About How to Save a Poor Farm: A Happy Collision of Land-Use Laws, Amateur Historians and Beer
Presented by Sharon Nesbit
Join Sharon Nesbit, past president of the Troutdale Historical Society,
for a first-hand account of the closing of the Multnomah County Poor Farm and
an emergent historical society’s fight to save it by employing Oregon's
land-use laws.
About the Speaker:
In 1968, Sharon Nesbit began working part time as a columnist for
the Gresham Outlook covering government in small cities in East
Multnomah County. About 10 years ago, she turned toward writing features
and columns for the Outlook. Though she retired from active news duty in
2011, Sharon continues to write personal and history columns for the paper.
In addition to writing about local history, Sharon is active in
its preservation. Organizing the campaign under the auspices of the Troutdale
Historical Society, Sharon saved the Multnomah County Farm and authored the
original McMenamins Edgefield History, revised in cooperation with
McMenamins Head Historian, Tim Hills. She also has a book of 100 selected
columns under the title Sharon Nesbit’s Outlook: Sunny with Occasional
Tirades.
Sharon has served on assorted historical and preservation
committees including the Troutdale planning commission, Troutdale downtown task
forces, board of the Historic Preservation League of Oregon, the Blue Lake Park
task force, the Multnomah County Historic Sites committee, the state advisory
committee on the restoration of Vista House and the city-county committee for
the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. In 2005, Sharon served on the City
of Gresham centennial committee and on Troutdale’s Riverfront Urban Renewal ad
hoc committee and PAC. She was president of the Oregon Geographic Names Board
for two terms, a founding member of both the Zimmerman Farm Heritage Park and
the Friends of the Historic Columbia River Highway, as well as being a past
president of the Troutdale Historical Society.
Sharon was named a March of Dimes Woman of Achievement in 1998,
twice won the National Federation of Press Women Sweepstakes writing award, and
was named Troutdale Citizen of the Year in 2000. In 2007, she received the
Troutdale Historical Society’s preservationist award. Most recently, Sharon was
the recipient of a 2018 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for her work
chronicling the history and events of greater East Multnomah County for over
half a century, including advocating for the preservation of the Multnomah
County Poor Farm, now McMenamins Edgefield.
