McMenamins Opening a New Pub & Brewery in Wilsonville, Ore.
Opening ceremonies will feature live music by The Builders and the Butchers,
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Portland Cello Project and others to be announced!

PORTLAND, Ore.—Thursday, July 14, 2011—McMenamins is pleased to announce Wednesday, August 17, as the opening date of our Old Church & Pub in Wilsonville, Ore. Located just blocks west of I-5 (at exit 283, 30340 SW Boones Ferry Rd.) in Old Town Square (also home to the newest Fred Meyer), the property will offer a newly built 5,000-square-foot, family-friendly pub; a century-old renovated church that will be available for special events and private functions; an outdoor amphitheater that will feature regular live music on Wednesday through Saturday evenings throughout the summer; and an onsite seven-barrel brewery system. The property will also hold dinners and tastings, televise major sporting events, screen special films and more. The pub itself will add 70 new positions, from servers to line cooks and more.

The pub will open at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 17. Opening ceremonies will include four days of kids’ fun, history programming, food and drink specials and free, live music starting at 6 p.m.:
Wednesday, August 17: The Builders and the Butchers * Folk rock
Thursday, August 18: Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside * Swinging roots-rock
Friday, August 19: Portland Cello Project * Cello like you’ve never heard it
Saturday, August 20: TBD

A Brief History of the Location
The new pub is located on an ancient route within the old-town Wilsonville area, just north of the site where Boone’s Ferry made regular crossings of the Willamette River for more than 100 years. The simple, graceful church, which celebrates its centennial during the same month of our pub opening, was completed in August 1911 by the Wilsonville Methodist Society. Rev. John Exon, the first minister of the permanent church, was better known as a riverboat pilot.

The namesake of the road and ferry, Alphonso Boone, was grandson of the famous American frontiersman Daniel Boone (as well as cousin to John Daniel Boon, builder of McMenamins Boon’s Treasury in Salem, Ore.). Alphonso had settled this area in 1846, recognizing the great business opportunity of establishing a ferry service at the narrow point in the river where the well-worn trail crossed. Native Americans, who had a centuries-long tradition of crossings here, were said to have helped ferry Boone’s earliest patrons via their canoes.

By the late 1800s, the community known to that point as Boone’s Landing bore the new name of Wilsonville, for newcomer Charles Wilson, who served as local postmaster and storeowner. In the 1950s, the construction of I-5 and the associated Boone Bridge over the Willamette River brought an end to the ferry service. Wilsonville survived by relocating its town center to a more spacious, automobile-friendly site on the east line of the freeway, convenient for commuters and travelers. Old-town Wilsonville became a ghost town, and many of its landmarks have disappeared. The church and a surrounding pocket of turn-of-the-century homes and buildings are a historic reminder of Wilsonville’s original river-landing community. Anyone with stories, photos or memories of the church or the surrounding neighborhood is encouraged to send them to McMenamins Historian Tim Hills at past@mcmenamins.com.

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