Canby’s Historic Mark Prairie School Needs Your Help!
The Mark Prairie Schoolhouse, built circa 1879 south of Canby, needs the public’s help with restoration efforts. The all-volunteer Mark Prairie Historical Society (MPHS), previously known as the Mark Prairie Community Club, has owned and operated the property as a vital community gathering and educational space since 1947.
In February 2021, layers of ice from three powerful winter storms sent surrounding oak trees smashing through the roof of this historic schoolhouse, causing over $400,000 in damage and rendering the building unusable. Volunteers have raised more than a quarter of the total funds needed, and contractors have finally enclosed the wooden building with rebuilt walls and a new roof. Volunteers continue writing grant requests, hosting fundraising activities, and seeking donations of time, materials, and dollars, but in order to complete restoration before next winter, MPHS needs your support.
Read more about this one-of-a-kind schoolhouse and find out how you can support the restoration efforts.
Mark Prairie School as it looked circa 1984 when it was inventoried as a Clackamas County Historic Resource. c1984
Credit Pam Hayden
Mark Prairie School with two
Oregon white oak trees that crashed through the roof in the February 2021 ice storm. 2.14.2021
Credit Blaine Sessions
Mark Prairie School with two 200-foot-tall oak trees which laid completely across the country school building. 2.14.2021 Credit Blaine Sessions
Mark Prairie School interior, after the trees had been removed, with the roof members jabbing into the space and the two large trunks dropped into the 1950s kitchen. 10.4.2021 Credit Peggy Sigler
Mark Prairie School continued to deteriorate as winter approached. 11.2.2021 Credit Peggy Sigler
Mark Prairie School, looking at the original 1879 roof structure after the collapsing roof was demolished and the old-growth fir floors washed down.11.23.2021
Credit Jason Paolo
Mark Prairie School was built with square nails; the larger ones held the rafters and joists together; the smaller ones held the tongue-and-groove paneling on the ceiling. 10.26.2022 Credit Ed Dohman
Mark Prairie School now sports new, carefully engineered and hand-built trusses that meet the 1879, old-growth, full-sawn fir joists and skip sheathing, newly decked with plywood sheathing.
12.6.2022 Credit Peggy Sigler
Mark Prairie School is finally closed to the weather with new cedar siding and a NEW ROOF with composition shingles which mimic the original cedar shingles that once clad the roof; cedar shingles are unfortunately no longer available while cedar and imitation shakes are not authentic nor affordable. 2.15.2023 Credit Peggy Sigler