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 | P. O. Box 1055
8700 SW Sweek Drive
Tualatin, OR 97062
Phone: 503-885-1926
Fax: 503-692-5876
Contact: Larry McClure, Director
Email:
Hours: Monday - Friday, 10am - 2pm; Saturday and Sunday for special events. Closed from Christmas through New Years Day and on national holidays.
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Oregon Museums Association / Portland Metro / Tualatin Heritage Center
Tualatin Heritage Center
http://www.tualatinhistoricalsociety.org/
Admission: Free, donations welcome; special events may have suggested donations or admission fees.
Tualatin was a tiny community of about 150 in 1859 but it played a role in the vote for Oregon’s statehood. That story was told in a live theater production called The Road to Statehood—the Tualatin Connection. The story theater event was held at 2 pm on February 15, 2009 in Tualatin’s Heritage Center.
Two of Tualatin’s pioneer settlers, Nathaniel Robbins and Levi Anderson were among the 60 elected delegates to the 1857 constitutional convention that brought Oregon into the Union. Robbins led 55 family members across the Oregon Trail and filed for free land on several hundred acres in the present area of the I-5/I-205 freeway as far southeast as Stafford, including Atfalati Park on 65th (Meridian Road) and Sagert Street. Anderson’s donation land claim was located where Apache Bluff Subdivision, west of the Tualatin Country Club, is now.
The play begins with the Decision at Champoeg in 1843 when Oregon country came under the American flag, followed by the arrival of 17 Oregon Trail immigrants in the early 1850s who tell their stories of settlement in this new, untamed land, and concludes with U.S. ratification of the state constitution in 1859. It includes a fiddle and guitar player performing 1850s fiddle tunes and a sing-along of the state song Oregon, My Oregon.
Dan Hobbs of the Lumiere Players narrates the story as it is enacted by members of the Tualatin Historical Society, including two who are descendants of the pioneers they portray-Barbara Stinger as Nancy Robbins and Duffy Hamilton as Elizabeth Shaver. Two Tualatin city officials will be special participants. City Councilman Ed Truax will portray John Sweek who platted and named the town Tualatin. Sweek’s house remains at the intersection of Boones Ferry Road and Tualatin Road. Sherilyn Lombos, City Manager, portrays Maria Sweek. Other players are Sue Raxter, Anne Avery, Bill and Doris Gleason, David Parker, Sandra Carlson, Richard Hager, Ken Stinger, Rollin Carlson, Kurt and Eleanor Krause. Loyce Martinazzi and Karen Lafky Nygaard, Tualatin Historical Society co-founders, crafted the script.
The Heritage Center is located at 8700 Sweek Drive, next to police headquarters. The public is most welcome. A symbolic Oregon Trail Toll of $1.50 (one cent for each year of statehood) is suggested.
For more information, contact: Loyce Martinazzi, (503) 598-7443; Email: loycem@gmail.com or the Heritage Center at (503) 855-1926.
Need a place for your gathering?
Call: (503) 885.1926 for more information about how to rent this unique facility for your holiday party, anniversaries, reunions, meetings, and weddings.
Exhibits on the history of Tualatin and nearby areas, including a permanent display of a 14,000 year-old mastodon tusk and molars excavated in Tualatin in 1962. Operated by the Tualatin Historical Society.
The Center offers monthly activities for children, youth and adults. Workshops and classes open to the public, such as knitting/crocheting and hammered dulcimers. Public presentations on history-related topics are given the first Wednesday of each month, beginning at 1:15 PM. Quarterly community theatre productions and art shows. Fall harvest festival and spring pioneer demonstrations for local schools and families.
Tualatin Historical Society publications are available for sale. The facility is available for rent.
Open house during Crawfish Festival, second weekend in August.
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