Dorena Historical Society

Culp Creek School in the 1930’s

culp creek school mid thirties

Katie Kirk shared this great old photo taken at Culp Creek School. On the back is written “Betty Earnshaw, Reta, Rita, Charles, ?, and Mr Roth”. Reta was Katie’s mom and Rita her mom’s twin ( Shields) She guesses the date at 1935 to 1938.

 

posted by Dorena Historical Society in Uncategorized and have No Comments

Lee Marvin at Culp Creek School

Lee Marvin

 

Lee Marvin showed up at Culp Creek School one day in 1972 to visit with the kids and play a game of ball. Lee was in town filming Emperor of the North with Ernest Borgnine.  The story goes that one of the students was afraid that he would be in trouble for staying late after school, so Mr. Marvin walked him home and told the surprised mother that he was the reason her son was not home on time.

 

posted by Dorena Historical Society in Uncategorized and have No Comments

Back to School at Dorena, circa 1961

 

 

school 1962 2 jpeg

school 1962

Here are some school photos from 1961.  Some of these cute little kiddos are still running around our neighborhood!

 

posted by Dorena Historical Society in Uncategorized and have Comments (4)

Culp Creek 1959

Photo courtesy of the Salem Public Library. The Culp Creek Post Office in 1959.  The building still stands as a private home.

.

Photo courtesy of the Salem Public Library. Culp Creek School in 1959.  This building still stands as well, now as Childs Way Academy.

 

posted by Dorena Historical Society in Uncategorized and have Comments (2)

Random Girly Fun Stuff

In the early days of Dorena some of the women in town organized the Happy Circle Sewing Club.    The club met twice a month to sew, mend and quilt. It gave the members a chance to get out of the house and visit and have fun.  The grocery store building in town became vacant so the club members put on plays to raise the funds to buy the building.  The Happy Circle ladies rented out their building to the Grange for 50 cents a month.  The community often held dances there, too.  Almost everyone in town came to kick up their heels and as one attendee stated “the rafters jumped!”

quilt3

In the same spirit the Row River Sunshine Club has been meeting in the valley for over 50 years.  They craft, bake, help residents in distress and generally keep the sense of community alive on the river.

They can be reached at PO Box 124, Dorena, OR  97434.

Mother's tea-39

A photo of the Mother’s Tea at Culp Creek School

A couple of ladies from Star. One didn’t mess with the up river girls back then.

posted by Dorena Historical Society in Uncategorized and have No Comments

School Pix

The vast archives of the Dorena Historical Society (okay, a cardboard box in my closet) contain many old Row River Valley School pictures.

Here are some rough and tumble Culp Creek School kids.  Looks like the 1940s based on the cool baggy blue jeans on the girls. Culp Creek School survives today as Childs Way Academy.

Culp creek school-39_2

Culp Creek School kids

The kiddies of Wildwood School were an impish group. The story goes that the teacher here wore a clock around his neck to tell him when class was over.  The older kids convinced a little girl to sit on his lap and sneakily turn the minute hand ahead so that they could get out of school sooner.  Unfortunately she turned the hand the wrong way and they had to suffer through extra class time.

Wildwood School

An old and wrinkled copy of a photo of the Disston School Student Body around 1914.  This was the furthest school up the valley.  The gym survives as an outbuilding on private property.

Disston School

Photos and the history of the Dorena School will be on another post.

There was also a school at Star.

1090starschoollist

Star School Attendance Roster 1909

There was a Doolittle School for a time up on Rat Creek.

Doolittle_School

Doolittle School

posted by Dorena Historical Society in Uncategorized and have Comments (2)