The Cumberland building, shown Nov. 18, sits where the Veale Chair Factory used to store wood.
A week ago I walked into Albany’s downtown Carnegie Library to look at one of the Sanborn fire insurance maps stored there. I wanted to refresh my memory on something related to the former Cumberland Church.
The 1892 church, you’ll remember, was moved to a vacant lot at the corner of Santiam Road and Pine Street, where the nonprofit Cumberland Community Event Center is restoring it.
In 2020 the city council sold the event center organization the lot for $69,000 and agreed to a three year lease-purchase option for three adjoining lots for $207,000. The Cumberland has asked the city to consider lowering the option price for the other three lots, and the council indicated it would.
I went to the library because I couldn’t remember what had once existed on those vacant lots and why the City of Albany bought them in the first place.
At the library, the latest set of Sanborn fire maps dates from 1925. And it shows that the four lots now involved in the Cumberland venture were on the east end of the sprawling grounds of the Veale Chair Factory.
The factory stored wood there. The map also shows a garage, labeled with an “A” for automobile.
Veale’s was one of Albany’s main industries for close to a century. After the factory closed in 1982, the land was subdivided and sold. The city acquired one of the new parcels for the Albany Skatepark, but not the property to the east, facing Pine Street.
In October 1999, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported that an anonymous donor had contacted Parks Director Dave Clark. The donor provided the money, and the city bought the four lots east of the skatepark from Alta and Myron Taylor for $145,000.
The paper said Clark was considering various ideas for the land, including inline skating and roller hockey. But the lots remained undeveloped, planted with grass.
The Cumberland has applied to have the old church now sitting there placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Albany’s Landmarks Commission has endorsed the application. The next hurdle is a review at a public meeting of the state’s Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation on Feb. 16 in Salem.
The application is all about the history of the building. It has nothing to do with where the church was moved. But as part of a famous old chair factory, the land has a history too. (hh)
This page of the 1925 Sanborn map of Albany shows the Veal Chair Factory’s “slab and fire wood yard” in the center, now the site of the former Cumberland Church.
Hasso, the map has Veal spelled wrong. It was Veal. And, it was a furniture factory. It made beds, chairs, tables, hutches, the whole spectrum of household furniture…not just chairs. And, it specialized in maple. I bought some at Frager’s Furniture in the early 1960s. Veal Furniture Company was highly thought of in this nation for maple furniture; it was very well-made. I still have some of it. (I just looked at the bottom of a chair. It says, “Solid Maple – Flint Ridge Maple – R. Veal & Sons, Albany, Oregon.”) No damned pressed board in the core of that chair!!! And, it was not made in China…damned politicians hadn’t gotten China into the World Trade Assoc. yet and then done various trade agreements that caused about 60,000 factories to close in this country, of all types.
You are right it was called Veal Furniture factory. They also logged and cut their own wood and you could buy truck loads of the bark pieces to cut up for firewood. They made great well made furniture.
And all of this land is in the heart of the Hackleman DLC which extended from approx. Baker to Geary and the river to Queen.
Thanks for sharing the Veal Furniture information and the reminder we can better understand our history by looking at Sanborn maps! The Sanborn map for 1895 shows the church’s outhouse at the south property edge.
Thank you, E. Rapp, and Hasso, for telling us about the Sanborn fire insurance maps stored at Albany’s Carnegie Library.
Love old furniture. I have some pieces that belonged to my late parents. Solid walnut that they purchased in Chicago after they were married. That stuff is older than me. Dovetails in the drawers and all in beautiful condition. I grew up around that furniture and think of my parents every day when I see it. My brother and his wife have a couple of pieces and our daughter also has some.
I shudder when I see furniture pieces that you buy in a box and go home and put it together. That is not furniture. I am also fortunate to have some Danish Modern pieces made from a dull walnut – solid as she goes!! Seventy years old and going strong!
In 1982 I was in the Washington, D.C./Arlington, Va. area and was wandering through a mall where there was a furniture store. Loving anything wood I went in and found, you guessed it, Flint Ridge Furniture, made in Albany, Oregon stamped on many of the sets they had.
A salesperson told me that it was one of the best selling pieces of furniture they carried.
There is a story behind their demise as a business, I believe.
I have a small bookcase that was custom made by Veal. It was made to match a pair of end tables that my father and uncle had built. The bookcase was built in the early 1960’s.