Home at Last: Finding a Space for Music and Dogs
By Cindy Banks, Skyline Blvd.
What made you buy a church?
I’ve been asked that a lot! I looked for a building like this for 9 years. I always wanted a space that was big enough to play music that could also be a home. I’ve always been obsessed with old houses. When I was growing up, we moved a lot and I never felt like I had a home. I slept on the floor or outside most of my childhood. Historic places have always felt magical to me; something about an old place feels grounded.
What has been the hardest thing about owning the building?
Like much of this neighborhood, it sits in EFU zoning, which means there are limited ways you can use the property. The church use had been abandoned so there was no legal use for the building. But I had fallen in love with it so I bought it anyway. It’s a long story but what ended up happening was that the people in this neighborhood saved it. Vickie Coghill became a notary and interviewed neighbors who testified to the county that the apartment had always been a residence. When my commercial loan was being pulled during the financial crisis, neighbors wrote to the bank and asked them to work with me. The county ended up ruling the building a legal residence, which saved the building and me.
Didn’t you have weddings there when you bought it?
Yes. They paid for some of the remodeling when I first bought it. I discontinued them after it was changed to residential use.
Why did you want a music space, have you always been a musician?
My sister taught me to play guitar when I was about 10. I started writing songs when I was in 5th grade. I think it was mostly about crushes - now that I think about it, my songwriting doesn’t seem to have changed much in the last 45 years. I did a lot of music when I was in high school and college. I was in the voice program at University of Oregon but I dropped out. It was a combination of not belonging in a classical music setting and my ongoing struggles with depression. I felt like if I didn’t want to listen to myself, I couldn’t see why anyone else would want to either.
When I was in my late 20’s a friend asked me to start a band with him.
I was working in the accounting department of a law firm. We got lucky so I was able to quit my job and play music full-time for several years. We had a band called “No Way Home.” A super talented guy, Mike King, managed us and we were signed to a local label, Tim/Kerr Records. From there we did an album, opened for a lot of national acts, did the Portland country circuit, played a bunch of rodeos and big concerts, and we won the Portland Music Award for Outstanding Country Act two years in a row. After the band broke up, I did a solo album produced by Gary Ogan and I was featured on Oregon Art Beat.
What did you do after that?
I got a dog. That made me want a house. It’s hard to rent when you have a dog. She needed a yard. So that led me to start working a day gig again - I only went back to work for the dog. I bought a really rundown house and remodeled it, which lead to another one and a third one and then one night when I was going through real estate listings I saw the church and everything changed.
What changed?
It was finally my chance to combine my obsession with old houses with my need to take care of dogs with a space for music.
Did it work out the way that you thought it would?
No. But in a lot of ways it ended up better. The church has been more expensive and complicated than I thought it would be. The land use struggle was expensive, the remodeling is never-ending and I need to drill a well so I work a lot. What I wasn’t expecting was this neighborhood and the effect it would have on me.
What effect did the neighborhood have on you?
When I first moved here, I was spooked. It’s a big, old building, I heard noises. I called the Sheriff twice. There were a few people that came by that told me I shouldn’t be living there because it’s a “church.” They asked me, “Is your husband a minister? Why are you here?” My dog died the first week I lived here. The furnace was broken, the building leaked, there were rats and mice. There was a guy that lived down the street that kept coming by at odd hours and scaring me. My sister and brother both told me, on separate visits, without talking to each other, that it was haunted.
My boyfriend at the time had a motorcycle with a side-car and one morning we were sitting out on the deck and we looked over to the field next door and we saw a wheel slowly turning above the grass. I took a sip of coffee and thought “Oh, that poor bastard” and then it dawned on me. I looked at my boyfriend and said “Oh…uh, I think that’s your motorcycle.” It was. Someone had stolen it during the night and wrecked it. He didn’t come over anymore after that. Then a few weeks later, someone plowed into my mailbox.
That was the last straw. I was already freaked out and I thought someone had done it to scare me. I tip-toed over to the mailbox on the ground and there was a piece of paper attached. I thought for sure it was going to be something threatening and I was going to sell the church and move. It was a note telling me that someone had run into it accidentally with an apology. They replaced it the next week.
