Pendleton Woolen Mill |
The Pendleton Woolen Mill has been a landmark in the City of Pendleton since 1909. In February of that year, C. P. Bishop and his sons founded Pendleton Woolen Mills, Inc., and hired Portland architect Orrin Backus to design a modern two story mill building for their new company. The building was to be constructed of high strength concrete, with wooden interior structures protected from fire by an automatic sprinkling system. Pendleton contractor E. E. Harlow carried out the construction, and by September the mill was completed and ready to begin production. | Many of the mill's out buildings have come and gone, devoured by fire or time, but the original main building survives as the core of an expanded and enlarged mill. In 1941 and 1946, brick additions were built to accommodate increased production. Modernization may have changed the outward appearance of the Pendleton Mill over the years, but its mission remains the same. The production of high quality woolen goods has continued, under the ownership and management of the Bishop family, since the first cloth came off the Pendleton looms in September of 1909. | City of Pendleton, Oregon Incorporated 1880 |