One of Grant County’s best known tourist destinations is set for a multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion that will better showcase the rich history of Chinese immigrants in the region and provide a boost to the local economy.

The Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site in John Day is centered around a 19th century stone structure that was originally a trading post. The building was later purchased by Lung On and Ing “Doc” Hay and operated as a general store and Chinese apothecary.

The site was a longtime center of the Chinese community in Grant County. Plans call for a new interpretive center, additional parking and other improvements on an expanded, multi-acre site.

State financing for the project includes funds for additional improvements designed to link the Kam Wah Chung site with downtown John Day.

Identifying the need for an expansion began with the first restoration of the site in 1974-76 under former curator Carolyn Meisenheimer. In the years that followed, Meisenheimer began to notice the deterioration of things like the epigrams on the walls, paper products and various artifacts within the apothecary and general store. A master plan created to address these deteriorations ultimately led to the conclusion that an expansion was necessary.

Park manager Dennis Bradley says that following the master plan’s creation in 2004, various parcels of land adjacent to the Kam Wah Chung site on Northwest Canton Street were identified as being ideal fits for the expansion.

“We identified five properties within the master plan that were suited to the expansion of the interpretive center,” he said. “Since that time, we have acquired three of those properties.”

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is in discussions to finalize the purchase of the last two parcels for the expansion, Gleason Park and Gleason Pool.

“The agreement is already in place,” Bradley said.

The city of John Day has agreed to demolish the pool, which is no longer in use, before the state closes on the land sale.

The demolition of the pool and an adjoining building is under review by the State Historic Preservation Office. The 64-year-old pool is no longer in use, but Bradley said any structure over 50 years old falls into the category of a historic building.

“We’ve heard the Gleason Pool is probably the second-oldest pool in Oregon,” Bradley added.

There are things that can be done to mitigate the preservation office’s concerns, including putting up an interpretive panel that explains the history of the pool and shows what it looked like.

Closing on the Gleason Park and Gleason Pool properties is critical to the expansion of the site. Current plans have the new interpretive center’s location overlapping with where the pool currently sits. According to museum curator Don Merritt, the 3-acre Gleason Park site will remain largely unchanged for the time being.

More artifacts, virtual tours

The Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site’s current facilities, park managers say, are just too small.

Limited space in the interpretive center means it can only display roughly half of the artifacts in its collection. The size of the facility also restricts the number of virtual tours that can be conducted — an important way of reducing foot traffic in the original Kam Wah Chung building, which is showing signs of age and wear.

The expansion will add around 2,000 square feet to the 8,600 square feet the heritage site occupies now.

A new 500-square-foot theater will double the number of virtual reality tours the site can offer. Virtual tours are popular at the site, but there’s only enough space for 10 tours at a time. The new theater room will be able to conduct 20 virtual tours at one time once completed.

In a feasibility study released in May, the state unveiled two proposed designs for the new interpretive center. The first is a single, large structure inspired by Chinese architecture of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The key characteristic of the building would be a sweeping roof design and gable framing similar to traditional Chuan-Dou framing. The building would be located where the community pool currently sits and would have visitor access and parking off Northwest Canton Street.

The second design incorporates traditional Eastern Oregon architectural features. Instead of a single building, the interpretive center would consist of two buildings with roofs at different heights. The goal with this design is to break down the scale of the interpretive center to better match the existing scale of the historic Chinese buildings on-site. The design would feature a double-sloped roof in two different sections.

This design would allow for a separate entrance for staff into the area and break up the mass of the building.

With this design, the interpretive center would also sit where the community pool is currently located, but visitor access and parking would be behind the building as opposed to Canton Street. This design would also leave an existing archeological site free for research purposes.

A final decision regarding the design of the new heritage site hasn’t been made yet, but Merritt says they are “heavily leaning” toward the second, two-building layout.

The money is already there

Funding for the expansion was provided by the 2021 Oregon Legislature through Senate Bill 5506, which authorized $50 million in general obligation bonds to fund park projects throughout the state.

“Kam Wah Chung was fortunate enough to receive some of that funding, so that’s where the funds are coming from,” said Bradley.

The cost of the project is estimated at $4.5 million.

In conjunction with the Kam Wah Chung project, the city of John Day plans on sprucing up the downtown business district and strengthening the connection between downtown and the renovated heritage site. The city received a $1 million state grant for infrastructure improvements.

At a John Day City Council meeting on Feb. 8, City Manager Nick Green outlined a detailed proposal regarding how the money will be spent. Half of the $1 million grant will be spent on improving sidewalks, parking, signs and wayfinding markers along Canton and Main streets.

Another $250,00 would be used for landscaping and site beautification, while $200,000 would be spent on aesthetic improvements to Main Street businesses that could include fresh paint, new signs, facade improvements, upgraded streetlights and murals.

Another $50,000 would go toward demolishing Gleason Pool and compacting the soil there. The city has set aside $22,000 from the sale of the park and pool properties to cover the remainder of the estimated cost of demolition.

The city has also applied for an Oregon Main Street grant worth up to $200,000. If approved, the grant would double the size of the city’s investment into upgrades along Main Street.

Economic impact

The economic impact the facility already has on the county is eye-opening.

According to the results of a survey conducted by the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site, the facility had 9,382 visitors in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. More than 5,400 of those visitors were from out of the county, and 145 of them were international visitors.

Those numbers mean an economic impact on the community that is hard to ignore. On average, non-residents spend a little over $111 within the community after touring the Kam Wah Chung site, according to the survey.

Those numbers added up to almost $605,000 a year in revenue for the community prior to the renovation, but the renovated and expanded site will undoubtedly bring more tourists to the area, which should translate into more revenue for local merchants — especially when combined with the projects slated to begin on Main Street.

Merritt says the number of visitors continues to grow every year, and the trend will only continue following completion of the project. “We estimate 10-12,000 visitors the first year after the expansion, and those numbers will probably continue to go up every year.”

The Kam Wah Chung project is scheduled to be completed by November 2023, according to the feasibility report, but Bradley says the project is behind schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We haven’t closed on the Gleason Pool project yet,” he said. “We have time, but the schedule is going to be a little flexible. Kam Wah Chung is in good shape.”

Merritt expects the project to break ground early next year.

Loosely translated from the Chinese, Kam Wah Chung means “golden flower of prosperity,” and it was a center of prosperity for many years.

The stone building that stands today near Gleason Park in John Day was constructed as a trading post and stagecoach stop between 1864 and 1865. Chinese immigrants founded Kam Wah Chung & Co. in 1871. Both the building and company name were purchased by Lung On, Ing “Doc” Hay and a third business partner, Ye Nem, from another Chinese businessman named Shee Pon in 1871. The building served a large and vibrant Chinese community in Grant County, numbering up to 2,000 at its height.

Hay and On ran a general store, apothecary and boardinghouse for migratory workers in the building.

The general store was in operation until the death of Lung On in December of 1940. Doc Hay continued to operate the apothecary until 1948, when an injury forced him to move to a nursing home in Portland. Hay died four years later, in 1952, having never returned to the apothecary.

The building was sealed from the time Hay left in 1942 until it was turned over to the John Day Historical Society in 1968, saving the structure from being torn down. The building was turned into a museum, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 2005 the museum was designated a National Historic Landmark.