Welcome Arch, Baker City, Baker County, Oregon

The Arch was built at the intersection of 10^th & D Streets, actually built on the North side of D Street, at the property line.

By Chet Smith

 1. House at SW corner of 10^th & D Streets is 2825 10^th Street.  Present site of
     Farmer’s Insurance Office, built by Lowell Fuller.
 2.      2815 10^th Street, present office of Trail Motel.  I lived in this house, when the arch
     was built.
 3.       2705 10^th Street, NW corner of 10^th & B Streets.  Inland Café is now next door.
 4.      House at 2818 10^th Street, now the office of Don Sheppard.  A1 Reality. 

Welcome Arch is Twenty-Six Feet High

   Fine structure adorns the western entrance to city of Baker—The Welcome Arch.  The arch, which was proposed by Secretary Meacham, has been erected by the Chamber of Commerce on North Tenth Street at D Street.  It is an impressive structure, and an ornament and credit to the city.  The native rock piers are twenty-two feet apart, built on concrete foundations and are sixteen feet in height, six feet square at the base, and four feet square at the top.
   The arch itself is built of wood, and extends tem feet above the rock pier, which makes the total height of the arch, twenty-six feet.  It is painted gray, and above the roadway on the north side are these words:  “BAKER GREETS YOU; ENTER WITHOUT KNOCKING, AND DEPART LIKEWISE!”  On the south  is this inscription;  “BAKER WISHES YOU GOOD LUCK!  COME AGAIN.”
   The wooden pilasters will call attention to the resources of the city and county of Baker.
   The arch has been wired and will be lighted so that the advertising value of it will not be lost, day or night.  Thousands of tourists will view this arch during the year, and it will be a permanent advertising medium, making itself useful and well as ornamental.
   The city cooperated with the Chamber in building the arch by donating the hauling of materials, and will also furnish the lights.  The lumber companies donated the lumber necessary for its building.  The chamber of commerce paid for the cost of construction.
 

   Taken from the Morning Democrat, 19 June 1929

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Baker County