living history

Yesterday I had the rare treat to visit a 156 year old house! The best part was that I was given the tour by Shannon Applegate, a 5th generation descendant of Charles! Shannon is on the non-profit board that I work for, Umpqua Watersheds, and she has offered the historic house to use next week-end for our board/staff retreat. This is so generous of her that she would offer this wonderful place.

Shannon is the trustee and has lived in the old house for 13 years - "cold and drafty". She and her husband just finished remodelling the house nearby that was her great uncles. They did a beautiful job, it's lovely. I unfortunately did not bring my camera but plan to take many photos when we are there for the retreat.

The Applegate house is now the Heritage Arts and Education Center, a non-profit managed by Shannon. http://applegatehouse.com/ I think it must be fascination for her to live among the things of 5 generations of her ancestors. She did not grow up around here either, she came here in the 70's with young children, having moved many times as a child in a military family.

Shannon is a accomplished author and that makes knowing her especially awesome for me, a want to be writer. She has written "Skookum" a book about the 3 Applegate brothers and their wives who came across the Oregon trail from the east to the Willamette Valley. A great deal of the book is about the wives imagined perspective. It is a good read, she does not make the men out to be saints, and history has made them out to be heroes.
Her next book, "Living Among Headstones, Life in a Country Cemetery." is about her taking on the responsibility of the pioneer graveyard near the old homestead. She is the "sexton", no sex and a ton of work she says jokingly. It is a fascinating book, wondering out loud about things we think about but don't usually say.

This is the back of the house, the garden you can see has the same herbs grown in 1850 that the woman used as medicine.

One of the more interesting things about the house when it was built, was that it had a woman's side and a men's side. No doors between that were inside and 2 stairways to the 2nd floor! I guess a few generations later someone put a door in between the sides and one big stairway. Also I think where the back kitchen was added on later and where it connects to the house was a porch.

I am so looking forward to the retreat! We get to camp in this shady yard Friday night. There are of course documented sightings of "ghosts" over the years - I hope to meet one!