon State Capitol Foundation with a $5,000 contribution in support of the State Capitol History Center Project, an education center for visitors now being planned by the Oregon State Capitol Foundation.
The Capitol Club is an organization of professional advocates whose primary role is to provide information on behalf of their clients to Oregon legislators and state government officials.
History Center - What is it and Why Does Oregon Want One?
An Interview with Frankie Bell and Joan Walker
Joan Walker has been the Capitol’s Visitor Services Supervisor for 12 years. Part of Legislative Administration, Visitor Services includes three full time employees and three part-time staff, and 55 highly dedicated volunteers.
“We are open any time the Capitol is open,” Joan explained in a recent interview. “When sessions run into the evening, we’re here. Any time this building is open, Visitor Services folks are doing their duty,” - staffing the circular information desk, providing doorkeepers during session, leading tours for 300,000+ visitors per year and running the Capitol Gift Shop.
Joan says the 700 school groups that visit the Capitol are “in awe”: “Seeing the Rotunda, touring the Chambers and the Governor’s office, then tramping up the spiral stairs to see the gold man – it makes a once-in-a-lifetime impression on young kids. Teachers know this, so schools run fundraisers to fund the field trip. It makes democracy real.”
So, what would a “history center” add? According to both Joan and former Visitor Services’ head Frankie Bell, the only way visitors can now access “the stories this building can tell” is by joining a tour group. “Our extraordinary volunteers – we have one volunteer who has been leading tours here for 26 years! – know many stories and share them freely,” Joan explains. But, Joan says, they want and need the starting place a ‘history center’ can provide.
Frankie Bell, who now serves on the Oregon State Capitol Foundation, led Visitor Services from the mid-1960s until she retired in 1998. “We started recruiting volunteers as tour guides in the early 1980s after some pretty serious budget cutting,” Frankie says. “Different people get excited by different things. In the earlier years, we hired guides, offered visitors a video introduction to the building and its history, and had rotating exhibits on lighted panels and in the cases in the galleria. But that was back in the days when we even hired elevator operators, so things have changed a lot.”
Frankie praises Joan: “She is doing a great job with the volunteers.” But, she explains, “the history of this building is so important, we all want to make sure the history is recorded, the artifacts, photographs and drawings are preserved, and that everyone who visits the Capitol has the opportunity to be inspired.”
Joan says, “People, who visted the State Capitol as a child, come in every day. They bring their students, or their children. In the decades to come, we want everybody to hear, see, read and experience the important history this building holds.”
Pacific Wonderland License Plate Sales Provides Funding
The State Capitol History Center’s first phase will be primarily funded by sales of the special one-time reissue of 40,000 “retro commemorative” Pacific Wonderland license plates. Oregon schoolchildren created the original plate in 1959 in honor of Oregon’s 100th birthday, and the original plates were available until 1964. SB 961 dedicated sales of the 
commemorative license plate last session.
Reissued to honor Oregon’s 150th birthday, sales of the plates ($100 buys “Pacific Wonderland” as a permanent commemorative) support the Oregon Historical Society and the Foundation's Capitol History Center project. The plates are available through any DMV office or download the application form on DMV’s website and get the plates by mail.
Capitol History: Oregon Pioneer Receives New Coat of Gold
The Oregon Pioneer, sporting a pinkish hue as a result of years of damage from pollution, birds, and weather, received a new coat of gold leaf in 2000. The statue, cast in bronze and finished in gold leaf, was originally put atop the Capitol in 1938 and had been re-guilded twice before, once in 1958 and again in 1984. In both 1984 and 2000 the necesssary funds to recover the 23-foot statue were largely raised by Oregon school children.
Click here to watch a video about the Oregon Pioneer.