After that, things started to turn around. I got to know people and this is the first time I’ve ever felt like I had a home. Like I said, we moved a lot when I was growing up. I went to 12 schools before I graduated from high school. The people in this neighborhood have been amazing to me. Kind, considerate, quirky, hilarious. Everything from helping me with a sick dog to bringing flowers when my mother died. Stepping in during the problems with the county and the bank. Ras [Sauer] has prevented two fires at the church. Lots of people have helped me with projects at the church or even the yard before weddings. Living here has changed my life.
What are you doing with music now?
About three years ago, a group of us grizzled veterans of the 90’s PDX country bar scene regrouped. I’ve been writing and playing in that band and we’ve spent the last year recording. Our album is coming out in November. We called the band “Brooks Hill” in honor of where I live. The church and school are on a piece of land with that nickname because that’s the land the Brooks family settled and donated to the community. All of our publicity photos are done around the neighborhood so if you see an ad or poster, you will probably recognize it.
You said you struggled with depression, is that still the case?
Less now but yeah, I think, like most people who have it, you always have to stay aware to manage it. I have an ongoing joke with the band that I try to come out with an album at least every 15 years. I’ve lost a lot of time to not really knowing what to do with myself or not feeling like I had anything worth sharing. I resisted medication. I thought that I should be able to ‘fix’ it. Then one time I spent about three days watching TV in the dark. On the third day I decided that I needed to get up and do something. I turned on the lights and there was a dead gopher on the couch where I had been sitting. The dog perked up and said, “TA DAH!!!” That’s when I thought I should probably try medication. Now my motto is “Take anti-depressants so you don’t end up watching TV with a dead gopher.” I actually feel pretty good these days. For me, the more connected I feel to people, the less I struggle.
And what about the dogs?
I have three! I have a big yard and a lot of dog experience (I’m better with dogs than I am with people) so I try to take dogs that would not have a good chance of being adopted. Right now I have Nikki, Creeper and Elden.
What’s next?
I still have a lot of work to do on the building but I’m planted here now, this is home. The band is planning on doing a winter concert series called “The Last Sunday” starting in January where we bring in other musicians from around town, and that should be really fun. That is what I’ve wanted to do since I bought the church so we can’t wait.
(RR 10/19)
What made you buy a church?
I’ve been asked that a lot! I looked for a building like this for 9 years. I always wanted a space that was big enough to play music that could also be a home. I’ve always been obsessed with old houses. When I was growing up, we moved a lot and I never felt like I had a home. I slept on the floor or outside most of my childhood. Historic places have always felt magical to me; something about an old place feels grounded.
What has been the hardest thing about owning the building?
Like much of this neighborhood, it sits in EFU zoning, which means there are limited ways you can use the property. The church use had been abandoned so there was no legal use for the building. But I had fallen in love with it so I bought it anyway. It’s a long story but what ended up happening was that the people in this neighborhood saved it. Vickie Coghill became a notary and interviewed neighbors who testified to the county that the apartment had always been a residence. When my commercial loan was being pulled during the financial crisis, neighbors wrote to the bank and asked them to work with me. The county ended up ruling the building a legal residence, which saved the building and me.
Didn’t you have weddings there when you bought it?
Yes. They paid for some of the remodeling when I first bought it. I discontinued them after it was changed to residential use.
Why did you want a music space, have you always been a musician?
My sister taught me to play guitar when I was about 10. I started writing songs when I was in 5th grade. I think it was mostly about crushes - now that I think about it, my songwriting doesn’t seem to have changed much in the last 45 years. I did a lot of music when I was in high school and college. I was in the voice program at University of Oregon but I dropped out. It was a combination of not belonging in a classical music setting and my ongoing struggles with depression. I felt like if I didn’t want to listen to myself, I couldn’t see why anyone else would want to either.
When I was in my late 20’s a friend asked me to start a band with him.
I was working in the accounting department of a law firm. We got lucky so I was able to quit my job and play music full-time for several years. We had a band called “No Way Home.” A super talented guy, Mike King, managed us and we were signed to a local label, Tim/Kerr Records. From there we did an album, opened for a lot of national acts, did the Portland country circuit, played a bunch of rodeos and big concerts, and we won the Portland Music Award for Outstanding Country Act two years in a row. After the band broke up, I did a solo album produced by Gary Ogan and I was featured on Oregon Art Beat.
