Karen Townsend, sitting behind the desk of Time After Time antiques, housed in a historic two-story home, said, "It's really a village.  "The residents here are really focused on a small-town quality."

The town, its neat grid of streets split by the more recent addition of Highway 99E, is Oregon's first National Historic District, so don't look for a Safeway, Target or Circle K.

Antique stores started turning up in the 1950s, gathering force in the '70s, spawning such events as the Outdoor Antique Fair on Aug. 9-10, with 40 Northwest antique dealers, food booths, classic cars and trucks and an art show and sale.  "It's been a destination place for quite a while," said Townsend, a director of the Aurora Colony Visitors Association.

"We're exactly in the middle, between Portland and Salem.  "The thing about the shops, everyone is different. Each one has its own flavor."  Townsend's is "the ladies shop," with jewelry, dishware, painted furniture and antique accessories.  Next door is Home Again Antiques, with games, antique furniture, postcards and other collectibles.

A very different kind of antique is found at Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage, where owner Mike Byrnes has been recycling old houses and commercial buildings, with everything from tin ceilings to claw foot bathtubs, stained glass windows, door, door handles and chandeliers.  "We like to have unusual things," said Byrnes, who has occupied a dusty and cavernous mill building for 10 years.

Here you'll find plaster and white terra cotta ornaments from Salem's bygone Capitol Theatre, a stack of brown terra cotta bricks from Salem's old city hall and architectural pieces from the old racetrack pavilion at the Oregon State Fairgrounds.

"I just like the place," said Jerry Killips of Canby, who was marveling at the piles of tin ceiling panels. His wife Debbie agreed.  "I'm not much a big antique fan, but there's so much stuff here," she said.  After looking at stained glass windows and a metal bathtub, she noticed some chairs.  "They're your brother's chairs," she told her husband. "They have the same holes in them."

The epicenter of history here is the Old Aurora Colony Museum, where curator Patrick Harris welcomes 12,000 visitors a year with the story of the colony, a major Christian communal society from 1856 to 1883.  Wilhelm Keil founded the utopian society of Aurora in what was once an old growth forest, and it was home to 400 colonists and encompassing 15,000 acres.

Today you can visit a museum in the communal 1862 Ox Barn, the 1876 Steinbach Cabin, the 1864 Kraus House, the 1877 Summer Kitchen and the Tie Shed.  The colonists, lovers of good food and vigorous band music, entertained and fed Oregon State Fair audiences for years.

"It takes an hour," Harris said of a museum tour. "It's a good introduction."  He suggests a Model T tour or walking tour of the historic downtown, as well as a visit to the museum's 1869 Stauffer Will Farm four miles south of town. "Most of the people who live here now have shifted; it's not descendants," he said. The town is popular for people looking for a quiet rural setting.

"It's not your typical small town where you're going to come and do your shopping," he said. "It's more geared to the visitor.  "It's an easy place to bring a visitor to."   

Aurora

Where: 25 miles north of Salem, west of Interstate 5 at the Aurora-Donald exit

Where to eat: A new addition is Scattercreek Junction, with panini sandwiches and wraps, salads and soups; "most memorable burgers" are found at The Colony Pub; and For You Only is a deli that features soups, sandwiches, homemade pies and pastries. PaPa Joe's Taste of Chicago offers a prime rib dinner

Where to stay: Aurora Acres RV Park, at the Interstate 5 exit, is a Good Sam park with a heated pool. Bed and breakfasts are Feller House Bed & Breakfast, with a full breakfast and a farmhouse setting; and the Anna Becke House Bed & Breakfast, downtown in a historic Craftsman-style home. Willamette Gables Riverside Estate resembles a Southern estate.

Things to do: Antiquing is big here, with 16 antiques, galleries and specialty shops, including 60,000 square feet in the Main Street Mercantile mall; the Old Aurora Colony Museum, which has the Stauffer Will pioneer farm near town, interprets colony history; Aurora Mills Architectural is a smorgasbord of recycled architecture, from stained glass to old tin ceilings and doors. There is a walking tour of historic buildings or you can use Aurora Tours, with a tour in a Model T Ford.

Copyright Statesman Journal

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Aurora Oregon News—From Archives
Winter 2008 Flooding Hits—City Stays Safe
From AuroraOregon.com Staff Reports 

With the snow melt, flooding hits rural areas of Aurora.	Areas affected include this acreage near the Aurora city limits on the south side of Ehlen Road.

Twin views from the Pudding River bridge, located at the Marion & Clackamas county line boundary.

Aurora Deals With Snow

Aurora Fire Dept. Responds—Repairs Made

Taken From AuroraOregon.com Staff Reports • 2008

Mid-December weather wreaked havoc throughout Oregon, and Aurora was no exception. Below is photo documentation of a downed line and repair. The incident was due to a fallen tree limb on the east side of Aurora's City Park, at the south end of Liberty Street NE.  Click on photos below for enlarged views!

The Aurora Fire Department responds to a downed power line	Aurora Fire Department personnel walk to the incident	Aurora Fire Department personnel approach the incident
Aurora Fire Department personnel survey the scene	Line repair crew-ground view	Line repair crew-sky view

Aurora In The Snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   Welcome to snowy Aurora!