By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member
You live in Albany or you reside elsewhere and commute here for work but how much attention have you paid to the city’s history, geography, demographics and its economy?
Below is a short primer about the city, which is the state’s 11th largest and is located in Linn and Benton counties at the confluence of the Willamette and Calapooia rivers.
Wondering who lived in your house before you did? Want to find out if a family will was recorded in Linn County between 1893 and 1978, or do you want to know why Camp Adair was built?
The answers to those questions and others that might be on your mind about our area or the people who lived here could be available in the Rod & Marty Tripp Research Room at the Albany Regional Museum.
Abigail Scott Duniway, considered to be Oregon’s “mother of suffrage,” spent about six years in Albany, where she was the family’s primary breadwinner because of an injury that left her husband unable to work.
Duniway and her family moved to Albany, some records say in 1865 while others state 1866, living in a house on the west side of Calapooia Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. She had a job teaching in a private school for a few months before joining up with a Mrs. Jackson to open a millinery shop at the southwest corner of First and Broadalbin streets.
By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member
Miss Pauline Kline and her family’s story of arriving in Corvallis in the mid-1860s and operating “dry goods, fancy goods, millinery and gents furnishing goods” stores in Albany and Corvallis will be recounted during the annual July cemetery tour in Albany.
Kline, who was born to Russian and Polish Jews in 1860, died in 1939 in Corvallis and is buried with other family members in the Albany Hebrew Cemetery in the 3100 block of Salem Avenue S.E.
That cemetery and the Houston Cemetery across the street will have docents on hand from 7 p.m. to dusk Wednesday, July 25, to talk about some of the people buried in the cemeteries during the free 11th annual History Through Headstone Tour sponsored by the Albany Regional Museum.
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Martha Dayton of Lewisburg, formerly of Salem, recalls finding the tastiest hams in Oregon after she moved here in about 1971 from New York City. “I bought Nebergall hams from a meat market in West Salem, and they were absolutely A-1,” she recalled. “I put them in casseroles and baked them with red kidney beans with the bone in. “A memorable flavor,” Dayton said, “and it was so sad when I could no longer get them.” Download the complete article to continue (see below).
The quality of furniture constructed at a business in Albany that operated for nearly 100 years was so good that celebrities wanted to own the company’s rocking chairs, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Oregon Gov. Tom McCall, then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Download the complete article to continue (see below).
In Albany’s earlier days, downtown boasted a number of drug stores, but they all are gone now, having relocated to the city’s fringes.
Mon Closed
Tue 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Wed 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Thu 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Fri 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sat 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sun Closed
Adults/Teens $5
Seniors $3
Free for Members, Children under 13, & Active Military/Veterans
Group Tour Pricing Available Upon Request