About The Willamette Grange

What is a Grange?  

A Grange is a community organization that responds to local needs. We have a 150-year tradition of promoting local food and nonpartisan, nonsectarian face to face connections. Grange is a fraternal service organization and is a nonprofit  501(c)(8).

What does it do?

All Granges are different and serve their unique communities. 

Willamette Grange has community events that are free and offer family friendly activities, educational opportunities, music and fun. They focus on family activities, education, and healthy community resources. Some of these events are also fundraisers which help with our upgrades and restoration of the building.

Who does the Grange help?  

Restoring and making upgrades to our historic Hall to preserve its historic significance and making it more functional and safe by today’s standards will allow us to make it more available to local nonprofits needing a place to hold meetings or events. As restoration work progress continues, we will make the Hall even more available to community members for weddings, birthday celebrations, memorials, and more.

Who can join, and how to join?   

Anyone can join. There is a misconception that Grange is a Farm Organization, when actually it has always been a Community Organization based on cooperative action, education, and social connection.

Grange has had full equal membership for women and children older than 13 years since it’s founding in 1867. We encourage interested people to attend a Grange Meeting and meet the members. The application and annual fee are simple. 

You can find a Grange near you by going to the Oregon State Grange website. 

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Who is restoring the Grange Hall?   

The Hall known as the Willamette Community and Grange Hall is Willamette Grange’s third Hall.  Our first two Grange Halls were destroyed by fire.  They were located close to Muddy Creek.  The land where the Hall stands today was donated and the Hall was built in 1923. 

Because of critical design flaws, the Hall needed significant restoration efforts.  The nonprofit Willamette Community and Grange Hall Historic Building Foundation (WCGHHBF) was formed in 2020 and is a 501(c)(3). The Foundation works with Willamette Grange, who owns the Hall, and is solely focused on restoring and preserving this Benton County historic resource.

The funds for the restoration efforts are raised from donations and grants, and the actual work is done by Grange volunteers and paid contractors. Engineering designs, permits, and required inspections insure our efforts are safe and in compliancce with modern standards.

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Board Members