Check out the new Farmer’s Market website at http://www.westlinnfarmersmarket.org. Our logo  was designed by West Linn High School student Taya Arnone.

The market is under new management this year.  Allison Ehle managed the Hood River Farmer’s Market and we are excited to welcome her to our market.

We have great themes lined up for all the weeks of the market including a Summer Solstice Renaissance Fair,  Classic auto show, Pie Bakeoff contest, and Dog Days of Summer.  Be sure to sign up for the newsletter and/or Facebook page  to get weekly recipes and updates.  We have over 50 vendors lined up this year so nearly double last year’s market.  Stay tuned!

Historic Willamette presents the 2012 Summer Solstice Celebration to kick off the Farmer’s Market. Come celebrate Summer Solstice on Wednesday, June 20th from 5 to 8 pm. Featuring:

• Farmers Market
• Sidewalk Sale
• Gameshire
• Pirate Puppets
• 5PM Historic Conjurer Magician Danny Schreiber
• Stagecoach Theater Arts of Lake Oswego
• 6PM Portland Pirates – Bilge Rats and Pyrette Band
• 7PM High Steppin’ Bridgetown Morris Men

Please download the flyer for more information.

The Historic Willamette Main Street Design Committee’s primarily goal is to capitalize Willamette’s best assets and create an inviting atmosphere that’s attractive to shoppers, investors, business owners, residents and visitors. The Design Committee is staffed by five volunteers with a variety of expertise, opinions and interests.

Our committee leader is Linda Cahan, an internationally known retail design expert specializing in visual merchandising and store design. Her 39 years in retail design includes extensive experience with large and small retailers and with all types of merchandise. Linda is a columnist for Gifts & Decorative Accessories and Spa Retailer magazines and is also the author of “Feng Shui for Retailers” and “100 Displays Under $100.” Linda has taught at Parsons School of Design in NYC and is currently teaching at The Art Institute of Portland.

Clark Matschek is a registered Oregon landscape architect who focuses on residential design in collaboration with architects, contractors, and artists in every scale, from detailed condominium yards to large estate acreage. Most of his projects are located in the northwest, primarily in Oregon and Washington. Clark has been in private practice since 1977 and specializes in overall master planning and hardscape design. He holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon, and has over 30 years of design experience in private practice.

Sara Javoronok is an Associate Planner for the City of West Linn.  Her role involves long-range planning and working with the City’s historic properties, including the Willamette Historic Main Street District.  Her contributions to the committee include answering questions regarding proposed changes to historic properties and other planning related issues.

Jerry Offer is a 22 year resident of the Historic Willamette district. He is also an experienced city planner and land development consultant with 30 years in both the public and private arena.

Kathi Keller has 20 years experience in Leadership Development and Career Development Coaching. She has conducted training globally in both classroom and conference workshops and has facilitated volunteer coordinator training for both the Main Street Program and SOLV. Her passions include a focus on sustainability, minimizing our environmental footprint and has completed a series of training programs on Sustainability and Environmental Leadership.

The Promotion Committee is hard at work on building concepts to improve Historic Willamette Main Street and make it a regional destination for everyone in West Linn and Lake Oswego, Oregon and Washington and beyond to enjoy.  So, when you’re looking for a restaurant for great dining, a happy hour bar, a beautiful park to get some exercise, local attractions or events that provide music and entertainment, or improving your health with Yoga, Pilates or holistic options……remember that Historic Willamette Main Street has it all.

Volunteer Today For A Better Main Street Tomorrow!

We all have those days when some free time has us wondering what to do. If you’re looking to be more involved in your community, consider becoming a member of one of Willamette’s Main Street committees. Historic Willamette Main Street currently has several volunteer committees who are committed to supporting the revitalization of the Historic Willamette. They include the Promotion, Design, Economic Restructuring, Website Development, and the Promotion committees. If you’re looking to meet your neighbors and make a difference in your community, we’d welcome your participation and involvement!

“Willamette is like a magnet for people interested in healthy living,” says Diane Bays, owner of Healthy Spaces. “The area has a special energy that’s conducive to healing,” she says.

Bays claims the combination of spiritual harmony and physical vigor drew the earliest settlers and continues to attract a healthy dose of healthcare specialists.

Today, more than 30 wellness practitioners are located between West Linn’s Central Village below Willamette Falls’ Oregon City Bridge and Fields Bridge baseball parks and nature walks.

