Name: Friesen Chapel
Address: Jennings Lodge Campground
City: Jennings Lodge
Year of Construction: 1945
Architect: Donald William Edmundson
Original Use: Religious
Status:
National Register of Historic Places: Not Listed
Description: The information below was provided by Melissa Darby.
“Designed by architect Donald William Edmundson, who was who designed many churches and schools in Portland from the 1940s-1960s, the Friesen Chapel is an unusual church for its use of glulam arches (which may be the first use of glulam arches in a church in Oregon). When the building was constructed in 1945 glulam was a relatively new technology for wood products in the United States. The glulams are surrounded by a traditional 2×4 lumber frame system. This means that the building does not take its external shape from the glulam portal arches; rather it is a gabled structure.
Glulam products are defined as follows by the Glued Laminated Timber Association: Glued laminated timber—glulam— is manufactured by bonding together prepared laminations of solid timber so that all have their grain arranged in an essentially parallel, longitudinal direction. This produces straight or curved members that are larger and longer than may be obtained simply by sawing a normal log.”
Further Information
“From 1943- 1953 Mr. Donald Edmundson established his own architectural firm in Portland, and worked independentlyuntil he formed a partnership with Neil R. Kochendoerfer. The firm added Evan Kennedy, as engineer to the partnership Edmundson, Kochendoerfer & Kennedy in 1962. Among the firm’s projects were Wilson High School, Morgan’s Alley and hospitals in The Dalles, Hood River and Pendleton. Mr. Edmundson also worked as an architectural photographer.
A native of Oregon, Donald Edmundson graduated from Salem High School before attending North Pacific Evangelistic School and classes at the University of Oregon Extension School.
Edmundson is listed as the sole architect of Clinton Kelly School and an addition to Cleveland High School. With Neil Kochendoerfer he designed Wilson High School. During Kennedy’s tenure, the firm designed the gymnasium addition for Cleveland High School. Other important projects designed by the firm were Morgan’s Alley and O’Bryant Park in Portland and hospitals in the Dalles, Hood River, and Pendleton, Oregon (Ritz 2003: 122).”
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