Jerry,
The Building owner who gave us the bargain price (then) of $75,000 with a bldg taxed at $24,500. was Amelia Hoileen (Hoy-lean) widow and co-owner with her deceased husband Linc Hoileen, of ‘Coast to Coast Hardware’,which was in this building. Her son and daughter-in-law live in ‘The Homestead’ behind Neil Armstrong School and his name is Eric. Art and Els Abma live there (503-357-3044) and can get their address/phone off their ‘Homestead List’. Eric’s sister and Husband live in Hillsboro and he was an accountant who did her bookkeeping and who I dealt with. Eric could give you their phone/address.
Amelia made this decision even though she had had a much better offer from two young men planning a video arcade/video rental (with an ‘adult backroom’). After 3 days when she had accepted their offer, and had been sorry to refuse us, she decided she was a believer, and needed to invest ethically, and called Valley Art to come meet again. She said that Valley Art was a better fit for Main Street and the other was not what our town needed! Valley Art was proud and excited and worked like crazy to become a valuable business to Main Street–which we became very well.
Bob and Virgina Wilcox, president when we decided to buy the building, gave $10,000.00, and Carl and Dorsey Burnard, Tom and Kareen (Kay-reen) Burnard,
and Lois Zumwalt gave large amounts to kick off the fund raising also.
Do note that the first response from our letter sent to the WHOLE mailing list (including 1/3 members, 2/3 friends of VA that asked to receive the newsletter) about needing to buy the building starting with a down payment, was a family of 5. He had been out of work for 18 months and they had moved 3 times, and they sent in $15.00. All of us valued all of the gifts because, even the pledges from those we knew, (some of them us more involved), were not without stress to accomplish.
Carl and Dorsey were retired, she was a weaver and quilter and gallery sitter. Their family (two sons and one daughter, donated the dollars for the beautiful classroom cabinets in their parent’s memory. Tom (their son) and daughter-in-law Kareen, live in Beaverton and are still on our mailing list and receive our newsletter. She came to the Terry Peasley, Artist Show (2008), and bought an original at $2,000.00. as she had seen it featured in his show article in our newsletter. Kareen’s mother is Lois Zumwalt, long gallery art supporter, and gallery sitter. NOTE: the value of relationships, gallery sitters, volunteers, mailing list, Newsletter- all have in our sales (bottom line).
The ex- gallery sitter who left us our investment nest-egg in her estate (and never mentioned a thing about it even when I went to see her in The Beehive when she was really bedfast and alone) has no relatives left but one cousin who she did not like or trust. Her name was Anne Hamilton.
Merrie
