Five Oaks Museum facts for kids
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| Former name | Washington County Museum |
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| Established | 1975 |
| Location | 17677 NW Springville Road Portland, Oregon 97229 (at Rock Creek Campus of Portland Community College) Washington County, Oregon, United States |
| Type | private: history |
| Owner | Washington County Historical Society |
| Public transit access | TriMet bus routes 47, 52, 67 |
The Five Oaks Museum is a cool history museum in Washington County, Oregon. It used to be called the Washington County Museum. You can find it at the Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College (PCC). This campus is located north of Beaverton, Oregon.
The museum first opened in 1975. It is run by the Washington County Historical Society. Their main goal is to save and share the history of the area. The museum's spot at PCC's Rock Creek Campus also has a special library for research. It is even home to the original Washington County Jail, which was built way back in 1853!
Contents
History of the Museum
The story of the museum began in the 1930s. A local historian named Albert E. Tozier gave his collection of old items, books, and maps to the county's historical society. Starting in 1939, these items were shown at the Hillsboro Carnegie Library. Later, in 1956, the Washington County Historical Society officially became a group.
In 1962, the society thought about using Shute Park for their museum. They even moved their collections there for a short time. Then, in 1975, the county decided to start a proper history museum. From 1975 to 1987, Washington County ran the museum. During this time, the museum was in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon, at the Heidel Home.
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A new museum building was built at the Portland Community College (PCC) campus at Rock Creek in 1982. It opened its doors in January 1983. In September 1987, the Washington County Historical Society took over running the museum. In 2008, the museum started a big project to make the building much larger.
Moving to Downtown Hillsboro
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In 2012, the museum moved to a new spot in the Hillsboro Civic Center. This brought it back to downtown Hillsboro. The first exhibits opened there in November 2012. This new space was quite large, covering about 1,150 square meters. The museum planned to make many improvements to both the new space and the old one at PCC.
When the Civic Center location opened, museum leaders said there was still a lot of work to do. They expected it would take until 2014 to move all the exhibits from PCC to downtown Hillsboro. The new downtown space was mainly used for special, temporary exhibits at first. One of the first special exhibits was about the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA.
The old museum building at PCC was updated in 2014 and 2015. It continued to be used for storing county records and for historical research. After the Hubble Space Telescope exhibit left in May 2013, a new exhibit opened in April 2014. It showed the history of the "Silicon Forest" in Washington County. Another exhibit explored the history of the Bracero Program. In June 2013, the museum also opened an exhibit about the history of baseball in the county. This was to celebrate the first season of the Hillsboro Hops baseball team.
Moving Back to PCC
In September 2017, the museum's board decided to leave the Hillsboro Civic Center. They voted to move the exhibits back to the PCC Rock Creek campus. The museum had hoped more people would visit when it moved downtown. However, the number of visitors did not increase as much as they expected. The museum closed its downtown location permanently in September 2017. It then reopened at PCC Rock Creek on October 25, 2017.
New Name: Five Oaks Museum
In January 2020, the Washington County Museum got a new name. It became the Five Oaks Museum. This new name honors a special local historic place.
What You Can Find at the Museum
The museum at the PCC Rock Creek campus gets about 5,000 visitors each year. Its facility is about 465 square meters. When the museum was at the Hillsboro Civic Center, it had a small shop. It sold books about local history, old-fashioned toys, and other small gifts.
The PCC Rock Creek location is also home to the Robert L. Benson Research Library. This library has over 25,000 images, more than 1,400 maps, and over 500 books. It also holds other historical records and old newspapers. The Rock Creek location is where the museum stores over 40,000 historical items. These items are very important to the county's history. You can visit this storage area by making an appointment.
Collections and Exhibits
One special item on display at the museum's PCC Rock Creek site is the original Washington County Jail. This jail was built in 1853. It was once listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The jail was moved to the museum in 2004. It is about 3 meters by 5 meters in size. The jailhouse was first inside the museum. But it was moved outside when the museum was made bigger in 2007.
The museum's collections include many different items. You can see everyday things like sewing machines. There is also a wedding dress from a well-known local family. The museum has several interesting exhibits. This IS Kalapuya Land teaches about the Native Americans of the area. Washington County in a Nutshell shows items from throughout the county's history. There are also changing exhibits and special visiting collections. For example, the Oregon is Indian Country exhibit from the Oregon Historical Society has been shown there.
The museum also helps teach the local community about the county's history. They even use a mobile museum that can travel to different places!
