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Magazine to feature Baker City's charm
Written by ED MERRIMAN, Baker City Herald October 14, 2008 02:55 pm
Baker City’s historic renovation of downtown buildings has inspired a feature story to be published in Cottage Living magazine. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)
Baker City’s historic renovation of downtown buildings has inspired a feature story to be published in Cottage Living magazine. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)
Cottage Living magazine, a national publication with a circulation of more than 1 million, is featuring Baker City’s authentic character and architecture in an upcoming issue.
“I love it. I go to towns all over the country — towns like this, and this is one of the best,” said David Hanson, features editor at Cottage Living magazine.
When he accompanied photographer Andy Geiger on a downtown photo shoot Thursday and Friday, Hanson said he was “blown away” by Baker City’s authentic architecture seen in downtown buildings built of quarried tuff stone and red brick during the height of the area’s gold mining, cattle and timber industries between the 1860s and early 1900s.
The photos are for an article being written by Mark Johnson, which will appear in the magazine’s “Pride of Place” section that features communities and organizations that are working to establish or re-establish authenticity to a place.
“Baker City obviously fits that niche,” Hanson said. “They haven’t sold out. They are trying to renew and refresh it with its original architecture and character. They are not doing it with malls on the outskirts of town.”
Johnson said he came up with the idea of writing about Baker City when he stopped to eat dinner at Barley Brown’s Brewpub during a break on a rafting trip down the Grande Ronde River and noticed how much the historic renovations had improved over the years since he’d been in downtown Baker City.
“I hadn’t been through Baker for a few years; the renovation really caught my eye,” Johnson said. As a freelance writer he has published articles in Runner’s World and other sports publications, with an emphasis on sports and outdoor activities such as running, canoeing and rafting.
Johnson said he has done some production and photography work for Cottage Living magazine and decided to pitch an article on Baker City for the magazine’s “Pride of Place” section.
During the photo shoot and tour of Baker City’s historic downtown area, Hanson visited with the owners of several historic buildings and local businesses, including the Clark & Company Homes, Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, the Geiser Grand Hotel, Betty’s Books, Mat Matilda’s, Bella, Prospectors Chocolate Factory and Bistro and the Baker Heritage Museum.
Hanson said he also stopped to look at some of the renovations under way on other streets in the downtown core, including the Pythian Castle on the corner of First Street and Washington Avenue.
In addition to the new photos showing renovated buildings in the downtown area, Hanson said he plans to also run some old photos to give readers a sense of the commitment to the historical architecture and how far the historic preservation work has come.
Johnson said he conducted some of the initial interviews on Monday, prior to the photo shoot.
“There’s a lot of neat energy that I sort of took away from my interviews and discussions,” Johnson said. “The people I talked to are happy to be in Baker and happy to be part of Baker as it moves forward. I thought it was really an engaging community.
“I was really impressed with the art center, inside and out,” Johnson said. “It seems to be great fit for the artistic energy that seems to be a growing part of Baker.”
Ann Mehaffy, executive director of Historic Baker City Inc., plays a major role in planning, organizing and implementing the downtown historic preservation program under the national Main Street program model.
“Many of the questions posed to me by both Mark and David were concerning the interest of property owners in renovating historic buildings downtown, the quintessential Main Street flavor and history of downtown, the Mom and Pop type businesses, the livability of Baker City, and of course the role HBC has played in the last 26 years in downtown revitalization,” Mehaffy said.
Mehaffy said she’s been a reader of Cottage Living magazine for a few years and is excited about the article, which is scheduled for publication next summer.
“Cottage Living routinely spotlights communities and neighborhoods with civic pride, charm and a friendly, close-knit homey feeling,” Mehaffy said, adding that the magazine features pedestrian and bicycle friendly communities with a sense of place and high livability components.
Mehaffy said writer Mark Johnson of Bend pitched the article idea to Hanson after visiting Baker City.
“Mark, the writer, had come through Baker City a few times, was impressed, and suggested an article to Cottage Living,” Mehaffy said, adding that she was interviewed about Baker City, downtown, businesses, buildings, and HBC and the Main Street program.
Hanson said he was impressed with the character of the Baker city people, the walkability of the downtown area, the retail mix and variety of restaurants, as well as the area’s cozy neighborhoods, affordable housing, and the abundance of outdoor activities and events the community and local groups put on throughout the year.
In fact, he liked Baker City so well he said he’s thinking about moving here.
After his visit, Hanson said the thing he found hardest to believe is that Baker City hasn’t really been discovered yet.
“It’s kind of weird that it hasn’t blown up yet,” Hanson said.
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