After hosting seven generations of the Risley family over a 141-year span, the historic Risley House on River Rd. is up for sale. It is the equivalent of a seismic event for our community’s heritage interests.
Built by Jacob S. Risley in 1885, the chore of trying to maintain the 141-year-old 3 story building, on almost 4 acres, is more than a full-time job, in and of itself. The current Risley, a 7th generation descendant, has also had the additional responsibility of preserving his family’s vast collection of historical photos and documents, that have been accumulating in the house since 1885. That history begins in 1843.
Suspecting that the task of preserving all that history, coupled with moving and selling the house, – and the importance of the history to the community (and even to Oregon) – might be overwhelming, OLHD offered to assist in the organization, inventorying, and preservation of the family history collection. The collection is currently stored in seven large storage containers, consisting primarily of photos, historic documents, and other ephemera.
OLHD is honored & humbled that the family accepted our offer and has entrusted us with that task. In return OLHD has permission to copy and digitize the collection for the OLHD digital archives, with the future possibility of making parts of it available to certain designated repositories.
The project is likely to take several months to complete, at some expense, and donations to OLHD would be welcome. The end result should be a rich digital collection of the Risley family legacy.