NASELLE – On Sunday, June 6, the Appelo Archives Center will host an open house with not only a fresh new paint color on the Plaza building (Finnish red), but also a new shop annex downstairs at 1056 SR-4 in Naselle. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., a birthday reception will be held upstairs at the Archives Center celebrating Carlton Appelo’s 88th birthday.

The public is invited to drop in any time for a piece of birthday cake with Carlton. The Appelo family’s history, as well as Wahkiakum West Telephone Co.’s history, will be on display in the center to honor the well-known family’s activities. Not only did they establish three stores in Naselle, Deep River and Grays River; C.A. Appelo also founded the Wahkiakum West Telephone Co., a current provider of telephone, DSL, television and computer support services throughout the local area.

Downstairs, the new Creative Flair Flower Shop, owned by Bobbi Caton, will also have a grand opening. The new flower business will include a small portion of the shop’s area to be set aside for the Archives Center’s books and other items to be sold as revenue for the center. This partnership is set up to help develop a broad choice of gifts, flowers and books for both local residents and visitors. Revenue from the items sold for the Archives will help support the center’s ongoing efforts to preserve and record items that reflect the unique history of the Naselle through Grays River areas. Building on Carlton Appelo’s extensive collection of historic photos and documents, the center invites others to either loan or gift their historic memorabilia to be preserved and occasionally displayed to the public. While the center cannot accept every item offered, it’s important to make sure key items are preserved. Those interested in discussing loans or gifts are invited to contact the center at 484-7103.

“The new partnership with Bobbi and her shop downstairs is so exciting for us,” Karen Bertroch, center director, commented. “Naselle needs a nice shop where folks can pick up flowers or a book and spend time with a cup of coffee looking through old photos and visiting with each other. This venture is important not only to us, but to the area. We’ve needed something like this for a long time. We’re excited to be partnering with Bobbi and Dave Caton to make the new shop a reality and to expand the center’s mission to the community.”

In February, the Archives Center was registered as an independent non-profit and a new board was set up to lead the new non-profit. The center’s new mission statement reads, “The Appelo Archives Center is dedicated to encouraging the study of region-wide history by preserving collections, sponsoring community and educational activities, facilitating genealogical research, and fostering Scandinavian studies, with an emphasis on Finnish-American heritage.”

Current projects at the center include a new cookbook by Donna Klint to be published in the fall and a history of local logging being written by Bryan Penttila to be published in 2011. More information on the center is available at (www.appeloarchives.org).