In July the Linn County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 to buy the First Evangelical Church property in Albany’s Willamette Neighorhood. Today I learned that the county has changed its mind and the purchase is off.
There’s a nice little path people can use to walk or bike across the Union Pacific mainline track at Burkhart Street. Nothing much has happened there lately, as far as I know, but I thought I would show it to you anyway.
To my eyes, the Albany Evangelical Church is a handsome and important building in the Willamette Neighborhood that should last for another century or two. So I was startled the other day when I stumbled across an online real estate ad that suggested redeveloping the site.
When you’re on a bike, the quality of the road surface below your tires is something you notice. And on the evening of June 28, the hottest day in recorded history in the Willamette Valley, the newly surfaced streets in Albany’s Willamette Neighborhood caught my attention.
Scott Boysen says he’s lucky to be alive. We were standing in front of his house on Linn Avenue, and he was telling me what happened Monday.
I wanted to complete my little cruise of Albany’s Willamette Neighborhood and learn a bit more about it. So here it is:
Making room for a manufactured home
A small old house at the corner of First Avenue and Columbus Street in Albany was vacant for five years. This week it was torn down so a manufactured house can be placed on the lot.
Tags: demolition, housing, manufactured houses, Willamette neighborhood