Historic Willamette, smack in the middle, is lined with the healing arts.

From spas to podiatrists, from eyewear to water with curative powers, from massages to Pilates, the quaint stretch of shops along Willamette Falls Drive meets the needs of all who feel an ache, pain or simply a yen to be pampered.

And now, Wellness Wednesdays are back.  By popular demand, says Bays, the wellness community has been invited to be a staple at West Linn’s new, enhanced, theme-based Farmer’s Market on Historic Willamette Main Street.

For 10 weeks every Wednesday starting June 22, a doctor or healthcare expert will provide information or consultations that coincide with the Farmer’s Market feature of the week. “The Farmer’s Market is a natural, pardon the pun, environment for the wellness providers to introduce their practice to the public.  And a kickoff on Summer Solstice is again, naturally inspiring,” said Bays.

Bays originally organized the Willamette Wellness Community back in 2003. The group is dedicated to making Willamette a destination for healthy living.  Healthcare agencies range from Legacy Health located in the Marketplace Shopping area of Historic Willamette to the alternative medicine practitioners on Main Street who mingle Western tradition with Eastern remedies such as acupuncture or Reiki, a Japanese stress reducing technique.

The Wellness Community is determined that all those interested have an opportunity to experience the healing powers of Willamette. Bays will reach out to local senior centers and others to ensure transportation is available to shuttle visitors to and from Willamette’s new, enhanced theme-based Market 2011.

Mr. Hoo is half of the duo “The Alphabeticians” who play upbeat songs for children – the sillier the better, just the way kids like them.  To understand their music, the duo suggests imagining “They Might Be Giants” meeting “The Velvet Underground” meeting “Schoolhouse Rock.”

When not performing original tunes like the catchy “Hoo’s Afraid of the ABCs”, “Monkey on My Shirt,”, or “When I Throw Up”, Mr. Hoo is West Linn resident and dad Jeff Inlay. After he and his friend Mr. E (Eric Levine of finger-painting fame) became fathers, they determined to make better music than the entertainment available for their kids.  Fan drawings posted on their colorful website are testament to their popularity. And for parents eager to chronicle tyke talents on a CD, Mr. Hoo has a portable recording studio he can bring to homes to record their children performing.

Mr. E has previously played in Portland 90′s sensation Hummingfish and the Southern California punk band the Mendicant Sauciers. While he says he’s quite sure he never played with Led Zeppelin, he and Mr. E have also been featured in The Fundada Five, Lump of Food and The _ Experience.

While familiar with the alphabet for most of his 47 years, Mr. Hoo only recently grew to love and perform it.  Apparently it comes with the territory of being a dad. In fact, a popular song title is “Up with Daddy.”  Mr. Hoo says the duo’s kids – known as the mini-alphabeticians – provide inspiration for their songs.  “Other than being a dad, being a kid’s musician is the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said.  “Watching kids rock out, dance, and sing along to my songs, and watching their parent’s reactions, is immensely satisfying, and a ton of fun.”

Bullseye Coffee House owner Linda Neace knew the group played clubs and cafes in Portland and decided it was time for West Linn to enjoy the quirky beats, hand bell ringing and guitar strumming. “The music is awesome,” she says.  So far, families from Oregon City, Clackamas and Lake Oswego are listening to Mr. Hoo. “I want to build up his following here,” says Neace, adding that it’s also a terrific way to build up business in Willamette on Wednesdays.

A renaissance faire atmosphere with jugglers, jesters, pirates and entertainers will make shopping at main street local merchants a magical experience!

On June 22, in conjunction with the start of West Linn’s newly enhanced, theme-based Wednesday Farmer’s Market and the Historic Willamette Main Street “Summer Solstice” event, merchants have been encouraged to showcase their prized wares on the sidewalk, in their shops, and promoted in window displays.

Main Street restaurants have been encouraged to serve special Farmer’s Market menus and openly display samples on the street as well.

“The Summer Solstice Sidewalk Sale is a great way to give visitors a glimpse of what Historic Main Street shops and restaurants have to offer.  And if they don’t buy or bite this visit, they just might next time!” explained Historic Willamette Main Street Promotion Chairperson Midge Pierce.

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“Celebrities know they’ve arrived when we name a cat after them,” says Murphy. Just ask Ellen DeGeneres who phoned the shelter to confirm that its comical top cat was her namesake. She later sent the shelter a TV so namesake and keepers could watch her show.

