By Starla Pointer • Staff Writer • 

Taylor-Dale’s upscale future: Tributary Hotel transforms historic hardware building

Marcus Larson/News-Register##The Tributary Hotel, with rooms named for Oregon rivers, will occupy the top floor of the century-old Taylor-Dale building. The brick structure went up in 1917 to hold Jamison Hardware. Two Tributary suites will be located in the building next door, which will house okta restaurant at street level.
Marcus Larson/News-Register##The Tributary Hotel, with rooms named for Oregon rivers, will occupy the top floor of the century-old Taylor-Dale building. The brick structure went up in 1917 to hold Jamison Hardware. Two Tributary suites will be located in the building next door, which will house okta restaurant at street level.

The 105-year-old former hardware store/apartment building at Third and Ford streets will see new life as a luxury hotel opening this summer. And two of the eight upstairs hotel suites will sit above the new structure next door, which will house a high-end restaurant at ground level.

Owners Shaun Kajiwara and Katie Jackson first saw the old hardware store in 2013, when they visited Oregon wine country to consider buying property. They were impressed by its history and its brick facade which, unlike the exteriors of some Third Street buildings, had not been covered over or substantially changed in a century.

“We’re heard a lot of great stories about Taylor-Dale,” the family-run hardware store that occupied the building for many years.

The corner building, 608 N.E. Third St., housed Jamison Hardware and several upstairs apartments, with storage in the basement, when it opened in 1917.

It became Taylor-Dale in the 1940s and sold hardware and offered services such as lawnmower repairs until 1993. The building subsequently held a furniture maker’s shop and, most recently, Two Dogs Taphouse, which will reopen this spring in a new location at Fourth and Evans streets.

When Kajiwara and Jackson first saw it, the building housed Marchant Academy of Ballet on the first floor and apartments upstairs

The couple already had invested in vineyard property in Yamhill County.

Kajiwara is director of farming for Jackson Family Wines in Healdsburg, Calif.; Jackson works with sustainability aspects of the company.

Wanting their own vineyard and farm, they decided in 2013 to explore land in Oregon wine country. Kajiwara said they fell in love with a site on Ribbon Ridge at Wind Ridge, between Yamhill and Newberg.

“Six acres of beautiful, south-facing land, meticulously farmed,” he described the property where they now raise grapes to sell to wineries. They call it Bramble Hill.

The new owners soon came to know Yamhill County, he said. They especially loved the charm of Third Street in McMinnville, he said; it had a great food and wine scene already, and they knew they could build on that.

And that’s when they came upon the building with the ballet studio – which, as chance would have it, was getting ready to move to Amity.

“We knew the place needed repairs, but it had really good bones,” Kajiwara said.

Not everyone wanted to invest in a century-old brick building, even if it had good bones. Many would have rejected it simply because of the need for expensive seismic upgrades, he admitted.

But the brick, and the fact that it was largely in original condition, also were draws.

“It had the original character. There hadn’t been any ‘quick fixes’ that had a negative impact” over the years, Kajiwara said. “It needed repairs, but we had the opportunity to fix it right.”

He and his wife engaged a Portland architect, Ernie Munch, to plan renovations. They wanted the building to be earthquake proof and ready to serve modern needs, with plumbing, electricity and other systems up to code.

Historically accurate, too.

Renovations included “adding a lot of steel,” created by Solid Form fabrication company of McMinnville. “But we tried to hide it to keep the original look,” Kajiwara said.

Steel framework was added around the windows, but it’s hidden, as well, to preserve the original appearance.

And a new elevator does more than provide access; it also provides stability to the whole building, Kajiwara said.

In addition to the stairs at 610 N.E. Third St. that lead to the hotel’s second-floor lobby, the elevator runs from street level to the top floor lobby and to the basement, as well.

The basement will become a relaxed lounge area where community members and hotel guests can enjoy beverages and bites from okta restaurant at 618 N.E. Third St.

Okta, spelled with a small “o” and led by famed chef Matthew Lightner, is housed in a new building that replaced the former bead shop next to Taylor-Dale. The bead building was torn down to make way for the new construction.

And there really wasn’t much to be torn down, Kajiwara said. While the 618 space appeared solid from the street, he said, it actually had been constructed by stretching a roof from the walls of Taylor-Dale to the west and another building on the east; it didn’t have side walls of its own.

After preparing a lengthy report on the historic significance of the Taylor-Dale building at 608 and the poorly done building at 618, Kajiwara and Jackson’s team appeared before McMinnville’s historic landmarks commission.

They won approval to tear down the former bead shop and replace it with new construction with the same Italianate facade as the original. It was given the same seismic reinforcements as the Taylor-Dale building.

The latter is a wonderful example of the structures that went up along Third Street in the early 20th century, Kajiwara said. It’s especially significant since it’s survived without being stuccoed over or given “quick fixes” like those applied, poorly, to some other buildings in its age range.

With a strong foundation and excellent masonry, he said, “the building warranted better.”

In addition, it is important to, and loved by, community members. Many consider it a landmark; many have memories of buying tools or nails there, shopping for a Father’s Day gift or living in or visiting a friend in the apartments.

Renovating it correctly will be good for the future, he said, predicting, “the Taylor-Dale building will be around for another 100 years.”

 

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