New historic building panels celebrated in downtown Camas

CAMAS — Six buildings in downtown Camas now showcase their history on new colorful interpretive panels that can be seen and enjoyed by all.

The panels were a collaboration of the Downtown Camas Association, the Clark County Historical Museum, the property owners, Two Rivers Heritage Museum and other local historians. The panels, made possible by a Historical Promotion Grant from the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission, tell the story of not only the buildings, but the people and entrepreneurs who built or worked in them.

A ribbon-cutting was hosted July 7 as part of a history walking tour led by Clark County Historical Museum Director Brad Richardson.

“The panels are beautiful and share much more than just the date the building was built,” said Carrie Schulstad, director of the Downtown Camas Association. “The stories of our town are rich and varied and have led to the Camas we know and love today. As our town’s Main Street Program, we value not only our history but sharing our history in a way that is relevant and interesting to locals and visitors. These panels do just that.

“A huge thank you to Katie Bush, the historian at the Clark County Historical Museum, who painstakingly collected and curated the information that went into these panels. Our goal was to have these panels highlight our unique history, promote its continued preservation and be enriching to all that read them, and Bush did a wonderful job at that.”

The historic buildings that now have interpretive panels include the Stoller Building and the Farrell Building on the corners at Fourth Avenue and Birch Street, the Liberty Theatre, the Carmack Building at Fourth Avenue and Cedar Street, the Camas Hotel, and the Ideal Corner building at Fourth Avenue and Dallas Street. The design of the panels is consistent with the three historic interpretive panels placed throughout downtown in 2021.