Though it was raining throughout much of the morning of Tuesday, March 12, the clouds broke around 1 p.m., and the sun started shining just in time for members of the Centralia Downtown Association (CDA) and the Centralia Historic Preservation Commission to install a historic building marker plaques on Centralia City Hall — constructed in 1921.
It was the first in a series of historic building markers CDA the commission will install on notable buildings in Centralia.
The plaque simply features the building’s name along with its construction completion year and a QR code linking visitors to the CDA’s website, where people can read more about the building’s history as part of the CDA’s Centralia Historic Walk project.
Other plaques will be placed on the Centralia Carnegie Library and the Centralia Depot historic downtown buildings in the coming weeks.
This project has been in the works for about seven years now, CDA member Jan Nontell said, and came to fruition thanks, in part, to new technologies like QR codes.
“We finally were able to have something that’s going to look the same on every building,” Nontell said. “... One of the problems we kept running into was everybody wanted to put like 150 words on the plaque, and it has room for about 14.”
She added her fellow CDA member Edna Fund was one of the project’s original supporters.
“We’ve been working on this a long time, and (CDA Executive Director) MacKenzie (McGee) has been a spark plug for us to get this to work, and so … you guys are just all stars in working on the plaque project,” Fund said.
Though Centralia City Hall is the first historic building to be marked with one of these plaques, Fund joked about both the Centralia Depot, completed in 1912, and the Centralia Carnegie Library, completed in 1913.
“So, this is relatively new, 1921,” Fund said. “Over 100 years old. And when you think about what this building has been through, most recently a flood, and there was some water hanging around here, but this building still stands.”
With the library and the Depot also getting these plaques, she told a story of the Depot’s dedication in 1912 where local aviator Claude Berlin was to make a flight over the new building and christen it by dropping three bottles of champagne on it.
Centralia was actually hosting a celebration — the Hub City Festival — marking the construction of four new buildings at the time: the Depot, library, high school and what was to become the new post office.
“(Berlin) had his Curtis Jenny flying over on that day when they were celebrating Centralia … At that point, for the library, they were just putting the cornerstone in because it really didn’t officially open until (19)13. He tried to hit it (with champagne) and he missed it. The school board didn’t like the idea of champagne going on their new building, so they said, ‘Nope, we don’t allow alcohol for our kids, we don’t want any champagne on our new building.’”
Eventually, Berlin made his way over to the Depot and successfully delivered a payload of champagne, but maybe a little too successfully.
“He hits it, but he breaks several of the roof (tiles),” Fund added.
She also said approximately 15,000 people attended the celebration to watch Berlin’s flight.
Centralia Deputy City Manager and Parks Director Amy Buckler thanked both the CDA and the Centralia Historic Preservation Commission for their work on the historic marker plaques.
“This is just a great time to celebrate our history because Centralia is growing and it’s changing, and we’re trying to harness that growth to create positive change that benefits the community,” Buckler said. “But, at the same time, we definitely want to honor our history. It’s such an important part of our culture.”
Fund added that more plaques are planned after the ones at Centralia City Hall, the Centralia Carnegie Library and the Centralia Depot.
“Hopefully, we’ll have like 10 or 12, but we’re doing three at a time,” Fund said.
The CDA will also soon be releasing a walking tour map that will include all of Centralia’s historic buildings and locations, Nontell said.
To view the Centralia Historic Walk project and learn more about historic buildings in downtown Centralia, visit https://downtowncentralia.org/historicwalk.
Part of the Main Street America’s Main Street movement, the CDA is a nonprofit committed to strengthening the Centralia community through economic development while focusing on the downtown’s historic preservation.
The CDA also helps local businesses attain grants and tax credit incentives, and organizes Centralia’s annual Music in the Park concert series, parades and other holiday events. To learn more, visit https://downtowncentralia.org/.
Centralia City Hall is located at 118 W. Maple St., and the Centralia Historic Preservation Commission meets there at 6 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.
For more information on the Commission, visit https://www.cityofcentralia.com/385/Historic-Preservation.
