FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 10, 2020 From: Gresham Historical Society 410 N Main Ave Gresham, Oregon 97030 After being closed for nearly seven months, the Gresham History Museum is getting ready to open to the public on Saturday, July 18, 2020. Stop by and see our new exhibits and come meet our new […]
The Great Depression of the 1930s gave birth to the Works Progress Administration, the largest government agency created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The WPA created nearly eight million jobs for skilled workers and is responsible for many public works projects across the United States. In the mid-to-late 1930s, the agency came to […]
Greetings to our members and friends. As you know, we have been closed due to the Coronavirus, and we miss seeing all of you. Since we cannot open, we plan to bring our collection to you via our website and our Facebook page. We plan to highlight items in our collection and to share tidbits […]
The Gresham Historical Society would like to thank all of our donors who have contributed to this year’s restoration of the 1913 Gresham Carnegie Library. So far, we have received over 40 individual contributions for our restoration efforts, totaling almost $4,000. Thank You, Mike and Claudia Andrews April Avery Jen Bodendorfer Marilou Bohmann Joe Breniser […]
Utahna Kerr is an indispensable member of the Gresham Historical Society. She has volunteered at the museum on a weekly basis for almost 40 years! She started helping in 1982 when the society began to make plans to move into its current home at the Gresham Carnegie Library building. Utahna and her husband Larry would […]
How did Gresham get its name? You can thank Ben F. Rollins. In 1884, Rollins built a general store in an area known as “Campground.” Thinking a post office would help with the business, Rollins wrote to Postmaster General Walter Q. Gresham. We can’t say for certain whether Rollins suggested naming the area after Gresham […]
The Marvelous Miniatures of Bruce Plumb November 16, 2019 1-3 pm Join us at the Gresham Historical Museum for a public exhibit reception for the Marvelous Miniatures of Bruce Plumb with the family of Bruce Plumb as our special guests! This is a casual reception that presents an opportunity for the public to hear about […]
The Gresham Historical Society is proud to announce to its membership that we have received not one but two grants this year from the Oregon Heritage Commission! The Oregon Museum Grant for $8,000 will go towards improving our collection storage. After the project is completed, our collection storage will be temperature controlled with new shelving […]
Suburban Gresham does not immediately present itself as an area of rich natural resources. Many who live here today know very little of the area’s history prior to the arrival of European American settlers. Before the subdivisions, cultivation, and logging, however, the rolling hills and rushing creeks of this area provided a home for Native […]
According to the Gresham Outlook: “The Mansion is 4 and a half feet wide, 5 feet deep and more than 5 feet tall. It has 28 different rooms, 650 working lights, and was made with 21 different kinds of natural wood. The house weighs 700 pounds and comes apart in four main pieces.” This is […]