Between the 1870s and 1940s, the building housed the Kam Wah Chung and Company, a multi-pronged commercial establishment that operated as a general store, medical practice, mining company, labor brokerage, and religious center. Managed by long-term proprietors Ing Hay and Lung On, the Kam Wah Chung and Company was a significant institution that served the rural community of surrounding Grant County for decades.

The building was first listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005. It is now one of only 17 National Historic Landmarks in the state of Oregon.

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department currently operates the building as a public museum and desired a Historic Structure Report to remedy ongoing maintenance issues, safeguard the museum’s extensive material culture collection stored in site, and guide future capital investments on the site.

ARG prepared a Historic Structure Report for the Kam Wah Chung and Company Building to document the evolution of the building and its existing conditions, provide a summary of significance and integrity, outline historic preservation objectives, and provide recommendations for an overall treatment approach.

One of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s goals of the project was to critically evaluate historical claims that had been made in past studies regarding the building’s development and uses over time. The Historic Structure Report strives to tell the history of the Kam Wah Chung and Company Building as accurately and respectfully as possible, with the intention of having well-supported documentation telling a complex historical narrative.