Bestway Building Center opened in the old Long-Bell Lumber building at Main and Spring streets in 1965. The location housed lumber and hardware businesses from 1910 to 2018.

Bestway Building Center opened in the old Long-Bell Lumber building at Main and Spring streets in 1965. The location housed lumber and hardware businesses from 1910 to 2018.

Fire Chief Keith Ambrose narrowly escaped death in fighting a fire of undetermined origin which almost totally destroyed the two frame buildings at 534-538 Main Street shortly after 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon.

Ambrose and Roy Biehn were holding a hose on the second floor when the floor collapsed, precipitating both to the ground floor. Biehn managed to extricate himself but Ambrose was held down by falling timbers and was unable to move. When rescued a few minutes later he had been overcome with smoke and was unconscious. At the Warren Hunt Hospital this afternoon it was said he was resting comfortably and that his speedy recovery was expected. He was not burned nor internally injured, it was said.

Six lines of hose poured steady streams of water into the building, which was a roaring furnace within a few minutes after the fire had broken out in an upper back room, and within three quarters of an hours, when the fire was extinguished, the buildings were completely gutted. Brick walls saved the American National Bank Building on one side and the Klamath Packing Company on the other.

The west building is owned by Chas. Swingle and the other by Henry Bolvlan. The Eagle Pool Hall occupied the ground floor of the latter’s building while the other was vacant. The whole upper floor was occupied by the Star Rooms, under lease to Mrs. Etta Moore.

Maurice H. Faubion, 50. and Jim Rawles, 46, meteorologists at Kingsley Field, have heard all the jokes about weathermen.

“When most people find out you’re a weatherman they feel they have to say something like, ‘So, you’re the guy I’ve been looking for all these years.’ They don’t know the last 900 people we have met said the same thing, Rawles smiled.

“But it is usually all in good humor, “ he added.

Faubion, who is the meteorologist in charge of the Kingsley office, commented, “You have to learn to accept the jokes. If you didn’t, you would get ulcers. We think of weather as a serious occupation that takes a lot of preparation and we get enough repeat customers to know we are in demand.

Both meteorologists received their training in the Navy. Rawles became interested in weather while still in high school, joined the Navy to receive part of his education and then attended college on the Gi bill and has been “in weather” all his life.

“Weather is not an exact science. When a mass of warm, moist air hits a mass of cold dry air something is going to happen. We try to anticipate the results. We are right about 80 percent of the time in predicting precipitation

The Herald and News, Sept. 24, 1972

Harvey Brennan can remember the last time the First United Methodist Church was painted—when it was built in 1929.

Brannen, 83, was s sophomore in high school at the time and his family had been members of the church since he was 12.

Now, almost 70 years later, the church will get its first new coast of paint since 1929.

Over the decades, the church’s stucco walls began to lose their natural color and eventually turned a stained, rusty brown. The church’s stucco had been maintained fairly well, but it had never been painted.

The crew from Kellstrom Bros. Paint Center applied a coat of primer to the outside walls. Then the crew began to put the first of two coats of antique white paint on the walls. The church will probably need about 150 gallons of paint.

The First United Methodist Church was built during the Depression and one of Brannan’s memories of the church is how the money was slowly raised and the interior design was scaled back.

The Herald and News, Sept. 26, 1997

Four soldiers and two eagles line the facade of the Klamath County Museum, saluting Klamath skies. Old as the building itself, the statues are 77 years young. With the turning of the seasons these statues eroded and corroded. So much so that museum staffers decided the heads needed replacing.

“You couldn’t tell what the head was—just a blob of eroded concrete,” said Todd Kepple, museum manager.

Where to start? How do you restore something when you don’t know exactly the original state?

Luckily Anne Ezell, longtime volunteer, had taken photographs of downtown Klamath Falls, including the 1451 Main St. The museum used her photographs to piece together the original heads.

The museum applied for an Oregon Heritage. Grant to cover half the bill: $35,570. The other half came from reserve funds.

“Taking the heads off was as hard as putting them back on,” said Steve Earl, a contractor for the Oregon State Historical Preservation office.

The new heads were to be cast in Portland. Architectural Casters, Inc. sent employees to Klamath to build molds. The statues are made mainly of sand, cement, and coloring.

Tuesday was Steve Earl’s last day of work restoring the soldiers and eagle to their original glory. He used epoxy and stainless steel.

None of it would have been possible, Kepple stressed, if not for the help of his predecessor Judith Hassan; she helped get the museum inducted into the National Register of Historic Places, a requirement to apply for the grant received.

The Herald and News, Sept. 28, 2012

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