What did you do after that?
I got a dog. That made me want a house. It’s hard to rent when you have a dog. She needed a yard. So that led me to start working a day gig again - I only went back to work for the dog. I bought a really rundown house and remodeled it, which lead to another one and a third one and then one night when I was going through real estate listings I saw the church and everything changed.
What changed?
It was finally my chance to combine my obsession with old houses with my need to take care of dogs with a space for music.
Did it work out the way that you thought it would?
No. But in a lot of ways it ended up better. The church has been more expensive and complicated than I thought it would be. The land use struggle was expensive, the remodeling is never-ending and I need to drill a well so I work a lot. What I wasn’t expecting was this neighborhood and the effect it would have on me.
What effect did the neighborhood have on you?
When I first moved here, I was spooked. It’s a big, old building, I heard noises. I called the Sheriff twice. There were a few people that came by that told me I shouldn’t be living there because it’s a “church.” They asked me, “Is your husband a minister? Why are you here?” My dog died the first week I lived here. The furnace was broken, the building leaked, there were rats and mice. There was a guy that lived down the street that kept coming by at odd hours and scaring me. My sister and brother both told me, on separate visits, without talking to each other, that it was haunted.
My boyfriend at the time had a motorcycle with a side-car and one morning we were sitting out on the deck and we looked over to the field next door and we saw a wheel slowly turning above the grass. I took a sip of coffee and thought “Oh, that poor bastard” and then it dawned on me. I looked at my boyfriend and said “Oh…uh, I think that’s your motorcycle.” It was. Someone had stolen it during the night and wrecked it. He didn’t come over anymore after that. Then a few weeks later, someone plowed into my mailbox.
That was the last straw. I was already freaked out and I thought someone had done it to scare me. I tip-toed over to the mailbox on the ground and there was a piece of paper attached. I thought for sure it was going to be something threatening and I was going to sell the church and move. It was a note telling me that someone had run into it accidentally with an apology. They replaced it the next week.
After that, things started to turn around. I got to know people and this is the first time I’ve ever felt like I had a home. Like I said, we moved a lot when I was growing up. I went to 12 schools before I graduated from high school. The people in this neighborhood have been amazing to me. Kind, considerate, quirky, hilarious. Everything from helping me with a sick dog to bringing flowers when my mother died. Stepping in during the problems with the county and the bank. Ras [Sauer] has prevented two fires at the church. Lots of people have helped me with projects at the church or even the yard before weddings. Living here has changed my life.
What are you doing with music now?
About three years ago, a group of us grizzled veterans of the 90’s PDX country bar scene regrouped. I’ve been writing and playing in that band and we’ve spent the last year recording. Our album is coming out in November. We called the band “Brooks Hill” in honor of where I live. The church and school are on a piece of land with that nickname because that’s the land the Brooks family settled and donated to the community. All of our publicity photos are done around the neighborhood so if you see an ad or poster, you will probably recognize it.
You said you struggled with depression, is that still the case?
Less now but yeah, I think, like most people who have it, you always have to stay aware to manage it. I have an ongoing joke with the band that I try to come out with an album at least every 15 years. I’ve lost a lot of time to not really knowing what to do with myself or not feeling like I had anything worth sharing. I resisted medication. I thought that I should be able to ‘fix’ it. Then one time I spent about three days watching TV in the dark. On the third day I decided that I needed to get up and do something. I turned on the lights and there was a dead gopher on the couch where I had been sitting. The dog perked up and said, “TA DAH!!!” That’s when I thought I should probably try medication. Now my motto is “Take anti-depressants so you don’t end up watching TV with a dead gopher.” I actually feel pretty good these days. For me, the more connected I feel to people, the less I struggle.
And what about the dogs?
I have three! I have a big yard and a lot of dog experience (I’m better with dogs than I am with people) so I try to take dogs that would not have a good chance of being adopted. Right now I have Nikki, Creeper and Elden.
What’s next?
I still have a lot of work to do on the building but I’m planted here now, this is home. The band is planning on doing a winter concert series called “The Last Sunday” starting in January where we bring in other musicians from around town, and that should be really fun. That is what I’ve wanted to do since I bought the church so we can’t wait.
(RR 10/19)
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