Bend

The N. P. Smith Pioneer Hardware Store is a historic commercial building in Bend, Oregon, United States. The structure was built in 1909 by Nichols... P. Smith, a Bend businessman. The two-story building originally housed a hardware business on the ground floor with family quarters on the second floor. The building is located on the Northwest Wall Street in downtown Bend. It has been in continuous use as a commercial building since it first opened. Today, the Smith Hardware Store is the only wood-frame structure that remains in downtown Bend. Because of its importance to the history of Bend, the Smith Pioneer Hardware Store is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the age of 34, Nichols Paul Smith came to Central Oregon to help survey the Bend town site for Alexander M. Drake, owner of the Pilot Butte Development Company. Smith worked as a surveyor and carpenter, helping to establish the Bend community. He built a house near the Deschutes River in the area that is now the Drake Park Neighborhood Historic District. In 1903, Smith and his wife, Cora Bell, opened a hardware store on the east side of Wall Street near the center of downtown Bend.
more

The O’Kane Building is a historic commercial building in Bend, Oregon, United States. The structure was built in 1916 by Hugh O’Kane, a... Bend businessman. The two-story building originally housed six retail stores and a theater on the first floor with twenty offices and an apartment upstairs. The building is located on the west corner of Oregon Avenue and Bond Street in downtown Bend. It has been in continuous use as a commercial building since it first opened. Today, the O’Kane Building is still the largest commercial structure in downtown Bend. Because of its importance to the history of Bend, the O’Kane Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Hugh O’Kane was born in County Antrim, Ireland in 1857. As a young boy, he illegally immigrated to the United States by stowing away on a New York bound ship. By the age of 12, he was selling newspapers and shining shoes on the streets of New York City. He later learned the tailoring trade, but was always looking for adventure. Before he settled in Bend, O’Kane worked as tailor, sailor, miner, stage coach driver, dispatch rider, horse trainer, and mule packer.
more

The Old Bend High School is a historic school building in Bend, Oregon, in the United States. Opened in 1925, the building served as a public high... school for 31 years and a junior high school for an additional 22 years before being transitioned in 1979 into its current role as the administrative headquarters for the Bend-La Pine School District. Because of its unique architecture and history, the Old Bend High School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Bend's first schoolhouse was opened in 1887. It was located in an abandoned cabin near the Deschutes River in what is now Drake Park. That schoolhouse was replaced in 1904 by a three-story wood-frame school building located at the north end of Bend's downtown area, near where the Deschutes County Court House is located today. The first high school curriculum was developed that same year, by Ruth Reid, who was the Bend School District’s first principal. In 1913, the people of Bend passed a school bond issue that provided $23,000 for the purchase of property and the construction of a modern public school. The result was the three-story Reid School finished in 1914.
more

Shannon Rae Bex is a singer, professional dancer, and a former member of the musical group Danity Kane. The group was founded by P. Diddy through... the MTV reality television series Making the Band 3. Danity Kane's debut album debuted at #1 on August 22, 2006, as did their second album Welcome to the Dollhouse on March 18, 2008. Shannon is currently working with her new band named Bex. Bex was born in Gresham, Oregon, and has an older brother. She started dancing at the age of six and began training in ballet. A year later, she danced in The Nutcracker under James Canfield for the Oregon Ballet Theatre. It was not until the age of twelve that Bex started to train in other styles of dance like lyrical, modern, and jazz. Her family moved to Bend, Oregon for her high school years, where she attended Mountain View High School. In school, Bex was involved in drama, dance team, and choir. At nineteen, Bex learned more about performing with a group when she was a Portland Trail Blazers cheerleader. Bex danced and sang for five seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. She appeared on the 2003 series Fame, finishing as the runner-up to Harlemm Lee.
more

Gerry Lopez , aka Mr. Pipeline, is an American surfer, shaper, journalist, and film actor. Lopez was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, grew up in East... Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii and attended Punahou School. He frequented the semi secret reefs in and around Aina Haina as well as better known surf spots in Metro-Honolulu. An early reference point for his sleek and precise style was the graceful Paul Strauch, whom Lopez still credits as "the most stylish surfer ever." Lopez became the Hawaii State Champ at age 14, and he and friend Reno Abellira began surfing Ala Moana Bowls frequently. It is here that Lopez began honing his casual style and masterful tube riding skills. Lopez and friends began to migrate out to Oahu's North Shore, where they watched surfers like Butch Van Artsdalen and Jock Sutherland ride the hollow waves of the Banzai Pipeline. As surfboard designs began to integrate "downrailer" edges, curve, foil, and rocker, the vertical drops and thick tubes of Pipeline became survivable. Not long after, performance levels at big Pipeline exploded, led by Lopez.
more

Ellary Porterfield is an actress from Bend, Oregon most notable for her role as Terry "Tuff" Ryan in the 2005 film The Prize Winner of Defiance,... Ohio. Ellary Porterfield was born in Bend, Oregon on June 5, 1989 to Walt and Traci Porterfield. Porterfield was discovered at a talent competition in 2001 where she was doing an impression of her seventh grade teacher. Porterfield is a vegetarian. She is enrolled at Duke University and though she has not graduated, she was named 23rd in "The 40 Hottest Alumni of Schools in the NCAA Tournament" list in 2010. Porterfield has participated in three television pilots for both NBC and CBS. Her most notable role was in the 2005 film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. She also starred in the CW teenage drama Hidden Palms as Liza Witter. Porterfield then took on a role in the 2008-released film Sugar, playing Anne Higgins, the Christian daughter in an Iowan family who is attracted to a minor-league baseball player from the Dominican Republic.
more

Keegan DeWitt is a film composer, singer-songwriter and actor raised in Lake Oswego, Oregon now residing in Brooklyn and Nashville. Keegan was born... in Bend, Oregon. He became interested in studying poetry, music, and screenwriting at an early age and sought out the Pacific Crest Community School in Portland, Oregon. It was here where he met and became friends with Aaron Katz and began making a series of short films together. This collaboration continued after high school while Katz attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and DeWitt attended SUNY Purchase in New York to study directing. After graduating from SUNY Purchase, Keegan then moved to New York City to attend The Atlantic Theater Company , founded by David Mamet to study acting. Shortly thereafter DeWitt began working with the LABrynth theater company founded by Philip Seymour Hoffman where he was a young associate.
more