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Charles and Martha Brown House

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Garden-variety tour anything but

By Kate Rowland
Special to the Statesman Journal
June 23, 2008

STAYTON — Kathy Campbell has been designing, planning and working on her home's garden for 13 years, but she still feels there's room for improvement.  Campbell and her daughters, Emily, 8, and Megan, 5, were looking for inspiration during the Santiam Heritage Foundation's eighth annual garden tour, "In Sunshine & In Shadow," held Sunday afternoon in the Stayton-Sublimity area.

"A garden is never finished," said Campbell, a Stayton resident. "It's always in a constant state of flux and I'm here looking for ideas. It's fun to see what other people do. And my girls love it. They look forward to it."

Stayton's Bird & Hat Inn, owned by Santiam Heritage Foundation president Jacqulin Kirby, serves as the tour's anchor each year. The bed-and-breakfast serves refreshments in its 1920s-era sunken garden. Seven other local gardens are featured yearly. Kay Pendleton, organizer of the event, said she works year-round to locate new, unique gardens for tour participants to visit. "We go to great lengths to find different gardens every year," she said. "In eight years, we've only had three repeats. We're always on the lookout for new gardens." Sunday's tour featured both emerging and established gardens, including an Asian-inspired haven, a lush garden surrounding a Craftsman-style home, natural-wood gazebos and tidy greenhouses. Always included in the tour are masses of annuals and perennials, a plethora of
vegetables and fruits, and a variety of herbaceous borders and soothing water features.

Stayton's John Brandt, a retired teacher, grows native Oregon plants in his garden. He enjoyed seeing what other people have done with their gardens. "It's a pretty eclectic mixture of native and hybrid plants," Brandt said. "Gardens are always
evolving. They're never finished. This is a good way to see how other people handle similar situations."

Good friends Elizabeth Crocker and Randy Hamlin from Mill City enjoyed the diversity of the gardens included on the tour. "I'm very much into gardening," Crocker said, adding that she grows her plants strictly in pots these days. "I think the tour is great. All the gardens have been different."

The event is the major annual fundraiser for the foundation, which is working to restore Stayton's historic Charles and Martha Brown House. The all-volunteer group would like to see the 1902 Queen Anne, on the corner of First Avenue and High Street, used as a community-cultural center by 2012. "Work is ongoing," Kirby said. "The windows are ready to go. They have etched glass and are really pretty.  We always need donations, but a good-sized grant would really help," she said. "We've gotten small grants, and that's what we've been working with. But we need a big grant so we can hire people and have the money ready to pay them."

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Reprinted with permission of the Statesman Journal.

How can you help?

You can support the Brown House through your contribution, your purchase of one of our fundraising items, or by getting involved. Join a work party, donate services or materials, or make a tax-deductible donation. There's lots to do and we appreciate all contributions, large and small. See how you can help.

Your gift counts three times! If you make a tax-deductible gift now to the Santiam Heritage Foundation, and then by December 31, 2006 make a matching gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust, you will receive a 100% income tax credit (up to $500 for individuals, $1,000 for couples or $2,500 for corporations). You get half of your combined contribution back – and a federal tax deduction – while supporting Oregon’s many cultural programs!

Read the Salem Statesman Journal article about the Charles and Martha Brown House.

For more information send us e-mail.
You may also call Jacqulin Kirby at (503) 769-7817

or Bob Pendleton at (503) 769-5863.

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Santiam Heritage Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 161 Stayton, OR 97383
(503) 769-7817 or (503) 769-5863
or send e-mail

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