And while cats with names like Jennifer Aniston come and go, one thing never changes: The philosophy that all animals should have loving homes, even if it means bottle-feeding and sleepless nights for the many neighborhood volunteers who care for the animals. Recently waiting to be named were a handful of newborn kittens rescued from the West Linn bus barn. They joined the lone survivor of a day-old kitty litter that arrived on Paws door stoop recently. No animal is too sick, small or maligned to be cared for by Murphy. She has nursed wild birdlings and found homes for a shoebox full of foundling pitbulls.

PAC is housed in a small space, but it has an expansive heart. The tale of Lance Armstrong, once left for dead at the side of the road, is typical. Sharon nursed him for four months, fed him with pureed food and a syringe and found him a home. Fully recovered but minus a leg, he paid his caretaking forward by drawing rescuers to his mistress after she fell into a diabetic coma.

All proceeds and donations to PAC help fund animal care and rescues.  And Murphy, who has operated the shelter since 1997, will share her animal experiences in a book soon to be published titled What the Bleep Was I Thinking? The opposite end of Willamette’s Main Street has gone to the dogs – literally. Oregon Dogs Inc. opened in 2011 and anchors the southwest corner of 12^th and Willamette Falls Drive.  The shop contains a doggie daycare, doggie grooming and a doggie boutique.

The operation’s first visitor was neighborhood escape artist Dodger, a burly, renegade of a dog who wandered in while the building was under renovation, licked the new owners, made himself comfortable on the newly-poured concrete floor and er, left a hearty welcome. “Dodger found us and welcomed us home,” says owner Valerie Baker.

Stress reduction, pain mitigation, playtime or simple pampering – all can be found at Oregon Dogs Inc. where the motto is “Our Passion. Your Peace of Mind.”

Summer Solstice, called Midsummer’s Night during Elizabethan times, is the start of a   magical summer in Willamette with rituals that hark back to ancient practices designed to conjure up bountiful summertime harvests.  The Willamette Main Street celebration will feature roving minstrels, jesters, jugglers, pirates with parrots and West Linn’s own royalty, the West Linn Princess Court. The Ladies of Canterbury Faire will stroll on the arms of their lords, as the squires of the Bridgetown Morris Men share their unique blend of music and dance that follows ages-old traditions of enticing fertile fields with fine fellowship.

Shakespeare considered Midsummer a time of magic so Willamette is especially pleased to have its own historic conjurer and magician Danny Schreiber who will serve as master of ceremonies.

In addition to street entertainment, Summer Solstice will have a sidewalk sale featuring the many gifts and services available from main street merchants, boutiques and restaurants in the Historic Willamette District. Carnival games tailored to kids and families will be also available.

It seems fitting that Willamette, so loaded with its own multifaceted history, turns the clock back to Elizabethan times when celebrants wore garlands of herbs and flowers to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. At the Summer Solstice, garland making will be demonstrated onsite and available for sale with part of the proceeds going to the West Linn Food Pantry.

West Linn’s theme-based, revitalized Farmers Market will run from 5 – 8 pm every Wednesday from June 22 through August 24. Weekly features will include heritage and sustainability stages and a Wellness Wednesday Showcase. Future themes include a spring greens festival, a berry explosion the week of July 4^th with a showcase about antioxidants and super foods and Flower Fest with aromatherapy in August.

Summer Solstice and other Main Street events are supported by Historic Willamette Main Street businesses Pacific West Bank, BJ Willy’s Public House & Eatery, Les Schwab, Healthy Spaces and others.  Thanks also to the Canterbury Faire for their Lords ‘n Ladies and the Portland Pirate Festival for sending so many performers our way as a prelude to their own Festival in Historic St. Helens on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3 & 4. www.portlandpiratefestival.com

Willamette is West Linn’s historic core. The Main Street program was launched as a joint initiative between residents and merchants to preserve Willamette’s charm, ambience, history and to ensure that visitors and residents have a positive experience. Historic Willamette: A Main Street Community is part of the Clackamas County Main Street four-pronged approach toward economic development, promotion, design and organization to keep commercial cores robust.

Phone: 503-475-6181
Address:
1609 Willamette Falls Drive
West Linn, OR 97068

Phone: 503-594-5402
Address:
2050 8th Street
West Linn, OR 97068