Cheers to Oroville

In last week’s issue, we featured the restoration of the Oroville Inn by local real estate mogul Bud Tracy (see “Restoration Oroville,” cover story, by Meredith J. Cooper). He bought the building from the city of Oroville late last year for a relatively small price, with the promise of making major headway in a short amount of time. As we see, he’s making good on that promise and if all goes as planned there’ll be residents—students from the nearby Northwest Lineman College—in the rooms sometime next year.

We also wrote about the old Washington Block Building around the corner from the inn, which was recently bought by local business owners and fellow fixer-uppers Lori and Sean Pierce. That building, the oldest commercial structure still standing in Oroville, also could play a major role in revitalizing downtown.

We applaud their efforts—and those by others in the area—to make downtown, especially the beautiful historic core, a priority. It’s clearly working. New businesses are moving in, like the hip Miner’s Alley Brewing Co., infusing further life into what just 10 years ago was all antique and thrift stores. And kudos to Tracy for not only giving Bird Street a facelift but also bringing in residents (aka clientele for these downtown businesses).

We’re excited to see this transformation of downtown Oroville from shabby to chic. We hope the trend continues. For those who haven’t been to downtown Oroville lately, it’s worth a visit, both to see the transformation of all the beautiful old buildings as well as to support local businesses and the revitalization efforts in the area.