Last fall we had a major pipe break and flood the east side of the first floor and basement.  The “original” wood floors in the east parlor and hallway were warped so badly, they needed to be replaced. We were very saddened by this until our amazing and thoughtful carpenters, who carefully pulled up piece by piece on 1-26-2021, discovered those were not the original wood flooring!  They found the true original flooring underneath that oak layer, along with a few pieces of newspaper around the fireplace that lead us down a rabbit hole of research.

After careful inspection by our historian, Mary Nulty, and a little help from her friend, Sharon Waite of the Florence Siuslaw Pioneer Museum, they were able to locate the source of some of those clippings and determined they were from the 1930s.  With that information, we knew that Ma and Cap Herman, 1st Assistant Fred Sargent, and 2nd Assistant Albert Johnson would have been in residence. Mary read the official Keeper’s logbooks, and there was no mention of any work done to the floors in the keepers’ residence.

She did find mention of a couple of assistants that arrived and left that were not in our records. They only stayed a very short time.  A perfect example of how as we learn more, it leads to more questions!

-Were the newspapers from the Herman’s or one of the other keepers?
-Who did the work, when, and where did the thin flooring come from?

One day we would like to have the resources to unveil the true original flooring…maybe when we are able to put the back wings on and have the Keeper’s Home once again stand in it’s original footprint.

If you have any information on this matter, or love to do research like this, please contact our historian, Mary Nulty  Mary@hecetalighthouse.com