The new Pendleton Woolen Mills store opens Wednesday at the Willamette Heritage Center in southeast Salem. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)
Visitors to the Willamette Heritage Center starting Wednesday can buy woolen blankets, fabric cuts and mill materials for crafting with wool when a store with historic ties to the state comes to Salem.
Pendleton Woolen Mills, described as a “global lifestyle brand with Pacific Northwest roots,” is opening a new store at 1313 Mill Street S.E., Suite 110, inside the heritage center, according to a press release. The new store will also include wool apparel, accessories and gifts.
Grand opening celebrations are scheduled for four days, starting with ribbon cutting Wednesday at 11:30 a.m., led by the Salem Chamber of Commerce. They will end Saturday with the Heritage Center’s Sheep to Shawl Festival, featuring lawn games, live entertainment and activities for children. There will be free gifts and chances to win prizes at the store throughout the four days.
“We are thrilled for this unique opportunity to join the Willamette Heritage Center and open the Pendleton Store,” said Pendleton CEO John Bishop in the press release. “This new store marks the return of descendants of Thomas Kay to the site where his namesake mill was founded one hundred and thirty-three years earlier.”
Bishop’s great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Lister Kay, arrived in Oregon from England in 1863 and went on to quickly help establish the state’s woolen industry, according to the release. He founded the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill in Salem in 1890, which operated for 70 years before closing in 1962.
His three grandchildren in 1909 opened an idle mill in Pendleton that eventually became Pendleton Wooden Mills. The company is now based in Portland.
In 1964, the Mission Mill Museum Association formed and bought the old Thomas Kay Woolen Mill. The association in 2010 merged with the Marion County Historical Association to become the Willamette Heritage Center.
“We are excited to have Pendleton Woolen Mills join us as our newest retail partner and are eager to ‘welcome them home’ to Salem,” said Michelle Cordova, executive director of the Heritage Center, in the release. “With the overlapping history of our stories, it is a natural fit for them to join our restaurant partner and other retailers on our site.”
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
