Demolition seems to be complete at 1433 Santiam Road S.E., the former site of a yard ornament business where up to 30 apartments are planned.
For the last few decades, 1433 Santiam Road in Albany was the address of Owl Hoot Ornaments, the place to go if you wanted a concrete bird bath, say, or even a garden gnome. The business is gone, and an apartment complex is proposed to be built there instead.
Owl Hoot Ornaments was started by Harlo Jerald Clifton and his wife, Mary. After they died in 2013, members of their family kept the business going.
I don’t know when it closed. A Google map dated in 2025 still shows the business name. It also shows the property full of various kinds of garden sculptures and ornaments scattered among the house and outbuildings on the 1.4-acre lot.
Over the last couple of weeks, people asked me about the demolition taking place there. On a bike ride Monday evening, I finally stopped to take a look. The gate was open. The photo above shows what the site looked like.
Linn County’s online property records show that Jerald William Clifton sold the property in April to Bontrager Rentals LLC, with an address in North Albany, for $150,000.
The online records of the city of Albany’s Planning Division contain a notation that Bontrager hopes to redevelop the property. “Construct five 6-unit apartments and related infrastructure,” the note says.
Building the apartments will require city approval of a site plan first, but so far no site plan has been submitted.
The heavy concrete bird bath our family bought at Owl Hoot many years ago is still intact and working fine. If it ever breaks, too bad we can’t go back there to get it replaced. (hh)
I wonder what Hub Bryant would think about the recent past use and future use of his property?
The Bryant home was a favorite lodging spot for Cumberland Presbyterian circuit riding preachers in the late 1800s.
Time marches on. Not always for the better.
Maybe Mr. Bontrager should consider calling the apartments the Bryant Place. Hubbard Bryant (same family as Bryant’s Island Park), lived on that property with his wife, nine children and mother-in-law.
I have purchased quite a fewl bird baths and ornaments over the years. Looking for something? Could always find what you wanted and wander around at your leisure without someone constantly hovering over you. Sad to see it go.
I would go there looking for something specific. I would find it and buy other things I didn’t intend to buy that I just fell in love with. More apartments? I’d like to know the occupancy rate of the thousands already built and are empty especially on Geary Street.
Just what that stretch of the road needs, more cars going in and out with no left turn lane. Way to go, again, Albany city planners.
Why blame “planners” for what a private property owner intends to do?
If I remember right, Harlo’s nick name was “The Michelangelo of Concrete”. We’ve got a couple of his creations.
Mr Herring, No one in Albany does anything with their own property without the city manager, council and planners permission. They do whatever they want to do with peoples land without the owner’s permission. We have watched years of city meetings where people try to defend themselves against the use or taking of their land.