Chinook School is a tarnished treasure awaiting new life in that Washington town. Rebirth began last week when the Port of Chinook signed a 33-year lease with Friends of Chinook School, a nonprofit group whose mission is restoration of the historic schoolhouse.

For decades, this schoolhouse was the hub of the formerly bustling fishing village on the bank of the Columbia River. Generations of children have memories of the schoolhouse and its gymnasium. One of the building’s fascinating nuggets is that a young teacher named Angus Bowmer added a stage to the school and directed productions many years before he founded the Oregon Shakespearean Festival in Ashland.

A community depends absolutely on its civic furniture – the buildings and monuments that define the place and hold its soul. When that furniture is allowed to atrophy, the place loses an element of its essence. Conversely, when there is restoration – as with the Astoria Column or Liberty Theater – the town gains a jolt of energy and its soul is renewed.

Grants, gifts and sweat equity will make this project happen. It deserves the support of those with roots in Chinook and those who simply want to encourage the rebirth of our coastal communities. For more information about the project, call Eileen Wirkkala (360) 777-8211 or Loma Billups (360) 777-8367.