Historic Stahl Building

The Purchase of the Building

There is an old brick building on the corner of Main and Third Street in Athena that has been the heart of our town since 1904. 

The building was our local Pendleton Grain Growers branch until 2015, when the regional farm co-op dissolved. As a result, PGG's various properties around the region were closed down and sold. PGG hardware stores provided good local jobs and were a social hub for the farmers and communities they served. When the Athena store closed it was a real blow. Everyone loved the old hardware store with wood floors, the shop cat Domino that loved to get drinks out of the old water fountain, the garden nursery out back in the summer months. Old-timers remember the place from when it was Rogers & Goodman Hardware and Implements, the prior occupant.

The building sat on the market for many months. Ideas for the building floated around town. No one seemed to have deep enough pockets or enough time to take it on.

Let's buy it. Together.

People interested in the building's future met in Athena and Weston and discussed if, how, and why we could try and purchase the property. If we pooled our resources at $1000 each, and reached out to some regional partners, we could purchase the building and decide what to do with it later.

So, we did.

The Athena Mainstreet Association agreed to purchase and manage the building. The non-profit group felt it tied closely to their mission to rejuvenate Athena's downtown and to create opportunities to bring the community together. 

Fifteen private donors gave $1000 to get things going. The Port of Umatilla gave $15,000. The Watts Fund gave $5000. The funding started to add up!  

Then, the unthinkable happened.

There was a malfunction with the old oil furnace down in the basement. The system blew black soot through all the ductwork, through the floor vents, and throughout the entire building. Black, greasy soot. Everywhere. This was going to be a major undertaking to clean up and restore this building. We decided to purchase the building anyway.

The building was purchased by the Athena Mainstreet Association in March 2016. The Historic Stahl Building Steering Committee formed soon after.

The old PGG building prior to sale, prior to soot mess.