Falls City
History
Founded in 1889 and incorporated in 1893, Falls City has a long and rich history.
Here you will find:
Historical Preservation Information
Falls City the Beautiful poem
French Family pictures and story
Falls City pictures and documents
Development of Falls City report
Videos of historical sites
This web page was made possible by Oregon Parks and Recreation. Please see below for more information.
Historical Preservation
The City has been awarded a small “Certified Local Government Grant” to create a digital space for the City’s historical documents. As a result of this amazing grant, we have already preserved over 650 pictures and documents that have significant historical value to Falls City.
We are still collecting historical pictures and documents at City Hall for digitization, please contact us via phone 503-787-3631 or email info@fallscityoregon.gov with the subject line “Historical Documents” if you have items you would like to contribute. City Staff will scan, categorize, and itemize the documents on this page of the City website where all the city’s historical documents can be accessed!
French Family Pictures
Floyd E. French was a longtime resident of Falls City and a very active member of the community. During his time here he coached the junior baseball league, the Falls City Val’s. French was a volunteer fire fighter alongside Vernon Murphy, who served as Mayor of Falls City from 1951 to 1959 then again from 1967 to 1968. Floyd and his wife owned several businesses in town including French’s Food Market, Sportsman Lunch and a 10-bedroom apartment house. The French’s sold the apartment house and French’s Food Market grocery store to Mr. and Mrs. Applegate from San Jose California but kept their restaurant. Sportsman Lunch was soon after leased to a local woman by the name of Martha Pscharz. Mr. and Mrs. French left Falls City not long after the sale of their businesses to travel the united stated, with focus on Michigan, New York, New Orleans, and Alaska.
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Falls City Pictures
Most of the Falls City residents featured in these pictures are unidentified at this time. If you know any of the unidentified persons, please contact City Hall. Our goal is to gather as much information as we can in an effort to preserve Falls City history. Thank you for helping us meet that goal by taking the time to visit this page.
The Development of Falls City, Oregon, 1845-1965
Report can be found below.
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Videos of historical sites
In 2012, the City of Falls City received a grant from the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office for a project to be undertaken jointly by the City and Falls City School District #57 to document, by video, historical properties in Falls City. The students investigated each property, conducted community interviews, and prepared videos using equipment purchased through the grant. The High School Historic Property Video project was a first of its kind. Since the completion of the project, the students and their teacher have been invited to several cities in Oregon to share their inspiring story. During the summer of 2013, the High School students premiered their work on at outdoor movie screen in the George Kitchin Upper Park to a large audience.